TheEasyLife":1az48dpz said:
Afternoon. So I've recently bought an Amp F&F and am (easily) confused re disc brakes as all I know and have ever had are canti's..
Can I ask the panel some stupid questions:
Hubs:
I need some of these. What hubs are a sensible midrange, ie not cheap tat nor uber high end, choice today to run discs on a mid-late 90's Amp? Modern Hope or Shimano as long as it has 6 bolts for the rotor and is of the correct colour? Would love some period correct mid 90's ones in an ideal world.
Rotors:
I need some of these. As I understand it, OEM was 160 front and 140 rear but everyone uses 160's F&R now?
Adapters for Calipers:
I need some of these. Need to work out if B3 is still around to buy from him as his adapter sale thread hasn't been updated in ages or make my own.
Calipers:
I need some of these. I see more images of Amps using Mechanical Disc brakes than hydraulic. I know the original Amp/Rockshox calipers were cable pulled hydraulic. Would love a pair of these but seem to be in the Unicorn teeth camp again and rebuild parts for them are allegedly hard to come. So a modern equivalent replacement makes sense. Mechanical appeals to me as I don't like the look of modern disk brake levers. Avid BB7's seem to be very popular. I keep seeing Shimano mechanical calipers on bikes in shops and on ebay at similar prices to BB7's. Shimano BR-M375, are these any use? Anyone tried them? Or is everyone else running Avid's?
Can anyone advise on the above?
Thanks
James
Probably one of the biggest bike purchasing mistakes I made; let me explain.
AMP made these bikes way before there were standards for everything - suspension and disc brakes. As such, they don't work very well, and very few bar Risse have bothered with upgrade parts for too long. You can at least get Risse shocks for the rear end, but the front forks (F2, F3 or F4) no one has any absorbers or spares I know of.
The brake situation is slightly better especially if you have cantilever brakes. Put on a set of cantis or V-brakes and you are good to go. Otherwise the brakes use non-standard tabs as noted above, brake hubs are three bolt types. Again noted by someone up above me. If you desire a factory original set up, you are in for a long arduous hunt. They are rare, they are not cheap to acquire and they do not work well when compared against the harsh light of modern technology.
In order to correctly build up one B5 in the period correct spec (link below) I have had to acquire three part-bikes. To be fair, part of it was down to the fault of the US Customs losing my original D1 brakes after a baggage inspection, but it is nevertheless a challenge.
It has costed me quite a lot of money to get this bike to this state and as it sits it is a feathery 26lbs. After around 4 years of collecting parts and sniping on eBay, its finally done. It could have been better, if it had red instead of silver calipers, it could have had carbon seat and chain stays as well as a carbon F4 BLT, but that's another matter for another decade.