I’ve been wanting to clean up the brakes on my Gulfstream commuting bike for a while. The cockpit of the bike looked like a mess in the last post that showed it. Enough to motivate me to step up. I put a bit of time on this bike so I’d like it to present as well as it can while being so practical.
The older SRAM Level masters that I’d been using had grown increasingly ugly as the bar sweeps on the bike have increased. The hoses exit the perch pointing considerably forward and don’t match what we’ve become accustomed to with the cleaner/modern stealth setups.
I didn’t want to cut the hoses short. Keeping them long will help them transfer to another setup with the most options. Sure, I could have rectified this earlier with a cut but I figured that the change would have happened before now. I was waiting on SRAM to release a mineral oil flat mount caliper. I though that would happen this spring but it didn’t. I got sick of it.
Today, this changed.
It seemed to be a simple plan. Get some cheap SRAM DB8 B1 Stealth brake sets. Also, some Shimano BR-U6030-R calipers. These calipers are nice as they are designed for 160mm rotors and will mount directly to the frame. Then, connect the Shimano calipers to the DB8 lines. Simple. But here’s the point….it really was that simple.
Everything went as expected. No hiccups. No drama.
I bled the system with Maxima Mineral Brake Oil.(SRAM SS-MIN-OIL-A1). It’s an ISO 8.7 viscosity. It’s a very light oil especially compared to the Pentosin ISO 18 that was the old upgrade for Shimano’s thick oil. I’ve found no issue with the lightweight oils that SRAM is using so it’s what I’m sticking with.
This is significantly lighter than the Maxima DOT 5.1 Brake Fluid that is ISO 810.
Two reasons for choosing the SRAM master over a Shimano:
- Shimano masters are not side-swappable. This is a big issue for me. I want to have the most value in the parts that I have around. Getting stuck with 6 left side masters but a need for a right makes no sense in my world.
- I tend to have SRAM parts in my development program. Deviating from that adds a cost and fuss. Just one off brand set of calipers is minimally intrusive and the masters can still be used on other SRAM setups later.
There is a CUES unit that mounts directly to the fork with no adapter, Shimano BR-U6030F (EBRU6030F6RX). That’s a 140F direct mount to 160mm rotor. I need to get one soon. I could have used a Shimano BR-UR300 (Front) caliper on the fork. It just didn’t look half as nice as the CUES unit.
I don’t really like the Shimano BO5s brake pads that came with the calipers. They are the B-Type (Wide) pad shape. I’ll replace them with some metals when the time comes. Jagwire Sport Semi-Metallic #DCA016 will probably be the first try. Still, the Pro E pad, #DCAB16 may be of use.
Due to the issue with the poor pad selection, I will next move to a Shimano XT BR-M8110 Flat Mount Brake Caliper. Then I can use the K04S-MX metal pad. They are the K-Type (Narrow) pad shape. But maybe this will work in either caliper. Time to order a Jagwire #DCA504 and find out.
I decided to remove the bar-ins from this setup. The new handlebars have worked out incredibly well. They make riding the bike so much fun and comfortable. The additional sweep of the bars now make the bar-ins point almost straight forward. This feels terrible. So much that I don’t ever want to be holding them. So I took them off. This is a geaometry problem not a bar-in problem. Bar-ins are great. I’m still hoping to make an improved version similar to what is used on the Corsair. I just need to do a print run. This improved the look of the bike for now.
I also took this opportunity to swap the dropper lever for a matching SRAM RM-DL-A1 lever. This looks nice with the SRAM 90 shifter and is a great cheap lever. A match set.
….and a few titanium screws.
This reminds me of a 2016 project where I replaced the DOT fluid in a set of SRAM Guide brakes with mineral oil. It was an experiment to see the effect in real life. It was pretty awesome. This time, SRAM and Shimano got to play nice.
