Mechanic rear brake vs. Hydraulic?

[Quingquad]

To all the Blaster gurus here. What are the advantages/disadvantages of mechanic rear brakes vs. hydraulic? Are the stock mechanical brakes as bad as people make them sound? My project did not come with rear brakes and now I have to make a desicion while trying to keep the budget in check...

Thanks!

 

[super noober]

this isnt even a legitimate comparison.. hydro brakes are so much better its ridiculas. we have a member here AWK08 that sells a completely bolt on rear hydro setup off GSXR's. if you are a clever guy with access to a welder you can fab up a rear bracket and do it yourself also. oh and yeah, the cable brakes are as bad as everyone says lol

 

[Quingquad]

Thanks for the info. Where can one find a reasonably priced master cylinder that will get the job done?

 

[sheeblast]

off a banshee, or really any sports quads.

 

[bagds101]

im going to be honest... everyone says the cable brakes suck on a blaster. well i have a 2000 blaster with cable brakes and i ride it hard. always. and i have never had one problem with cable brakes. and the tires even lock up when i hit the brakes. so i figure if the wheels lock up when i hit my brakes hard enough then why go through the trouble? plus now i just have a cable and a lever. if i upgrade, i have brake fluid and brake lines to go bad. i know people will bash my post, but thats just my $.02

 

[sheeblast]

brake lines really dont go bad, the cable can get rusty and seize up or rip. plus they can stretch. cable are not good for anything, even for the clutch. a hydro clutch is so much better too.

 

[xxfloodedxx]

ya... if they work for you more power to you...(although im not happy to hear that they "lock up the rear wheels" to me thats abad thing... locked up wheels dont slow you down faster.)
you may be the only guy on here that has working mechanical rears. they are just archaic and a plain old nightmare to keep maintained. so much can go wrong with them.
hydros are the absolutely way to go for top braking performance.

 

[xd45c]

I had rear mechanical brakes that I sold a couple months ago. They had the "shorty" brake cable on them and they would lock up on call after I got new pads ($10) and tweaked them correctly. There's a tutorial around here somewhere that I followed that worked perfectly. Don't listen to all the haters, you can get them working well if you take the time and it'll cost you a lot less. I just decided to change to modernize And because I like working on the quad as much as I like riding it. Waste of money for me if you look at it one way since these hydros don't stop any faster but like I said I like working on it so it's a win win for me... Your choice though.

 

[super noober]

I had rear mechanical brakes that I sold a couple months ago. They had the "shorty" brake cable on them and they would lock up on call after I got new pads ($10) and tweaked them correctly. There's a tutorial around here somewhere that I followed that worked perfectly. Don't listen to all the haters, you can get them working well if you take the time and it'll cost you a lot less. I just decided to change to modernize And because I like working on the quad as much as I like riding it. Waste of money for me if you look at it one way since these hydros don't stop any faster but like I said I like working on it so it's a win win for me... Your choice though.

i really loved how my cable brakes would freeze in the winter lol

 

[blasterdemon7]

If you got good working stock brakes and you like them,that's good. For me I love the look of that big gold GSXR brake hanging out back.

 

[BustedassYZ]

Cable brakes suck!!!!! There's no in between off the brakes or locked up which is no good. Hydros have feel to them and you can control you braking which can make you a faster rider. and better at wheelies.

Wait I take that back and I'll sell you my Superior rear cable brakes for $50 lol

 

[xd45c]

i really loved how my cable brakes would freeze in the winter lol

Must get a hell of a lot colder way up there than it does here because I didn't have any problems haha. But I only rode it a couple times for one winter... Guess I just got lucky, or maybe I'm just that good at tweaking with those cables

 

[super noober]

Must get a hell of a lot colder way up there than it does here because I didn't have any problems haha. But I only rode it a couple times for one winter... Guess I just got lucky, or maybe I'm just that good at tweaking with those cables

haha yeah mabey I:I its amazing how frozen they could get, im talking liek kick the sh*t outta them and still be frozen. one time i had a frozen front wheel and it wouldnt break free untill i hit a pothole in the road with it

 

[sheeblast]

ya, that is a known problem with cables, they freeze up. from many things, like water go in the cable and frooze, it got rusted up, the cable frayed.

 

[xd45c]

I still have the cable fronts but they work well enough for me to not want to spent a couple hundred to change out to hydros. Except for the time when I was riding with my girlfriend and headed down a steep road that intersected a main street and couldn't stop haha(no rears at that time)... didn't tell her that part, but we got lucky and hit a green light.

I had problems with the fronts once, went to hit the brakes at the end of our street and felt like I almost went over
the bars the right drum grabbed so hard and made a Nasty sound. After I sanded them all out they've been good since. Kind of surprising considering we have to go through a creek when we ride. I try to ride the fronts hard on the way home to get some water out though.

 

[super noober]

I still have the cable fronts but they work well enough for me to not want to spent a couple hundred to change out to hydros. Except for the time when I was riding with my girlfriend and headed down a steep road that intersected a main street and couldn't stop haha(no rears at that time)... didn't tell her that part, but we got lucky and hit a green light.

I had problems with the fronts once, went to hit the brakes at the end of our street and felt like I almost went over
the bars the right drum grabbed so hard and made a Nasty sound. After I sanded them all out they've been good since. Kind of surprising considering we have to go through a creek when we ride. I try to ride the fronts hard on the way home to get some water out though.

lol i was heading down a trail one time with a few friends and my front cable broke and i almost t-boned somebody haha

 

[3 Wh33l3r Rid3r]

say what u want about cable brakes, they dont compare to hydros if they did the manufacture would still be selling em. sure u can lock your cables up but im riding nose wheelies with my hydros. there is way to much maintanence with cables, changing out seals so they dont leak, cables always stretching, always come out of adjustment. if your seals are bad u better hope u dont have any creeks on the trail cuz thats gonna be one fun ride around our trails and ill think ill ride behind ya. if you have a chance to upgrade notice i said upgrade go for it and u wont be sorry

 

[125pb]

if you have a long SIG list and hydros are not on that list, then get them, if you have a short, growing list im sure the hydros could wait. there are tons of mods that can be done to the blaster, alot are under 150$

 

[hudack]

i really loved how my cable brakes would freeze in the winter lol

o that was my fav thing about my cables o they worked great i could lock them up and everything but after 20 mins of riding they stoped working go for the gsxr brakes there amazing and not to expensive