Radrunner Plus - Hydraulic Brake Swap

[maxslug2]

As one of the first mods I did the swap to hydraulic brakes on my radrunner plus.    This is a kit from Big Game that comes with the new brake levers, and brake calipers that is surprisingly cheap.  You re-use the rotors and the caliper mounts.   There is a good install video, which was very helpful, but I would rate this an 8/10 in difficulty, especially if you have a front rack.   It took me a solid half day to do it.     Having a pre-bled kit was really nice as far as hydraulic installs go!

I live on a steep hill in San Francisco and have a passenger, so I get to put the brakes to the test.    I find these probably don't shorten the stopping distance much, but maybe will help on fade.  They feel great.  The rear is a bit squeaky now, I'm guessing the new pads are more metalic than the olds.   Hopefully it beds in and stops being so loud.

Some thoughts...

• Do the trick where you tape the new brake hose to the old brake CABLE to pull the housing through the frame, worked great
• The rear hose is a bit too long, so it doesn't route with the rest of the cables well.  I added electrical tape to the outside of the hose where it interferes with my front basket.  This is just for abrasion resistance.  If I had the patience to bleed it I would shorten it a bit
• The front hose needs to be routed through the handle bar and from behind, as well as some strategic zip-ties along the handle bar to make sure that at "full lock" the hose doesn't interfere with the stock front rack.   This was one of the more tricky bits.
• You re-use all the existing caliper brackets and bolts, nothing off the new ones.  This isn't clear in the video
• Centering the brakes so they don't drag is always tedious (for any disc brake).   It's not just a matter of "clamp and screw" like people make it out to be.  It took a lot of fiddling but in the end was good.  I found I had to eyeball it and tweak it while the wheel was spinning, get it set, and then clamp down gently and make it tight little by little.

-m

[santacruzpaul]

Thought this might help,
Paul

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOqlrGd1yn8

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One other thing, use the nice ceramic (red) pads that came with the bike.  The pads that come with the new calipers are not very good.

[Mori55]

I bought those brakes. Only problem is my won?t want them without a bell. No room on the bars for one.
   Do I might end up selling them for the cable hydraulic calipers. I don?t want to but she won?t want without a bell.

[ElectricRides]

Thank you for the rundown!

I did the swap out for the hydraulic brakes that Area 13 is selling on my Runner Plus, almost went with the BGB brake set but went with the 4 pistons instead. The installation was surprisingly easy and the performance is great.

Definitely recommend!

[pnwetc]

I did the swap out for the hydraulic brakes that Area 13 is selling on my Runner Plus, almost went with the BGB brake set but went with the 4 pistons instead. The installation was surprisingly easy and the performance is great.

I'm about to pull the trigger on these. I'm curious, did you run the rear brake through the frame? And if so, I assume you needed to bleed them after - do you have a bleed kit you'd recommend?

[Mori55]

You don?t need to bleed them when you run it through the frame. Look at the YouTube video.

[pnwetc]

You don?t need to bleed them when you run it through the frame. Look at the YouTube video.

I believe you're thinking of the BGB hydraulic brakes, which do not come with the hoses attached to the levers (and which have the video showing how to run through the frame). The Area 13 brakes come with hoses attached at both ends; disconnecting will likely introduce air, which means bleeding will need to follow.

[ElectricRides]

I did the swap out for the hydraulic brakes that Area 13 is selling on my Runner Plus, almost went with the BGB brake set but went with the 4 pistons instead. The installation was surprisingly easy and the performance is great.

I'm about to pull the trigger on these. I'm curious, did you run the rear brake through the frame? And if so, I assume you needed to bleed them after - do you have a bleed kit you'd recommend?

I ran the rear through the frame and haven't had the need to bleed it just yet so I haven't looked into bleed kits. From what I can see these brakes look a lot like the ones that come on some of the Surron models so I'll probably just see what people have been using to bleed/refill those and go with it.

It's not too informative but I did make a video of my impressions of the brakes here: https://youtu.be/RRjqbxca4IY