Adjusting the brakes is a fact of life when it comes to owning a chinese mini moto, you have to do it at least once so you may as well do it properly instead of whining about poor brakes and feel for the life of the bike. This guide pertains mainly to the single front brake bikes. Most come with two disks on the front that you should get rid of asap. They are next to impossible to adjust to be equal and dont work that much better then the single disk anyway.
First thing i always do for a racing bike is to purchase some thinner cables. the stock ones are really thick and you dont get a decent feel out of them. The GRC and blata made cables are perfect. If you dont plan on racing then the stockers will do you just fine.
Next is to adjust the cable adjusters on the brake cables themselves. There needs to be quite alot of adjustment in them as your cables will stretch over time. So wind them in all the way then back out two full turns. This is how mine look after having been set. As the cable stretches the free play in the brake lever will become greater, so you just wind out the adjuster to remove the slack.
Nearly there, next install the cable and route it in a way that it isnt excessively kinked and it isnt rubbing on anything sharp that will break or abrade the cable. make especially sure it isnt touching the exhaust. The cable should take the smoothest and least curved and kinked path to the caliper.
And last but not least we get to the brake caliper. First loosen the lock nut on the brake pad adjustment screw (The grub screw with the nut over it at the base of the brake arm) and wind out the adjuster a few turns.
Then install your brake cable. Be extra sure you dont fray the end of the cable! otherwise it will look ugly and be a bastard to take off and reinstall. I always solder the ends up with an 80w soldering iron to stop that. You can buy crimp on cable ends as well and some people heatshrink the end, but that never worked too well in my experience.
After that, Set the brake arm to be perpendicular with the "eyelet" (the little knob, the outer part of the cable rests against) and then let it fall back about another 10-20 degrees. How you see it in the picture is about perfect. Tighten up the bolt on the end of the brake arm making sure you dont kink the end of the cable in the process.
last thing you have to do is wind in the grub screw until the brakes operate how you like. That is largely personal preference but i like mine to have about 5mm of free play in the lever and be set quite firm. Test the brakes by spinning the wheel and pulling the lever with 2 fingers. it should lock solid and you shouldnt be able to move the wheel by hand.
tighten up the locking nut and your all done! Enjoy :)
Keep checking back, ill be finishing off the pro cag build and finishing off the pro-chinese class dreambike as well as showing off a few new parts that havent been used before + giving a little review on them. It should be good!
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