Echo Tr 2011 Rim Brakes

[echoteam9484]

Are Echo tr 2011 brakes actually any good ?

Really what im asking is do they leak ?

i dont want no comments of people who have had previous versions of echo brakes as i want to know about the 2011 ones!

Also can you water bleed them ? and then them not leaking ?

cheers

[Canardweb]

This version of the brake seems to work just fine. Echo must have finally changed their process and cleaned their parts before assembling. I wouldn't bleed them with water as what they're bled with feels just the same.

[SamKidney]

Two people running them who ride with me and they've been fine.

Feel great, and have not leaked at all. No issues. One of them has tried a water bleed with no issues either

[Greetings]

Not 100% reliable but getting there slowly. Statistically speaking about 15-20% fail.

[Scoox]

I just received my brand-new Echo 24 mk1 which comes with TR brakes. I am very impressed by the quality of this bike so far. The front brake (TR disc brake) is actually really nice, it's not quite bedded in yet but it's already feeling very very sweet and responsive, offering loads of modulation and bite when required. The rear brake (Echo TR rim brake) is another story, at least the one I got: the recoil speed is waaaay too slow, so that if I release the lever suddenly I can see the pads slowly pulling back into the slave cylinders (very very slowly), which means that when I release the lever the rear wheel is not able to spin freely. If the pads are very close they sort of wedge in and still provide quite a lot of braking power even though the lever has been released. Interestingly, there was a copy of the "Echo Magazine" inside the box showing Chinese riders doing some pretty massive stuff, and they all run Echo TR rim brakes on the rear, so I have a feeling I may have been unlucky with mine. I called Echo today but they told me to call back again on February 2nd as the guy who would be able to help me was off for Chinese New Year and they wouldn't be able to help me till then.

I will post back as soon as I get a reply.

Also the Echo TR lever design has its pros and cons. The main disadvantage is that it's held in place by a bolt and a nut rather than a bolt that screws directly into the brake lever body. As a result, you need one hand to do the bolt, one to do the nut and one to hold the lever in place while tightening it up, so it's pretty hard to do basically. The advantage of this design is that the brake lever can be fitted either way up and it still looks exactly the same. Also,by using a separate bolt and nut there is no risk of stripping out the thread (if you do you just buy a new nut and bolt for a few pence), unlike other brake lever where the bolt screws directly into the brake lever body without using a nut.

Edited January 17, 2012 by Scoox

[Scoox]

I have inspected the brake more closely and it seems like it's a quality control issue. I dismounted the brake and first found that the plastic backing of the brake pad rubbed against the metal of the brake slave. I filed the plastic down and it worked great i.e. fast recoil. But when I mounted the brakes they were slow again. Mounting the slave as far as possible from the rim resulted in faster recoil, so I concluded that the clamps deform the slave body which increases friction between the piston and cylinder thus causing slow recoil.

Although the front disc brake works great right now, I foresee problems down the road because the brake is supplied with no maintenance instructions, the big orange dial on the side seems to require a special tool to turn it, and it's hard to get spares where I live, so I am almost definitely going to go for an Avid BB7 up front and Avid vees at the back.

I will still contact Echo and hopefully get them to swap the brakes for something else e.g. a set of silver Urban forks.

[alistair14]

edit wrong year.

Edited January 18, 2012 by alistair14

[Redster]

I have inspected the brake more closely and it seems like it's a quality control issue. I dismounted the brake and first found that the plastic backing of the brake pad rubbed against the metal of the brake slave. I filed the plastic down and it worked great i.e. fast recoil. But when I mounted the brakes they were slow again. Mounting the slave as far as possible from the rim resulted in faster recoil, so I concluded that the clamps deform the slave body which increases friction between the piston and cylinder thus causing slow recoil.

Although the front disc brake works great right now, I foresee problems down the road because the brake is supplied with no maintenance instructions, the big orange dial on the side seems to require a special tool to turn it, and it's hard to get spares where I live, so I am almost definitely going to go for an Avid BB7 up front and Avid vees at the back.

I will still contact Echo and hopefully get them to swap the brakes for something else e.g. a set of silver Urban forks.

I have TR brakes myself since 2010 and they have been great, just up graded my pads to TNN this week. As for the slow retract I would check the brake pad interface. I filed the sides of the square bit on the middle as it was tight on the slaves. After that it was fine and works great. This week when I got my TNN CNC pads I had to file the aluminum backing again to fit, it was way too tight I can't even get it on the slaves. After a few minutes of careful filing to fit , it now works on the TR brakes.

Regarding the Ecko disk brakes, you don't have to open that orange dial thing. It seals the whole system after them installing the pistons. You need the tool is your actually rebuilding them with new piston rings which I highly doubt you have to do for a long time. Just bleed them like any other disc brakes. To me they seem to be a copy of the Hope disc brakes.