2007 Avid BB7

Last updated on June 23, 2008

As yesterday’s collision left me with a not-safely-rideable bike, I’m stuck at home during reasonably nice weather. Since Danielle and I were heading out to Zingerman’s Deli for lunch, I figured I’d check out some bike shops along the way to Ann Arbor and see if I could find a suitable replacement for the now-damaged BB5.

Calling around to a few bike shops (Tree Fort Bikes, who has an asinine policy regarding online^† vs. in store prices and Trails Edge who was very friendly but out of stock) and stopping by Wheels In Motion (who seemed quite nice) I was unable to locate a rear set of Avid BB7 brakes for my bike. After eating a rather nice BLT, we began heading back towards my house when I thought of stopping off at REI in Northville. Thankfully we did, because sitting in the clearance bin was a brand new 2007 Avid BB7 rear disc brake set for mountain bikes, clearance priced at $49.83, which is even cheaper than Price Point sells it for.

After stopping at ‘s place to borrow his inch-pound torque wrench (to be sure everything is right) and visiting my Mom (Dad was at work) Danielle and I headed back to my house, where I spent a while fitting the brake and getting it nicely adjusted. While I haven’t ridden on it yet, I can say that this brake is so much nicer to adjust that I may very well order the matching front version from PricePoint and install it in place of the current BB5.

While looking over my bike I found that there’s a good bit of water in the frame (some ran out when I removed the rear rack to fit the rear brake), so I think tomorrow I’ll pull the bottom bracket apart and see if any more water runs out. I also found that the front wheel is not turning very well, and investigating that showed that the cone nuts (or they may just be lock nuts if they are cartridge bearing) on the front end are loose, so tomorrow I’ll look into fixing that bit up as well.

At least now I’m on my way to having a nicely rideable bike again. Maybe I will be able to make next weekend’s charity ride.

^† Tree Fort Bikes lists the Avid BB7 brakes as ~$52 each on line, so I called and asked if I could come by and get them for that price. I was told that they are out of stock, but if they were in stock that the price would be higher because one has to pay for the lights and buildings and such. However, the person I talked to informed me that if I ordered online and set things up for in-store pickup, I could get the online price. This doesn’t make sense to me, as I don’t see how in-store pickup for an in-stock item should be any more expensive than in-store pickup for a special order item.