£245 Argos Folder Improvements - complete story

[saneagle]

Re very poor cable brakes on original bike -

Not being as refined as Saneagle, i tolerated the brakes as supplied on the bike for 210 miles and noted a new shushing sound lately. I took off the rear caliper and spun up the wheel and it was gone, so i removed the pads and found this huge step in the friction material, caused by really terrible fitting that Saneagle had already warned me had affected his original bike.
View attachment 59825

There were two 2mm washers under the caliper between it and the mounting plate and these guarantee that much of the friction pad does not contact the disk. I still think more could be done to make more pad contact the disk, but it would involve filing the mount, or the caliper. Saneagle referred to this himself above.

I rubbed down the pad to remove the step and flatten it, and reassembled the caliper with much more of the pad working against the disk.

Edit:

Because of the horrible design of brakes of this low quality, only one of the pads had the deep step. Only the pad that is pushed by the actuator is really doing any significant work. The only way the brake would work decently would be if the caliper was floating and could move, so both pads were pressing in on the disk.

I think soon i will be changing the brakes as shown here in the thread.

You really need the next size down adapter. A rear 140mm should be about right, and if it's too low, use those alignment washers on it, and plain washers as necessary.