Hi,
I want to up grade my current stock brakes on my 29er specialized carve comp, the front rotor is 180mmm the rear a standard 160mm, most of the brake sets I see for sale come with two 160mm rotors front and rear, my question is, do I just need to buy a different type of front brake that caters for the 180mm rotor or do i just buy a standard 160mm pair and then a separate 180mm rotor for the front. I don’t know if you can run a larger rotor on a 160mm disc set up. Any help appreciated, thanks guys

Pretty much all modern brakes run a standard caliper, which fits a 160mm rotor with no adaptor required on a post mount frame/fork.Different size rotors are then catered for by using post to post adaptors in the correct size.

If you up grade the rotor size then you will need to to change the mounting brackets for the brake. So, if you go from 160mm to a 180mm rotor then the bracket will need to be 20mm further away so the brake pads etc will line up with the rotor! Go and see your LBS because they always have a box full of different mounts! Failing that, you can easily buy them but make sure you get the right one, post mount or international standard (is).

If you up grade the rotor size then you will need to to change the mounting brackets for the brake. So, if you go from 160mm to a 180mm rotor then the bracket will need to be 20mm further away so the brake pads etc will line up with the rotor! Go and see your LBS because they always have a box full of different mounts! Failing that, you can easily buy them but make sure you get the right one, post mount or international standard (is).

Actually only 10mm further away. Radius is 50% diameter.

And – what’s wrong with 160mm on the front. It’s working fine for me!

If you are using the stock rotors just buy a set of brakes and use the current front mount – job done in 5 minutes.

Is this not just a ‘brake query?’