Hi, I am quite new to the site and mountain biking in general. I hope you nice people can give me some advice.

I bought myself a Rockhopper about 4 months ago and it has changed my life. We seem to spend every weekend out riding and I am loving it. However I am struggling with my braking. My problem is I can’t reach the lever easily. I can adjust my lever but there is quite a lot of give in it so it just squashes my fingers. My internet research seems to suggest that this is a feature of the brake. I don’t know if anyone else has had the same problem? But it does seem a good excuse to upgrade anyway.

So, I need some advice on upgrading. I don’t have a huge amount of money to spend and am only riding blue and easy red route standard (but hoping to improve). I currently have Shimano M505 levers and M445 calipers. With a 160 rotor. Do I need to replace all of it or can I just get a better caliper? I also want to do the work myself. How hard is this and will I need any specialised tools?

Thank you for any help you can give me.
Claire

It shouldn’t have that much give in it. You should be able to adjust the reach so you can reach with small fingers and still not have the lever coming back to the bar. You really should not have fingers under the lever anyway

To change it you are best to change the whole brake – lever and caliper

However first I would bleed the brake and maybe lube the pistons ( with mineral oil – same as the fluid in the brakes – in shimanos it is NOT standard brake fluid) and spend some time setting the lever up so you can reach it but don’t squash your fingers.You might need to move the levers further to the middle of the bar so your ist finger only is on the brake and the rest of your fingers are round the bar out of harms way

The brakes you have should be ample for what you need. I would go with what was said, a bleed with some new mineral oil and check the pistons are working fully then treat yourself to some nice new pads.
Shimano brakes are simple to bleed.

I had those, replaced with Avids (don’t get Avids)

Bleed them. The lever shouldn’t crush your fingers If they are set up right and you one/two finger break, get your LBS to explain how to set them up.

Edit: IMO though they are a pile of absolute pish, I had the same ones on my genesis, bin them. Get some Shimano XT’s or SLX.