Update: I figured out the problem with the brakes (with a little help from YouTube): The master cylinder reservoir for the rear hydraulic brakes was not full. Frankly, it’s possible — perhaps even likely — the bike arrived in this condition, as the rear brake lever bottomed out before I had even opened the system.
Anyway, the rear MCR is now full, the new brakes — both F and R — are working very nicely indeed as they get bedded in, and the new tires are smooooth and quiet. 😎
Here are the upgrade details:
New tires: 2x 26 x 3.50 (89-559) Vee Tire Co. Speedster 72 TPI
New rotors: 2x 203mm Shimano RT-MT905 rotors
New caliper post mount adapters: Shimano 160 > 203mm (aka “+43’s”)
New pads: Generic semi-metallics from Amazon
So, we’ll see how all of this survives the ups and downs of our neighborhood roads.
I’ve learned a lot about current bicycle technology from the little exercise. As I told our older son, I’ve done more maintenance on this bike in the last seven weeks than I did on all of my previous four bikes over many, many years.
I’m also going to check a few things on my DW’s bike…
Safe travels,
Jim / crewzer