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ADA Hydraulic Suspension Setup -versus- ADA Mechanical Suspension Setup
By: AccordC32
The ADA hydraulic brakes are fantastic, but you can EASILY go right over the handlebars if you brake too hard. Also, maintenance on the hydraulic brakes are a complete pain. You must purchase a 15 dollar Magura maintenance kit which is hard to find, it comes with two surringes, some magura blood, and a few other things. Bleeding and filling the brakes are a total pain, and unless you have previous experience with hydraulic brakes, it is a tedious and messy process.
The Hydraulic brakes are powerful, but in my opinion, TOO powerful. With the ADA mechanical brakes, you can fully adjust them in every possible way, the braking power with them is not lacking as with the stock PMW mechanical brakes, and it is not overkill like the hydraulic brakes, it is JUST perfect. You *can* and I use that word loosely, lockup the brakes with the mechanical setup, but it requires a large amount of force and unless you're really squeezing hard, you won't lock them up. When you slam on the mechanical brakes, your ped is stopped at the maximum amount of possible braking power without locking up and sending you over the bars.
The hydraulic brakes that come with the ADA setup were intended to be used on large diameter wheels with large disks on mountain bikes, they were not intended to be used on small diameter wheels on a small scooter, so the braking power on them is just overkill.
The brake lever that comes with the Magura Julies which is the name of the hydraulic caliper setup on the ADA hydro setup is VERY low quality, I had an accident and broke mine, it is next to impossible to track down a replacement lever, since the only one that can be used is the stock lever, you cannot use other hydraulic levers, you are required to use the one designed for the Julie hydraulic caliper.
The brake lever that comes with the mechanical setup is awesome, however I find that my Shimano levers look better and are more adjustable, but i'm very picky, so the stock brake lever that comes with the mechanical setup is fantastic.
The mechanical setup is just a lot better, a lot easier to maintain, and the braking power is just as good, especially when used in conjunction with a high quality brake lever. Another advantage to the mechanical setup is you don't have to sell your left testicle in order to purchase the billet wheel and rotor which are required for the hydraulic setup. You can also use the mechanical setup with a stock rotor and wheel, as opposed to the hydraulic setup which requires a special billet wheel and a special 2mm disk designed for the hydraulic caliper.
Again, the mechanical brake setup is JUST AS POWERFUL as the hydraulic setup, it's just the hydraulic setup is a LOT more sensitive. I weigh 225 pounds, and the hydraulic brakes even locked up on me and threw me over the bars.
I'm sure a lot of people are wondering if either of these two ADA braking setups will work with the GP Slicks kit for the GSR40 and GSR40-TS Interceptor, well I will answer this for you. You need an Industry Standard (I.S.) mount on your forks in order to mount either the ADA mechanical or hydraulic brakes. The only forks currently on the market which have this I.S. mount which enables you to mount these brakes is the ADA suspension which is included with both ADA setups.
ADA used to have a standard bothy fork that was chrome that had the IS mounts, but that has been discontinued, I was lucky enough to get my hands on one, they are very rare and you'll be hard pressed to find someone willing to sell theirs. You cannot use the GP Slicks with both of the ADA suspension setups, mechanical and hydraulic. The suspension will bottom out and hit the top of the tire on the slicks because the actual diameter of the tire on the slicks is around 11 inches I believe, as opposed to the 10 inches of the standard AT and TT tires.
The old chrome bothy fork with the IS mount that ADA used to sell works fine with the GP slicks with the mechanical ADA caliper, infact that is the setup that i'm using. However, you cannot use the hydraulic setup at all with the GP Slicks because the Julie caliper is too small to fit the large stock disk, not to mention the four bolt pattern that holds the disk onto the wheel on the slicks will hit the caliper, rendering it impossible for the wheel to make a complete revolution.
There are a few companies who can modify the front wheel on the GP Slicks kit so that you can use the Superior 2mm rotor which comes with the stock ADA Hydraulic Suspension setup, however the pricing for these modifications are astronomical and not in the slightest bit worth it.
Again, you cannot even begin to attempt to use any of the suspension setups with the GP Slicks, you must use the discontinued chrome ADA IS fork. Unforutunately, you will not be able to find one of these forks, they are very rare and the people who already have them are definetly going to hang onto them.
I know these little brake systems like the back of my hand, so if you have any questions feel free to contact me.
-AccordC32
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