The Avid BB7 is by far the most commonly used brake on tadpole trikes. Even though it is cable actuated it offers excellent stopping power and longevity.

Many years ago the Catrike Trail model came with Avid BB5 disc brakes which is an inferior design to the BB7 brake. Catrike did this along with using some other inferior components to offer the Trail model at a lower price than most of their other models. In due time Catrike learned that it does not pay to use inferior components. They got a lot of negative feedback and in time made the decision to use the same components they use in more expensive models. Of course, that increased the price of the Trail model.

As for my own trike I quickly learned of the poor quality of the BB5 brakes and after daily having to adjust them I made the decision to upgrade my trike to the BB7 brakes. It cost me just over $100 to make the change, but it was well worth it. I certainly never regretted it.

I have written previously about changing brake pads and adjusting the BB7 brakes. Click HERE to read that article.

As long as everything goes right there is no need to do anything more on these brakes. However, we don’t live in a perfect world and things can and do go wrong.

About the only trouble I have had with the BB7 brakes is the brake pad pusher moving too far out and then not going back into place so it will work properly. And it you are trying to change brake pads installing new ones the pusher pads need to go back into proper position so that there is room for the brake pads to go into place so they will work. I have spent good money replacing the entire brake assembly when this has happened as I could not get the brake pad pusher to go back into its proper place. I spent hours and hours working on it to no avail. All I managed to do was damage the brake to where it was necessary to replace it. That is an expensive repair when it started out only needing to replace the brake pads.

But in time I discovered that once again YouTube can be a great friend and helper.

This man does an excellent job telling and showing how to disassemble and reassemble a BB7 brake. I have to admit that he makes it look easy. You can save yourself this extra work by being careful never to allow the adjustment of the brakes to result in the brake pad pusher to screw out too far.

There are a lot more parts inside the brake assembly than one might think. Be careful not to lose any! You need all of them for the brake to work