[skiing9689]

I have a Shimano Deore mechanical caliper on the front as of now with a 6" rotor. My rear caliper is shot, and I am shopping around/weighing options.

I believe that my front and rear mounts are both I.S.

When I bought the Deore, it was labeled as a front caliper. Is there any reason for why I can't move the caliper to the rear (using the rear brake cable)? Are the mounting holes different in the rear? If someone knows off the top of their head, it will save me the trouble to unbolting both calipers.

I am considering the idea of going to hydro on one end. I feel as though I would be happier with the hydro up front. Is there any reason for why I would want it in the back?

I am also considering going with an 7 or 8" rotor with mechanical caliper in the front.

Assuming that my front caliper can easily be moved to the rear, I am better off with a 6" hydro front brake, or an 8" mechanical (think BB7) ?

If the front caliper can't be moved to the rear, is it worth upgrading to hydro in the rear?

Thanks.

I forgot to add, scraping the front caliper isn't really an option. I am completely broke, so I can only justify buying one caliper/rotor. If spending a bit more (versus another cheapo caliper) will make me happier in the long run, I would rather go that route.

 

[XSL_WiLL]

If the caliper is a post mount caliper bolted to an IS adapter, you can use the front caliper with the rear adapter. Or you can use the front caliper with a 140mm rotor if it's direct IS.

Hydros can be very good, or they can be crap (HFX-9). The HFX-9 is a good entry level brake, but when you start getting aggressive the master cylinder will fail. The 9s also lack modulation.

 

[skiing9689]

Front and rear calipers bolt directly to the fork/frame. I will assume that this is direct I.S.

To move the front to the rear, I will need to find a 140 mm rotor?

Specifically, I was looking at the Magura Louise FR. Only slightly more expensive than the Avid BB7, seems like a good deal.

 

[XSL_WiLL]

Louise FR is a good brake. My old old old old one was not so great, but mostly because of lever play and probably needed a rebuild. The new Magura brakes seem to be awesome. Direct IS mounts can be a PITA to setup though.

Front and rear calipers are different. If you used a rear 160 caliper on the front, it'll fit a 180 rotor. If you fit a front 160 caliper on the rear, it'll use a 140 rotor. That's bascially what it comes down to.

 

[I-S]

With my Louise FR I had no setup problems at all on the front once I got the right number of shims (and each time I remove the brake for whatever reason, I keep the shim stacks together and put them straight back on and it always works straight away again, no additional setup required).

I did have alignment problems with my rear Louise (same caliper as my FR front... 180 front rotor, 160 rear) but that was all down to the frame. Once I replaced the cast cheese mount with a machined mount (Marin east peak frame) and had that faced (as the frame itself was slightly out) all was fine. The fork I had no issues with as magura forks are properly faced out of the factory.

You might want to look at getting the long-legged louise (180 front, 160 rear) for caliper interchangability:

Then it's a simple issue to add the magura 15 adapter if you want a bigger rotor: