Mountain bike disc brakes are a godsend, but one that we may take for granted because they don’t require much maintenance. However, even the best brakes need to be set up correctly and occasionally run into problems. Taking the time with the initial set-up will help ensure that they are as free running and powerful as they can be.

This month’s Workshop begins with the most important job: aligning your caliper properly. There are slightly quicker ways to do it, but this method should give more consistent performance for longer, and it means you won’t have to resort to any trail tweaking due to rubbing rotors.

All maintenance can be carried out at home, although the difficulty of each job varies from being incredibly simple to downright tricky. The golden rule when working on your mountain bike disc brakes is never to attempt anything that’s out of your depth. If your brakes fail you could end up with cuts, bruises or broken bones. If you’re at all in doubt about your capabilities, leave it to the professionals.

This video accompanies an article in April 2013’s MBR, on sale from March 6. See here for more workshop videos.