front brake fade

gsxrh72

Advice appreciated
I have a marin indian fire trail 2007 with deore lx brakes, on long rides, when conditions wet/mucky the front brake stops working. Then after 10 mins or so when brakes dry up its starts working again?
I have tried obvious stuff like,
-changed front disc
-changed pads (about 5 times!)
-bled and changed oil in brake lines
-cleaned pistons

My patience is being tested and can not think of anything else to do.......

Cheers, Richard..

Dirtydog11

gsxrh72 wrote:

Advice appreciated
I have a marin indian fire trail 2007 with deore lx brakes, on long rides, when conditions wet/mucky the front brake stops working. Then after 10 mins or so when brakes dry up its starts working again?
I have tried obvious stuff like,
-changed front disc
-changed pads (about 5 times!)
-bled and changed oil in brake lines
-cleaned pistons

My patience is being tested and can not think of anything else to do.......

Cheers, Richard..

So this only happens when the brakes are wet? What pads have you tried, have you tried sintered pads?

If not try Superstar components sintered, they are quite in use and there is little if any performance drop off in wet conditions.

02gf74

what exactly are you saying here?

standard meaning of brake fade is when brakes have gotten so hot that either the fluid boiling or brake pads gassing, the stopping action of the brkaes reduces dratically.

are you doing heavy braking?

you mention wet conditions ... so is you problem due to water on the rotors?

if you brakes are bled correctly with shimano mineral oil, then tht casn be ruled out.

you options are:
1. try different pads
2. try different rotors
3. fit larger rotor on the front (I assume you have 160 mm, so 185 mm may help).

water acts as a lubricant so there isn't that much you can do but if your rotors have slots, that does help.

cheapest solution is to touch the front and rear brakes frequently whilst cycling, say once a minute to clear the water.

gsxrh72

will try upgrade rotor, thanks...,

bennett_346

Approximately how much power do you feel they lose?

Will Snow

how long are the descents?

bennett_346

In all likelyhood theyre not fading any more that you should expect them to in the wet. No idea how good lx brakes perform in the wet, but theres no reason why they should fade any more than you should expect them to. Changing the rotor is unlikely to make much difference unless the current has no holes in it.

02gf74

Will Snow wrote:

how long are the descents?

from what I understand in the OP, and it is not clear to mne either, is that it is the water on the discs taht is causing the "fade".

anticipate when you need to brake and a quick dab beforhand on the brake lever with move the water and problem solved.

I am surpirsed it takes 10 minutes of braking before they start to bite; that doesn't sound right - again, I may be misunderstanding what the OP is saying.