New Bike Bedding in procedure?

rfisher87

Hi All,
Should be receiving my Cube Reaction SL tomorrow and wondered whats the best way to bed in the brakes as there seems to be load of contradicting ways :S

Fenred

Find a hill, aim bike downwards, brake HARD several times, go back up hill, repeat...Job done!

Enjoy your new ride, you wont sleep tonight!!....

Barracuda Bob

I usually when I get a bike is to get some loose powdery dirt and sprinkle it inbetween the brake pads and the roter and it will get ride of the shine off the pads and when you brake it helps a bit. Thats how I do it when I put new pads in. But its all down to how you want to get round it.

supafly1982

my brakes are new(ish) and they are noisey as hell, would the whole down hill thing cure mine? i would of thought they shud be done by now

Raymondavalon

Fenred wrote:

Find a hill, aim bike downwards, brake HARD several times, go back up hill, repeat...

^This^

Plus most bikes come with documentation to cover the various components on the bike

getonyourbike

You don't even need to go downhill but it makes it easier. Accelerate, brake as hard as you can in a controlled way, no skidding and repeat.

Bar Shaker

Nooooo.

Light pressure use from walking pace for 10+ applications, without stopping, then the same but jogging pace, then the same but running pace, then at full pelt. Do the last two stages with full pressure use, letting them cool between applications.

Your goal is to build up a thin, even layer of pad resin on the disc face.

As you are doing this, you will feel the brakes get more and more powerful and they should be quiet, because you haven't streaked the resin, like you would hammering down a hill on the first application.

First do the front brake, then the back.

supersonic

I find that the light stopping technique can glaze the pads with some brands. I always go for the full, hard stops (carefully!)

jj1048

Take it to Cwmcarn in the rain

mudsucker

on the back of the superstar pads i bought a while ago it said to do several hard controlled stops (no locking up) and then to put some cold water on the pads and rotors. if you see steam it means they are hot enough and your done 8)

Bar Shaker

The resin provides most of the friction and the pad material is there as its holder. Resin to resin contact on the disc face provides much more friction than solid material to steel. A simple way of explaining this would be a comparison between pushing a piece of sandpaper across a steel surface with your index finger and pushing your finger across the steel with tree sap on the end of your finger.

Pad glaze is caused by the pad surface being boiled dry of the resin that bonds the pad material together. You then get dry material against the disc and this has less friction. This is why glazed pads don't work as well.

Glazing normally happens if you heat the pad surface up beyond the operating temp of the resin grade. Different resins soften at different temps. The pad operating range is when the resin is soft, but not fluid. High temp pads are useless when cold, low temp pads are useless when beyond their range. Once glazed, the grooves in the disc should clean away the now crumbly dry material or you can remove the pads and lightly rub them across a flat sheet of wet and dry. This will expose fresh resin bearing pad material.

If your early use heats the pad unevenly, you can get streaks of resin on the disc face. These will give reduced efficiency and may generate harmonics resulting in noisy brakes. To clean the discs and start again, use a chemical brake cleaner, lightly sand the disc in a direction from the centre to the outside, re-clean and then bed in again.

rfisher87

Thanks guys did a few hard stops and seems fine.

And here is the beast as it arrived this morning


and then 3 hours later thanks to the lovely british weather




Got to say i love it and cant wait for the rain to stop so i don't have to crawl through mud

getonyourbike

the cat made me lol The colours on that cube are dialed, it looks lovely.

rfisher87

he is a little bugger he decided to try and lick the bike clean for me for some reason

getonyourbike

UncleMonty

I've always found Cubes a bit blingy but the black & green work well, very nice bike mate

kevcampbell

nice bike i like the colours, the cat picture is very funny

HebdenBiker

Liking the photo frame arrangement on the wall. Must try something like that.

Liking the cat too.

Don't know anything about bedding in brakes. Sorry