Constant 'tinging' rotor noise

101_North

Any ideas what would cause an almost constantly 'tinging' rotor. The pad clearance and alignment looks OK and the wheel spins no problems in the workstand or when off the bike but as soon as I ride there is a constant tinging rotor noise.

Any thoughts?

101

nicklouse

pads vibrating against the rotor. or visa versa.

101_North

How can I stop it?

Driving me insane!

Thanks

nicklouse

how old are the brakes?

101_North

About 3 months. K24's. A look back through my post history will reveal that all has not been well since I received them. There is a loud 'click' every time I pull the front lever - been assured it's nothing to worry about. There's a 'bubbling' noise in the front lever - again assured this is OK. The front caliper has is almost impossible to align due to a 'lazy' piston and I've tried pretty much everything Formula have suggested. Most recently I stripped the caliper and cleaned the pistons and bled the system. Not sure it's helped as 1 piston still seems to not retract as well as the other one. Admittedly this might account for the 'tinging' noise but the rotor clearance actually looks OK.

Oh...and the white paint job chips if you look at it - but that's not really an issue. I didn't buy them to look at :-)

If I'm being honest it's been one thing after another and I reckon I'm at the point of returning them under warranty. Real shame as the only thing which seems to have been OK throughout is the braking power = awesome. I just can't be doing with having to realign the caliper after pretty much every ride!

101

Atz

Have you looked at the spring holding the pads apart? I had my formula brakes somehow end up with the spring bent into the path of the rotor.

nicklouse

101_North

check the bearings for adjustment.

101_North

@Atz Tried several springs and tried bending them - same result unfortunately.

@Nicklouse - hub bearings?

Thanks

101

ThePriory1978

101_North wrote:

I just can't be doing with having to realign the caliper after pretty much every ride!

Sounds like a problem with the hub/the disc is moving/flexing on its mount.

What forks are you running? Do you have a bolt through axle or standard quick release? Standard quick release's flex and my discs 'ting' on occasion because of it.

Do you have floating discs? The rivets can catch slightly making a tinging noise. Made worse by a flexing fork.

Are your wheels seriously out of true, the vibration caused at speed could maybe make the discs ting.
After all the other suggestions and i'm guessing you know these brakes very well by now, i can't think of what else it could be. Somethings not compatible somewhere.

101_North

ThePriory1978 wrote:

101_North wrote:

I just can't be doing with having to realign the caliper after pretty much every ride!

Sounds like a problem with the hub/the disc is moving/flexing on its mount.

What forks are you running? Do you have a bolt through axle or standard quick release? Standard quick release's flex and my discs 'ting' on occasion because of it.

Do you have floating discs? The rivets can catch slightly making a tinging noise. Made worse by a flexing fork.

Are your wheels seriously out of true, the vibration caused at speed could maybe make the discs ting.
After all the other suggestions and i'm guessing you know these brakes very well by now, i can't think of what else it could be. Somethings not compatible somewhere.

Forks are Tora 302's, standard QR. Discs are standard Formula 180mm. Wheels appear to be running true with no obvious play in the hubs. It appears that after aligning the caliper and riding one pad moves slightly further away from the disc while the other doesn't retract fully and rubs - every time without fail.

It's actually starting to drive me mad now! Serveral times a week I fiddle with the bike trying something different but no luck. I thought that a caliper strip, clean and rebleed would solve it but no such luck. The black marks on the inside of the caliper suggest a problem there - whether that would cause follow on issues elsewhere I don't know. It's the side that the fluid enters the caliper where the issue is.

I reckon that to save my sanity they're going back under warranty to be checked out. I just can't keep throwing time at a problem which won't go away! I've had no issues at all with the rear brake which has been faultless.

I'll have one more check of eveything tonight before they come off the bike. Given the excellent reputation these brakes have it's quite possible that I've a duff set! Whatever the problem is I can't continue dreaming up potential solutions at 4.30am :x

Thanks for the help folks

101

red eye

I had this when i was running jucey 7s and 02 bomber z5's
when going round corners the forks would flex and the cone washer would touch the rotor

nicklouse

101_North
stop readjusting all the time. set and use.

the issues people have tend to come with too much tweeking.

most brakes (as in most brands) have some tinkling and the bigger the rotor the more it can happen.

red eye

but half the fun is in finding something that has nothing wrong and trying to fix it.

101_North

I'm not tinkering for the sake of it!

101

uk_stretch

Intrigued by the most brakes have some sot of "tinking" remark- my juicy 5s were horrible but they were quiet - when aligned properly and pistons not sticking. Ditto my Elixirs - totally silent. John just lucky I guess?

I have witnessed the Fomula's in discussion and the back is great and the front is duff. If it was me they'd have been back two months ago - there is something wrong with the piston or caliper casing in the front caliper. There is no way you could just ignore this (well maybe the tinking but not the piston jamming!)

With that much pad contact you'd need to have thighs like Chris Hoy to get to the top of Spooky Wood! :shock:

skaffen

Sounds familiar!

I have Formula R1s and once you've ridden them a bit they do become easier to align, but I've got the same "lazy" piston (on the wheel side) on both front and back callipers, and Formula and Silverfish seem to think that's pretty normal.

I've had the "tinking" noise as well, although it disappeared after a little while and only ever cropped up at really fast speeds for some reason (and is completely untraceable if you aren't riding the bike and just have it in a stand). Formula do say on their website though that occasional noises are to be expected because of the small tolerances, so I'm not entirely sure if that's necessarily indicative of a fault.

The R1s are great brakes, power is immense (when they're working - I managed to somehow contaminate a pair of pads on mine with something) but they do reach a level of fiddly-ness I've never seen with any other bike part!

Personally I took mine apart so much in the first month of having them that I could probably completely disassemble and rebuild them in the dark now. In the end just putting a few 100 miles on them made them settle down, and they blow my Elixirs out of the water in terms of power.

They remind me of my brother's TVR; brilliant, but fiddly, and if you tinker with them too much something tends to go wrong

101_North

The Oros have been removed and will be posted back for a warranty check tomorrow. I'm prepared to accept some fiddling but the front brake is ridiculous. Aligned caliper (again) before leaving work tonight and by the time I got home the pad was rubbing on one side and tinging constantly again. Nobody will convince me that I should accept that as normal. As I've said - the rear is perfect and hasn't been touched since it was installed. The piston is deffo slow to retract and after stripping the caliper etc. I'm sure there's something not right.

Thanks for the advice folks - checked bearings, wheel truing etc. etc. and found no problems. The Juicys I stuck on aligned perfectly and showed no issues when I went for a quick run. For the sake of my sanity and enjoyment I need to get it checked out

101

hoathy

I had this problem with a Magura Louise once, eventually found there was a slight imperfection on the rotor, i tiny bur where it wa machined, I filed it off, problem solved!

I guess its a little late to check for this now you've sent them off! But I thought i'd mention it...