Front brakes binding

portland_bill

Morning all,

I've got Hayes Stroker Ryde brakes on my bike and as far as I've deduced, the front one is binding.

Since I bought the bike two years ago (Cube Acid), I've not had a massive amount of use out of it, but I did do the Great North Ride on it and noticed half way through that that my front brake was singing and even if I touched the front brake it only stopped it momentarily.

It's pretty much been a problem since then, and over the last couple of weeks I've been getting into some more technical stuff with a couple of mates mucking about in Chopwell and Thrunton Woods and it pretty much got to the point where my front brake was barely stopping me.

I took the pads out and they were proper shiny, so I took a bit of wet & dry to them to de-glaze them, put them back in and it was exactly the same. One of my mates turned up yesterday morning and poured some Coca-Cola on them and told me to try again and they were a little more grabby, but we went back up to Thrunton Woods and all day the front wheel was singing like mad, meanwhile driving me mad.

I decided enough was enough and that the pads must be contaminated or something, so called into Cyclelife in Alnwick and bought some new pads for the front and narrowly avoided getting fingered for some grossly overpriced innertubes ("There's a rubber shortage!" he excused after he informed me my total had gone up from £13 to £30 by adding a couple of inner tubes), but found once I put them in my bike, I can still hear a faint ring from my front wheel.

The brakes are obviously binding which is why they were glazed in the first place, but how do I get them to stop?

Paulkingk

Try loosening the two bolts that hold the caliper on the frame a little then pump the brake a few times then hold the brake on, Now nip up the bolts a bit at a time while holding the brake on, hopefully this will recentre the caliper. and stop the rubbing. Also look in between the caliper and spin the wheel to see if there is any wobble in the disc. other things could be a sticky piston, pull the brake on whilst looking at the pads do the pads both move in at the same time and back again, if one isn't retracting it could be that the piston is stuck and the calliper will need servicing.

It's a bit of a mine field

Good luck

cooldad

Adding Coke is not a generally accepted brake booster. Sugary water should gunk things up nicely.

nicklouse

Portland Bill wrote:

I can still hear a faint ring from my front wheel.

The brakes are obviously binding which is why they were glazed in the first place, but how do I get them to stop?

let them bed in.

PS the only things that should go near your pads are the rotor,water and a suitable brake cleaner.

coke can be used to give a bit of life to a FUBARD clutch before you sell the car.

cooldad

nicklouse wrote:

coke can be used to give a bit of life to a FUBARD clutch before you sell the car.

Would you buy a used car off this man?

portland_bill

To be fair he wouldn't bother himself to get anywhere near a clutch. The acid in the coke removes any residual oils on the pads. Made no difference to the brakes overall though.

I already tried centring the calliper but as you said I'll give them a chance to bed in. I guess if it's still ringing I'm just worried they'll glaze over too.

I'll check the pot movement.