BR-M505 disc brakes.
Rhod81
Posts: 116
Hi everyone.
On my Specialized Rockhopper 2011 I am having frequent problems with my brakes. Basically, they're so squishy they're unpleasant to use.
Now I am not the most technical minded but I try to do what I can myself (mainly to save a few quid from the shops). To give you an idea, I like my brakes sharp (I had an old I-drive that had sharp brakes even after several years of use) to put a percent to it I would like one finger braking to be able to lock up the wheels at say 10-20% of lever pull.
With diminishing braking performance I looked into the issue and long story short, started off by cleaning the callipers well, cleaning the pads and sanding lightly. Didn't make much difference. I then attempted bleeding one brake and syringing in new mineral oil in. Didn't seem to make a big difference either. Finally I replaced all the pads and whilst braking performance seemed better (obviously, what with new pads), the levers were still quite squashy (locking at say 50%).
I have just returned from grizedale and halfway round the north face trail I almost completely lost braking performance. I am now able to pull the levers almost to the bars (90%?) before they do anything!
One thing I did notice is that halfway round the route my rear wheel got swallowed by some particularly thick gritty mud and got all stuck in the callipers. With the aid of a handy puddle I rinsed out what I could from the calliper/pistons/pads and upon returning home, I took apart my rear brake only to find that one of the arms of the inverted 'U' shaped springy thing that separates the pads has somehow got completely mashed and twisted and got stuck between the pad and the rotor surface. Inspection and no real damage, plus have swapped the springy thing for a spare.
Basically, anyone got any idea how I can get my brakes to feel firm and lock with a minimum of lever pull????
Thanks.
On my Specialized Rockhopper 2011 I am having frequent problems with my brakes. Basically, they're so squishy they're unpleasant to use.
Now I am not the most technical minded but I try to do what I can myself (mainly to save a few quid from the shops). To give you an idea, I like my brakes sharp (I had an old I-drive that had sharp brakes even after several years of use) to put a percent to it I would like one finger braking to be able to lock up the wheels at say 10-20% of lever pull.
With diminishing braking performance I looked into the issue and long story short, started off by cleaning the callipers well, cleaning the pads and sanding lightly. Didn't make much difference. I then attempted bleeding one brake and syringing in new mineral oil in. Didn't seem to make a big difference either. Finally I replaced all the pads and whilst braking performance seemed better (obviously, what with new pads), the levers were still quite squashy (locking at say 50%).
I have just returned from grizedale and halfway round the north face trail I almost completely lost braking performance. I am now able to pull the levers almost to the bars (90%?) before they do anything!
One thing I did notice is that halfway round the route my rear wheel got swallowed by some particularly thick gritty mud and got all stuck in the callipers. With the aid of a handy puddle I rinsed out what I could from the calliper/pistons/pads and upon returning home, I took apart my rear brake only to find that one of the arms of the inverted 'U' shaped springy thing that separates the pads has somehow got completely mashed and twisted and got stuck between the pad and the rotor surface. Inspection and no real damage, plus have swapped the springy thing for a spare.
Basically, anyone got any idea how I can get my brakes to feel firm and lock with a minimum of lever pull????
Thanks.
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Comments
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Advance the pads , remove both front and rear wheel and slowly squeeze the leaver to bring the pistons out of the caliper this will reduce lever travel . You may have to mess around a little to get it to your liking so squeeze the pistons out slowly , also if you go to far you could pop one of the pistons right out so go slowly .
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