Cleaning brake pads and rims

starbuck
starbuck Posts: 256
edited March 2014 in Workshop
What's the best way to clean brake pads and the braking surfaces on the rim?

For the rim, I've seen some rim blocks which look like a block of sandpaper, that will clean anything off your rim to ensure you have a great braking surface - are these any good?

Comments

  • ugo.santalucia
    ugo.santalucia Posts: 28,312
    Just clean them... in the same way you would clean anything else... don't use solvents, spirits oils or anything stupid... wash up liquid is perfect
    left the forum March 2023
  • rafletcher
    rafletcher Posts: 1,235
    I'd say car shampoo - washing up liquid contains a lot of salt to "soften" water, and also quite a bit of alcohol, which is why it goes all gooey around the spout.
  • dodgy
    dodgy Posts: 2,890
    edited March 2014
    I use a kitchen washing up brush with some fenwicks to really give the rims a good scrub, nail brush is also good.

    For brake blocks, I remove them from the bike from time to time (when they start to get noisy - preferably just before) and use a sharp stanley blade to pick out the alloy shards that will certainly be in there assuming you're not talking about carbon rims. I also use a sanding block on the blocks to help reveal where the alloy shards are, once you rub the pad, they shine bright making it easy to pick them out.
  • dodgy
    dodgy Posts: 2,890
    PS - This is why I'm looking forward to a disk equipped road bike.

Categories