Dear Avid brakes

[Tom]

Please ensure that your pads last longer than 200 miles and 3 weeks. Please ensure that in future, you give thought to the notion that some people may encounter a lot of mud, and that those people may cycle through the mud.

Yours sincerely

Tom




Why are the fucking things so slim in the first place? You could easily design disc brakes with pads 5 times the thickness, it would be amazingly simple. Could it be perhaps that overpriced pads (£13 a pair ffs) are a very nice little money spinner? I could buy whacking great pads for a car with about 30 times as much pad for the same money.

I would easily get 3000 miles out of rim brakes.

Oh and my left pedal failed today, which was nice. New set of clipless pedals methinks, XT.

Tomorrow I reckon the front dérailleur will fail. Bloody bikes.

 

[Embattle]

Weight maybe?

 

[TdC]

hmm that looks pretty bad. You bed them in properly? you can get aftermarket pads that will prolly cost you more but will be better (they say). I don't know how you manage it Tom, on my previous bike I had the pads last me well over a year

 

[Tom]

Well I do ride through some pretty serious mud (like all the time) and I weigh about 16 stone but its still bloody silly.

Mud like that is a daily occurrence.

 

[TdC]

well then I'd certainly get some sintered pads. there may be some squealing, but they're a darn bit tougher than the other option

 

[Tom]

Right theres an Evans Cycles just opened up a couple of miles away, off I go tomorrow to buy their most bastard-strength pads.

Another question actually. My front disc looks like this:

Now when I'm braking the forks shudder in the direction the bike is moving (not up and down). I've discovered this is because the pad seems to be slightly bigger than it needs to be, and is braking on the 'lumpy' bit of the disc around the edge. The other edge of the pad is spot on the inside edge of the braking area on the disc, so what gives? Pads too big for the disc?

 

[TdC]

well some juddering under heavy braking I'd allow, but not so much as to cause worry. I don't know how Avid disks work, but the pad may be a generic pad and thus one-size-fits-all.

with the bike stationary and the brake engaged, does the pad seem to be pushed over the rotor? does the wheel spin freely when it's not engaged? best ask the bike shop tbh. the rotor seeming to strike the pad would be very bad for the brake tbh, but I only have round rotors and not the wavy type so I can't compare.

 

[Tom]

Oh yeah it all spins freely when not engaged, when nice and clean everything shufty.

If I apply the brake lightly and push the wheel through, you can feel it grab-slip-grab-slip-grab-slip as it goes around. Strange.

I reckon the pad is too big, even though its an official BB7 pad.

 

[Lazarus]

maybe you have ABS fitted :|

 

[Tom]

Another problem (previous one has gone away). My front brake is continually, at certain speeds (say 8-10mph) making a chafing sound. The trouble is that when it's doing this, I can see no contact between the disc and pads, and it isn't a pad-disc sound anyway as it sounds more metal-metal. If I apply the brakes lightly, it goes away, without any real stopping force.

I can't see where it's doing it, or why, and its doing my fecking head in.

I may just go out and replace the front with a hope hydraulic, I've seen them in the shops and they look as though the pads aren't free to move around as they are on cable brakes.

 

[Will]

Hope are famed for mechanical issues. I wouldn't bother changing to them.

Disc brake rub is pretty much inevitable, my Magura go through periods of a similar problem to yours, and then they magically get better.

For cable discs, try winding them out a little bit. As long as they feel ok at the lever, it should be ok.

 

[leviathane]

what avids you got? juicys are nice

 

[Will]

It'll be BB5s or 7s, probably 7s. Juicys are the hydraulics, BBs are the (extremely good) cable numbers.

To give you an idea how good, when I was in the Alps mountain biking, all the guides used Avid BBs. The reason...they don't break, they stop nicely, and you can't boil cables on long descents.

 

[Tom]

Yeah they're the BB7's. Annoying really and I just don't understand why it's happening, or what is rubbing.

Went out today and it was hardly making any noise. When you guys set your caliper up, do you align it centrally across the disc, or do you hold the brakes full on and let it settle, and tighten it there?

 

[Ch3tan]

It's not your bike making the noise Tom. It's your joints, lets face it, you are no spring chicken.

 

[Tom]

Any hill, any time Chet, any time mate. I'd break ya.

 

[Will]

Yeah they're the BB7's. Annoying really and I just don't understand why it's happening, or what is rubbing.

Went out today and it was hardly making any noise. When you guys set your caliper up, do you align it centrally across the disc, or do you hold the brakes full on and let it settle, and tighten it there?

If they are IS, option A, if they are post mount (which I think Avid are), do the bolts most of the way up, apply the brake, and tighten them fully, then release.

 

[Tom]

Well the amount of shit I rode through today given the recent rain, I reckon 1mm has disappeared from both pads