Wow, that's nasty

[johnridley]

I powerwashed my bike this afternoon, and when I went to take the studded tire off the front again, I tried to adjust up the disc brakes. The inner pad adjustment wouldn't move. OK, I've never had it apart, I just bought it in October, it had factory pads in it and I just put it on.

With some persuasion, the pads came out. Yuck. Folks, that's road salt in there that's come in and re-crystallized. The whole thing was a mess. The great part is, even with this much crap in the pads and calipers, the things were still working perfectly. And, they cleaned up fine. Everything in there is bronze, aluminum and stainless. A power wash, a little scraping and it went back together fine and is smooth again.

Now that I've had the pads out once and I know they're super easy to remove and replace, I'll do this more often. I would have by now but working outside in the winter isn't my favorite thing. But these pads come out in about 30 seconds, and go back in almost as fast. I could just take the whole caliper off in about a minute and then take it inside and work on it there. They're way easier to install and adjust than traditional rim brakes.

This is far larger than actual size. The pads are about 1/2 x 1 inch. The inner one is worn to about 3.25mm; Avid says to replace them at 3.

Comments

[c0nsumer.livejournal.com]

Oh wow. What disc brakes are those? I still haven't figured out how to get the pads out of mine... It just seems really clunky. Then again, I imagine the stock pads / brakes aren't the bestest.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

They're Avid BB7s mechanicals. I can't imagine how you'd make a simpler disc brake system either in operation or to work on. Removing them involves taking the wheel off, grabbing that tab on the left there with a pair of pliers, pushing the pad towards the other pad to get it past the retainer, and pulling it out. To put them back in, you have to take the spring retainer out, back the adjusters out quite a ways, put the pads back in, push the spring back in between the two pads, then wiggle things until everything seats.

I HOPE the stock brakes are good; they're charging nearly $20 for 30 cents worth of bronze and friction pad. I actually went to eBay and bought replacement pad sets for $6 each. I haven't installed any yet. I was thinking I'd compare how long each lasted, but I don't think I can do a fair comparison since the stock pads were on in such horrendous conditions.

[c0nsumer.livejournal.com]

I've got the BB5s. The only difference I can see between the two is the shape of the pad (mine are round), and that there is only an inboard adjustment knob. This means that in order to get the rotor centered I actually have to loosen the mount, turn one adjuster, clamp down on the brake, tighten the mount, then back the adjustment off slightly. I'd really like if there were adjustments for both sides.

They also can't be easily wholly disassembled. I think I'd have to somehow pop out a plastic cap which is recessed in a hole, which makes me nervous.

Looking around on eBay it looks like I could get a set of BB7s for under $100. After this year, depending on how crufty these are, they might be worth picking up...

Hydraulic ones are tempting, but as you say, the mechanical stuff is really simple, and it works real well. There's nothing to leak, all adjustments take fingers or a simple wrench.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

$100 a set is probably about right. I paid $60 for this one, and I just went to JensonUSA and bought the 2008 version. It was cheaper than the 2007.
I've not been tempted by hydraulics. I like to have stuff I can actually fix with junk around the house in most cases, or cobble to have some brakes at least if something breaks on the road.