as a mechanic, i disagree with all of this being good practice. if your brakes are mushy, you must bleed them, it's an indicator of wear/air/other issues. if your rotor is rubbing, don't push the pad's directly and clean the pistons before pressing them in, this can lead to stuck pistons, or worse, damages piston seal. noise is generally contamination or too much heat. causing pad glazing. i can see how the rotors in this video show signs of overheating, those pad were glazed from contamination as well. rotor truing advice is fine.
Thanks for these user friendly tips! I am going to try the spongy levers one overnight tonight. Is the “glazed over” disc pads issue the same thing as the dreaded “contaminated” disc brake pads? I’ve always had this idea in my head about contaminated pads being a total wash, just toss them and start over issue. I’ve never had the issue because I’m so scared of it happening that I approach any operation that involves contact with the pads like I’m handling live monkey pox cultures! It would be cool to know what exactly contaminated brake pads are and if there is a fix for them.
I boiled my oily brake pads in a pan with half a drop of washing up liquid until all the water evaporated and they've stopped squealing and seem to be working well
i tried doing that loosening the calliper and squeezing brake thing but doesn't always work for me. i find doing it by eye is a more accurate way to centre your disc between the pads. i just used one hand to adjust the calliper whilst i used my other hand to tighten the bolts, and by looking through the gap in the calliper i could see whether the disc was touching any of the pads or not. got it perfectly aligned and only took a couple of extra seconds than the other method but had so many failed attempts of alignment doing it the other way.
Hydraulic brake system is not an open system, unless it is leaking, it relies on the pressure, i.e. you are not getting rid of the air by taping the lever to the bar overnight, you are relocating the bubbles to one spot and temporarily improving performance. 🧐 You would have to open your bleed port on the lever before taking the tape off, suck the air on top out and push in more fluid whilst loosening the lever.
I love my disc brakes and being a heavier rider they are essential. but boy they are constant work!! Swap wheels,,They rub.. clean your bike,,they rub. bleed your brakes…they rub. Oh and then have to do a lever bleed again a few months later as a massive bubble has mysteriously appeared under the bleed bolt… reset everything. go for one joyous ride. go for a second ride and…they rub lol
You can set your wheels up to swap out. I've done it. It takes some work though. I used shims to get on identical to the other. Unfortunately, when you change rotors on one, you have to do it again but that isn't very often. But, I've since given up swapping wheels though. Not because of rotors but because tubeless. Too much hassle maintaining two two sets of wheels setup tubeless.
There’s not enough tolerance on road or gravel disc brakes, never had a problem with mountain bikes because the calliper is on a hearty fork leg and not a spindly fork that flexes, I reckon that’s the biggest issue, a fork should be compliant for comfort , as soon as I’m out of the saddle on my gravel bike I got disc rub because the fork is flexing 🙄
Get an alloy fork then. I have a carbon frame but i replaced my fork with an alloy fork. No more fork flex problems. i don't have problems with "compliance" or whatever because tires are the ones that are supposed to soak a bit of that shock anyway.
@@sepg5084 bizarre that a bike should need to have a reverse build, quality drop to appease a poor design.
2 роки тому+1
"Compliant" = flexible = sucking up your power. A proper road bike should be as stiff as possible. Enduro bikes for weekend warriors are a different breed.
@@DaveCM the problem could be it has a quick release and not a through axle, it’s a 2017 bianchi all road, the new gravel bikes all have through axle to stiffen the forks, I’m only 160lb rider so no fatty🤣
To find the “wobble” or “bend” in the disc use a permanent marker and draw on disc as you spin it around.. then once you turn the wheel the bent section will rub off when passing pst the pads..
For my mountain bike I love disc brakes. For my road bike all I need is rim brakes. They are lighter, simpler, easy to service and easier to align than disc brakes.
@Hans i don't ride in the wet...if i do use special brake blocks which desipate the water really well, at least i don't lock up my brakes on 25mm tyres at 100psi now thats dangerous, you'll be riding double sided rotors with abs brakes 😅😅😅🤣🤣 very soon watch this space and race bikes weigh over 11kg🤣🤣🤣 disk brakes are great on MTB gravel bikes and commuting not on performance road bikes absolutely no need
i have had luck and can't complain, but the noise will 100% not be fixed by rubbing them on sand paper, buy high quality ones not some Shimano crap what is a far bigger problem is the rear shifter on my next bike, I will definitely get a gear box
Yup. Replace your inner and outer cables once a season and the pads when they are worn out. I was on a cycling holiday a few weeks ago, and I was one of a few with rim brake. None of us rim brake guys had any trouble, while the others had problems with spongy levers, leaks and pads that wore out after a single (but very long) descent. It was quite entertaining to see them trying to find a bikeshop with SRAM brake pads in the Italian countryside.
@@NonLegitNation2 I do have a disc gravel bike. I'll often ride it for a week and then get back on the faster rim brake bike, and think 'be careful brakes won't be as good', but they always feel better than I expect.
John Harris: There are issues with rim brakes also. Among the many is the fact that, if your wheel isn't true, rim brakes will exhibit uneven braking...or worse like inability to use your bicycle unless you totally open the brakes. If you overheat the rim brake it's possible to have a blow out, very dangerous going downhill at speed. Rim brakes aren't as powerful, in general, as disc brakes and, if you are at load (bike packing, etc.) that can present a stopping power issue. Usually, with rim brakes, one has to open up the brakes to remove the wheel. Problem is that many forget to close them when returning the wheel back onto the bicycle. That's not a big issue but it does occur. The fact is that disk brakes are relatively more effective and safer to operate.
@@jerrykuc149 Mechanical disc brakes neatly combine the disadvantages of rim brakes with the disadvantages of disc brakes. I went for a mic of a hydraulic rim brake with a hydraulic disc. Both required zero maintenance in years. Both were vastly superior to wire-pull brakes.
I ride mechanical brakes I do not ride my road bike in rain if I can help it I got a fixed gear for that and with that said I will ride down any hill and trust my campy Daytona to stop me
No, this is not "Open system". It is the same as in MTB or Motorcycles and Cars. If your brakes feel "mushy" after some time or hanging on rack, it is indicator that you have not bled them correctly. Idea with tape it just "quick fix", because you will only force air to go into reservoir in lever. It is not proper solution, because source of problem is incorrect bleeding.
And sometimes disc brakes (Dura-Ace in my case) squeal like stuck pigs every time it rains without there being any detectable problem, but are totally quiet when it's dry. Not my idea of progress given rim brakes are normally quiet, and cheaper, lighter, simpler and allow a comfier fork too...
An open brake system does not or should not let air in. If you have a spongy lever it is because it is not bled properly! Open system just means fluid can move from the line into a compensating chamber, or bladder.
You're quite right I probably wasn't super clear, was just meaning that the seals aren’t perfect and the expansion and contraction of the fluid and bladder diaphragm can be more likely to let air enter than a closed system which is why they tend to need more bleeding
I think the most overlooked factor is worn out discs, for some reason we think its ok to go for a year or so without replacing them, the pads are not made to travel too far so it rly helps.
So you bleed and top up the fluid, then you seal it. Then your pads wear, so the pistons move out. Now the internal fluid system is a larger volume but you didn't add more fluid. So what makes up the extra volume? Vacuum. If you put any fluid under vacuum it boils. The oxygen that was bonded to the fluid separates and becomes air bubbles. Almost all fluid contains h2o. There's oxygen in your fluid system to begin with it was just bonded to hydrogen
@@davidarthur Sorry the only reason they need bled other than changing the fluid which should be done regularly is to purge air that was in there already, and not properly removed. At no time does air "get in" unless there is a fault. Check with Shimano, Sram or Hope for a comment. Also a closed system is the same as an open except it does not allow for expansion without user input. (old Hope brakes had an adjuster cap for this as they were "closed") I really like your reviews and videos, refreshing change from the usual BS form CGN etc, please don't go down the "made up mechanics" hole.
@@janeblogs324 Speaking as someone who spends most of their working day working with vacuum machines and hydraulics the "vacuum" effect on a bike brake system is so insignificant its never going to be a concern. Even Water has very little effect below 500mb of vacuum( 10deg approx.) It would be almost impossible for a bike brake system to be even close to a fraction of this level of Vacuum. We are also dealing with oils and fluids, which even at worst case "wet" are still 60%+ higher boiling points than water. Also once the line is closed(when the lever is pulled, it can only be positive pressure in the line. So any small vacuum that exist in the system is now in the reservoir, closed off from the line. In a DOT system, being hydroscopic, continued heat cycles will cause the fluid to degrade, and water to form steam, and give spongy brakes. A different issue to a poorly bled brake, entirely.
Agree, the hydraulic discs on my commuter demand constant attention, they really only worked well the first year when they were new. By the way the drum brakes on my bad weather bike have not needed maintenance or adjustment for the last 5 years...!
@@waynosfotos Now that you mentioned pads replacement they lasted at least two years. I do a lot hill climbing and with disc brakes have to go through rotor plus brake pads replacement every 6 months. This is more than double running cost that only benefits manufactures not consumers.
Just change the disc brakes completely then. If you all have the money for a good bike pay some money for new brakes. It's much safer. Just my humble opinion.
Thanks for the info, very useful. Just a suggestion on using abrasive paper to deglaze the pads. Wash them off with brake cleaner after doing this to get rid of any fine abrasive particles before re assembly.
Right. And don't use standard abrasives. There's a reason why those of us who work on cars know you should ONLY use garnet on brake systems. Unless you want to pollute your discs with aluminium oxide and ruin your brake pads.
On road bikes rim brakes are better because road riding is about speed not stopping unlike gravel and mountain bike. I don't get the road disc gimmick.
One main reason for loud brakes from my experience is that break mounts on most frames are not faced out of the factory (regardless of the brand / price) and as such the calipers can't be adjusted to sit perfectly. There is no hack around this but to take the frame to a bike shop and pay them to do what the factory should have done.
@@Loekie-de-leeuw From my experience if you spin your wheel while looking down at the rotor, using the brake pads as a reference it's quite easy to see if the rotor is bent. When setting up your brake calipers and no matter how you try to adjust them you can't get them to sit perfectly parallel to the rotor (provided the rotor is straight) it's fair to assume that your frames brake mounts were not faced so that they are in the correct angle to your axles.
I've been using road disc brakes for a number of years now and have always found them to be disappointing. Admittedly not high end but well reviewed like the TRP Spyre and Avid BB7's on road based bikes, obviously not hydraulic. I have returned to rim brakes recently with a road bike with the 105 5800 rim brake set up and question why ever went down the disc route.😜
TRP is junk. Had them on a bike I acquired second hand. Never again. Not in the same league as SRAM, let alone Shimano hydraulic road disc. I have Shimano 105 on my rain bike, Ultegra on my new road race bike. Infinitely better than the Ultegra rim brakes on my soon-to-be-sold road race bike.
@@hawkeyelikesbikes I agree, whilst the BB7's weren't too bad, the spyre were awful. I changed rotors, pads, non compression outers etc and they were still awful. I'm sticking with rim brakes for the foreseeable future. Though I wouldn't mind having a go on decent hydraulic road brakes. Then again I'm enthralled with simplicity and excellent performance of my rim brakes.👍
that's because mechanical disc brakes suck compared to hydraulic. I've used both and mechanical were clearly like a half step above stopping flintstone style.
@@danc1829 both rim and disc work fine, but the rim nazis will have you believe that human civilisation is in doubt if the disc brake witchcraft is not culled
@@dh7314 indeed they do I've actually owned a disc and rim TCR of the same year and sold the disc one as I personally just preferred rim brakes. I've no issue with discs but think a lot of people get more annoyed due to the force in change its not like changing a groupset u require a whole new bike. Manufacturers doing this are just in it to get more and more money off us which I get they're a business. But it's very sad u hardly get a choice when you're spending a lot of money... I would of loved to try a specialized aethos as an example in rim brakes but there sadly isn't an option even though its aimed at climbing so I had no option but to go the tcr route. Neither are perfect it's more the fact they're forcing a change a lot of people don't need / want imo
@@danc1829 if they really wanted to force it they would, but it has been a 10 year decline in rim sales. People have had a choice for ages and chose disc, they could flat out have discontinued rim years ago if they had some sort of weird agenda to do that. I don’t buy the argument that change has been thrust upon the consumer, the consumer has driven this. Rim works fine but so do disc, I own both but don’t mourn the passing of rim brakes because it’s just not that big a deal. Technology moves on
Great and concise advise. If I could add a tip from my experience as a professional mechanic. When using a rotor truing tool while the bike is on the bike, do your bends on the opposite side of the axle relative to the caliper. For instance the caliper is around 2 o’clock from the axle, rotate the segment of rotor needing bending to 8 o’clock. This prevents the caliper from becoming a bending tool as well.
Most of the tips are good for, obviously, hydraulic/hybrid hydraulic brakes. Would it be possible to give a video how to adjust fully mechanical disc brakes? All hydraulic are 99% 2 pistons. Mechanical brakes are 99% 1 piston & 1 stactic wall with adjustment screw. I ride in the winter salty montreal road and i'm not going back to hydraulic because salts will find it's way between the pistons and jam them. I know how to adjust them but i'm sure many peoples would be interested.
Oh...and MORE troublesome features....LOOK..I am NOT knocking disc brakes...GREAT for MTB..GREAT for GRAVEL...in fact..great for everything APART from ROAD...the tech is not their YET....
Great video, David. I actually learned something new in this presentation about brake noise and how to address it. (So thank you for that!) I'm currently running the previous generation of Ultegra Di2 with the BR-R8070 disc brakes. I am having an issue with the caliper pistons as they seem to retract very slowly upon a sustained braking event. In other words, I can hear the pads brushing up against the rotors for about 100 meters or so before they retract enough for my brakes to go silent again. I want to try your degreasing recommendation to see if the pistons aren't mucked up internally. One other thing I learned that I would like to share with your community regarding noisy brake pads. When installing new pads, (I use Ice Tech in general); one of the thing I like to do to keep things very quiet is to use a metallic brake pad on the inside surface of the rotor and a resin pad on the outside surface of the rotor for both the front and rear calipers. In my experience, this keeps braking extremely quiet even in wet conditions. When coupled with your recommendations, I think everyone will have a very noise-free braking experience 🙂
I didn't touch on sticky pistons as that's not something I've suffered from at all so maybe I can look at that in another video soon, as it appears it happens to a few people and is causing you some issues. First time I've ever heard about mixing different types of brake pads. Genius. Might have to try that
I had rotors rubbing the pads on a second-hand bike I bought. The bike had the same BR-R8070 brake calipers and mileage around 2000km. The Park Tool video (m.ua-cam.com/video/vQXFFgRButo/v-deo.html) about cleaning and lubricating the piston seals was SUPER helpful, I thoroughly recommend watching that. Just make sure you're not pushing the pistons too far out from the caliper. I noticed that the pistons were quite lazy, so they must've been depleted of lubrication, causing them to retract poorly hence rubbing the rotor. After following the procedure on the Park Tool video, the pistons are now super smooth and gosh, what a relief it was on my next ride not hearing a single rubbing noise! Pure bliss! :)
@@halfglassfull I guess if the piston seals are deformed or damaged enough, then cleaning and lubricating them potentially doesn't help. Did you try "exercising" the pistons? What I forgot to mention on my comment was that I had to pump the pistons in and out quite a few times before the lazy piston started moving more smoothly again. It wasn't enough to actually just clean and lubricate the piston surfaces, but the crucial part was precisely to "exercise" the pistons in order to free them up. This was explained very well on the Park Tool video but I forgot to refer to that part of the procedure. Anyway, I'm sure Shimano acknowledges this issue so it's possible to just get a warranty replacement if it occurs within the first two years (which is the warranty period). I actually had this exact issue on a NEW (!) Shimano GRX RX400 brake caliper, and had to clean, lubricate and exercise them because after bleeding the brakes, the outer piston just wouldn't retract properly and the rotor was rubbing. Doing the piston maintenance solved the issue. I could have just returned the caliper back to the online store for a new one, except that they are as scarce as hen's teeth at the moment, with delivery estimates of 6 months or up to 12 months. I didn't want to wait so long so I decided to try the piston maintenance procedure which did the trick. I've had my share of the Shimano brake caliper issues. Another caliper was micro-leaking mineral fluid through the piston seals (another known problem for their brake calipers), this was also a brand-new caliper (Deore M6000) that was bled properly. It had me spending quite some frustrating moments trying to locate the source of leak as well as having to clean and sand the brake pads due to contamination, all for nothing as the leaking persisted and ended up returning the caliper for a warranty replacement (luckily these calipers were in stock at the time!) 🤷🏼♂️ Edit. Oh, and I noticed that you commented having replaced the caliper and the problem still persisted. I don't know if there is a problem with the lever or the caliper, then, but like I said, I had poorly retracting pistons on a NEW Shimano brake caliper, so I wouldn't be surprised if your caliper was also faulty. I should've also mentioned that when I push the pistons back into the caliper with a plastic tire lever, and the system is freshly bled, I tend to first open the bleed port screw on the brake lever before pushing the pistons in, to prevent this action from damaging the seals/bladder inside the lever (because the system might be slightly "overfilled" with fluid after a bleed, so I believe that pushing the pistons back in might increase the pressure in the system, which is why I open the bleed port screw on the lever and usually some drops of brake fluid come out due to the pressure when pushing the pistons back into the caliper). I saw this mentioned on an online discussion forum so take it with a pinch of salt, but I think there's at least some truth to the theory because according to my experience, some fluid does come up the bleed port on the lever when pushing the pistons into the caliper, suggesting that there is a pressure increase in the system when doing this. That said, I would believe that a damaged seal/bladder on the lever would also give other symptoms than just lazily retracting pistons on the calipers, such as leakage of brake fluid through the bracket and/or spongy brake lever.
I have the same brakes and suffer from the same issue on the front brake. Sometimes the pistons just seem too slow and everything rubs like all h*ll for a few hundred meters. Tried fixing it myself by cleanign the pads, the pistons and realigning the caliper but nothing really seemed to help. I eventually turned it in to a bike shop. They bled the brakes and all that but again to little or no avail. Next bike is going to rim brakes again for me. I'll take the poorer braking performace over all the bending, rubbing, bleeding and squeeling any day of the week. Also whatever you do DO NOT attempt to bleed them yourself! The bleedport screw is EXTREMELY easy to round out and strip the threads off, it takes NO force AT ALL and once you've done that you're looking at a replacement brake-lever which is not only crazy expensive but also unavailable at the moment...so just don't.
Has anyone else experienced this? All my qr and disc bikes I’ve had rubbing issues. Non of my thru axle bikes have had this. Granted all my qr bikes were cheaper.
+1, great video, David! Cleaning your pistons is more of maintenance than hack, but build up of brake dust will gum up the piston seals, reducing how much they will move back. Over time that can exacerbate rubbing from other causes: bent rotors, deformation after hard braking, etc.
“Use your tool...” erm..what tool? “Once you know how to do it..” erm..what after you have not only knackered a disc..and spent more money..buying ANOTHER..but ALSO you ruined your Sunday ride!!! Let’s face it..what a faf...! and an annoyance... It’s all excuses to JUSTIFY the product....
This is piffle - it’s a work around for improperly bled brakes…if you ride brakes that are fixed by this method, you’ll find that the mushy feel returns when the fluid heats up. Bleed brakes properly and they’ll be maintenance free for 2 years… No adjustment required apart from pads - can’t say the same for rim brakes…adjust calipers, replace pads, cables, rims…
Another HACK.....Just dust off your “old” LIGHTER, RIM BRAKE bike (and don’t get started on electronic..I have seen LOTS..too many) in my work (l work on the trains) with people coming home earlier than expected because “..a wire is lose” (gone into limp mode) “battery is dead” (gone into limp mode) “don’t know what the problem is..batts charged etc” (gone into limp mode) Mmmmmm pattern forming here isn’t there?
Oh..and where are the OTHER hacks....(having taped your lever) on a Saturday afternoon IF your discs are NOT working properly? (You get up ON THAT SUNDAY ride..for example)...Call the bike shop? Borrow another bike? Sit tandem on your mates bike? It’s...ALL TIME David...Time when one gets up.all prepared.then finds it’s not working (either properly..or at all..) its ALL the time (measure this to the mm, get the dot fluid out, put gloves on, get a blow torch out to re alight the disc on the workbench.....the list goes on... You are then missing the Eddy Merckx statement of “just ride..any distance, anytime, just ride” Well it cannot be done..because the actual bike CANNOT be ridden properly..if at all... Go to the internet and get another loan to buy another exact same bike (just like the Femmes race where one rider changed her bike 7..yes S.E.V.E.N times in ONE stage)
I had terrible front rotor rub on my roadie and it was driving me bats especially when it was raining and my front calibre would lockup and then i had it serviced still kept doing only till i asked them to check the tension in my front wheel spokes well that sorted the issue out the front wheel spokes where terribly loose now i dont have the issue thank goodness
Also when buying a new bike with hydraulic disc brakes 'm told afther 500 km allready let's do a check up that everything is good and I allways did that with my other bikes too. Offcourse if you have a problem earlier go asap to a mechan. It's a disgrace that on some racebikes it's just not good when they come out off the factory. And if it's a bike from 2000 or 12000 euro ,I don't give a sh*g they have to see that there (hydraulic) disc brakes work! I rode a testlap with the new bike, and breaks are good no squaling at all. It was only 15km but I looked up the most uphill/downhills to test it before I do like 70-100 km rides. Also first a bikefitting 12 August. Like I said I had to buy everything new because my Campagnolo was sold, and before that my Scott catapulted in the air on rim brakes afther malfunction on the descent off the Stockeu and rode against a camionette it was a hard impact, and very weird actually that a bike can fly so "high". If it was against a car, I was through the rear window for sure. So no rimbrakes for me anymore In hot weather they're trash. Since that I'm a bit scared off descends despite it being not my fault, and anyone that knows the full Stockey 2600m at 9,8% knows it's not techninal at all but just very steep when you descend the last km. And the ascend is good but the descent so what they do in LBL was still a horrible road. It's now a long time can anyone tell me that the descent from the (I think it calls rue de Somagne if you ride that side instead off the actual Stockeu where it begins is now also good asphalt?) Like for example Thier de Coo since couple off years now is really good to ride on but before that it was a horrible road . Any Belgian's here or Dutchman? If so you all know what I'm talking about.. I go withing a month- six weeks max for 1 weekend to Stavelot. Not a week, for that my form is not good enough yet. I'm only 8 weeks out off a depression and then started again. I weight myself again only once a week the same day in morning, and evening. I lost 11kg in 7 weeks. Well good news it's now 13kg in 8 weeks allready. Beginning next year I will have a great condition again. Although I won't go lower than between 73kg min-77kg max. I'm 1m89cm so yeah.. in Corona I gained 38kg from Booze Booze and booze and depression and then also corticoids for my disease so yeah now from 113kg to 100kg in 8 weeks without starving myself, just eat healthy and NO alcohol. So when I go in like a month-6 weeks It will be around 85kg - 90kg because I will become slimmer more rapidly because I will do the training then allready on my new Scott roadbike with the 105- R7000 so not bad, not great, but first I have a bikefitting. (Ow yeah this is not the first time that I have had this problem). The first time my weight was 58kg, and went to 97kg and then too I was very fast on a good weight/power again, it was also depression/corticoids and lots off alcohol. But 58kg is to low for me. Around 75kg is perfect then I have the most power. And like I said everywhere, when I was almost 14 until 2years and 6 months later it was all over with the disease Spondylitis Ankylosans. And I was really not bad at cycling. Ok I had not a good sprint but in hilly stages I still have lots off results here on paper, and articles out off the regional paper about me. I rode most important races in Benelux and some races in . And yeah still a top 10 and top 15's so allways with the best off the bunch I'm hilly stages wasn't bad and I had then allready lots off inflammations but the last year it was huge and a blood result showed the factor B27 so yeah I was screwed and heartbroken and still think about it now and again. And if I was a totally crappie rider okay. But I wasn't. But that's all long time ago now. I just want to have fun and hope to find some friends from Benelux to ride with. Especially next year I would like to have a cycling friend alleready that goes with me to the Vosges not to do incredible performances but to enjoy a 1 week bike vacation and do all the most beautifull colls there. And also the hardest like steep planche de belles filles. I have a great Garmin, we can even plan some rides together then. BTW I live 17km from Muur van Geraardsbergen top. Also I become 33year old in december. So if anyone wants to ride with me, please just say the word and we can go on a ride here in the Flemish Ardennes or so together .. And in winter on Zwift will be great too and then in February we can start on the road again. I want to be very descent again, like Ollie from GCN for example that has a lot off fun when he climbs on a very decent pace imo. Considering he's not an ex pro like the rest there. So exactly I hope somebody from Belgium or Netherlands reads this and we can become cycling buddies. Old/young female/male black/white I don't care. I just want a cycling buddy is all! If I have typos sorry but this gsm is annoying asf to type with, it makes up his own words sometimes. I have a new Samsung galaxy fortunately still in the box.
While often left out of the bike delivery process Disc brakes should come with a pad spacer/block. The Sram Avid one I use has one side for pushing pads apart to get the right spacing and reseting calipers. The other side is to insert while travelling so you dont pinch the pads together. Of course make sure its cleaned with alocohol each time. Shimano has a simular block but it lacks the wider side for reseting pads. Ask your shop for 2 of these if they didn't include them with your bike or at least one for pad/caliper adjustment.
Had rim brakes for many years, barely done *any* servicing at all, didn't even change the pads once! Switched to hydro discs and doing at least some maintenance every month or two and buying new pads regualrly all for a smidge of improved performance.
I had a Specialized MTB with Shimano hydraulic discs, had it for 5 years, never had to touch the brakes once. Now I have a Scott MTB, It has the same brakes, 2 yrs in, and I havent had any braking issues..0 maintenance.....I ride on average, about 35 to 40 miles a day.
@@Mixail747 Maybe you need to clean them... What are your brakes brand/model? if you have to replace the pads because of poor performance, you have a main issue, disc brakes should be extremely powerful. Maybe no bed-in? Or poor alignment of the calliper with the rotor? I had to align my rear calliper on my new bike, tolerance is so low and when braking the rotor was bent! I was a bit surprised to see I had to basically loosen the main screws, no setting for that on S 105 (otoh there is a screw especially for alignment on my old Shimano rim brakes, in addition to spacing). Maybe check that alignment, it's less obvious than with rim brakes, you have to look exactly in the plane of the rotor, and maybe a light behind it. Replacing the pads is also a bit more subtle than on rim's, but in both cases, they should last a few thousands kilometers of normal use? Of course riding styles vary a lot, I'm mostly on flat roads, no mountains... I have to replace rim's pads every few years/thousands kilometers, a bit like tyres (those also vary a lot in durability depending on the brand/model and use).
Worst thing about disk brake is that idiots doesn't really know when to brake and how to brake. Other issues let the mechanic deal with it or if you want DIY repairs UA-cam is the key 🤣😂🤣
I love disc brakes but for a bicycle I prefer cables. The stopping power is ridiculous enough. A while ago I was looking at second hand MTB's. Literally every hydraulic one I looked at had problems. OK for people who buy new material every year, or can afford a mechanic that maintains their bike after every ride.
What do you mean by "they are open system"? They are not and the air must not get in. If it does get in, there some leakage issues in the system. If everything is how it should be with the system - it's sealed up, no leaking and bled properly - you won't have any spongy or mushy levers in years to come. In almost 10 years of using hydraulic brakes on my mtb, just last year I had to replace the oil on one of them (the front one) and recently the rear is beginning to give a signs that is needing a new oil. Sorry, but stoped watching after thar statement.
You should be able to hang the bike on a wall without affecting the brakes, if they go spongy they need bleeding. if they continually go spongy there is a fault or they need a different bleeding technique
3:02 holy fuck please tell me thats not a tool specifically for bending rotors? this is why bicycle people piss me. its the type of thing like them thinking they need a specific tool just to get a job done. it seems like theres many instances where shit like an adjustable wrench would work just fine but they insist that crap like this is better or even needed.
I tried the spongy brake hack and it actually worked! BUT why did it work?? What’s actually happening??? (Edit) Aaah just saw the reply by Kevin in the comments. Brilliant Hack!
I have mountain bikes and a gravel bike with disc brakes. I do nothing extra to them. Although I don’t have road disc, I don’t see see why all the grumbling about how their harder to maintain. Let me tell you what is annoying. Hitting a pothole denting your Fulcrum Zero Nite front wheel and now it’s unrideable because the dent totally screws up the front braking! Looking at the wheel it looks fine. If this was disc brake wheel, it would still be rideable
The worst thing about disc brakes is itself :D so best solution to prevent disc releated issues is basically to swap a brand new rim brake bike, if you find one ....
spouting lies less than 20s into the video. Low maintenance my a$$!! You constantly have to make sure they are spotlessly clean. Make sure pistons have not got stuck, calliper is still aligned, rotor is still straight. any of these not perfect you get problems
My disc brakes don't cause any issues and I have now sold off my rim brake bikes. I live In a hilly area and rim brakes just don't deal with the terrain and with most people on the rides now using disc brakes, the problem is those who don't and can't stop in a reasonable time _ very dangerous in group rides
@@monty2078 Bruh rim is way better in very hilly places. Disc just overheat then start rubbing and screeching and modulation goes out the window. So why are there more people crashing in pro cycling after locking out wheels and losing control. doesn't happen with rim. Disc are far too sensitive and its too easy to grab too much brake
Who in their right mind would spend a fortune on a lightweight summer use road bike and then weigh it down needlessly with disk brakes and destroy the feel of a lightweight frame and forks because of the beefed up areas for the disc mounts? Makes no sense at all, rim brakes work fine on the road, just gullible people falling for the marketing snake oil.
if you're racing then that makes sense, but if not then the added grams doesn't make a difference. Seriouly we're talking about maybe adding 26-58 grams of weight over rim brakes.
Is the hack with tape useful when bike is hanging on the rack in vertical position? I have found that to long time on race makes disc brakes need of bleeding.
Just got 2 new discs to chuck on my old bike, I swear both of them have a warp. I didn't bend em, I barely looked at them incase they decided to do it themselves. Hate this system.
Some things extra, if you've been using Shimano brakes and go to a bike with SRAM, the brakes may feel spongy, nothing's wrong, that's just how the modulation works. If you are using Shimano rotors, I think it's ice tech or something, they may be extremely thin, do not use a tool, just use some tissues and do it with your fingers or you will definitely bend it off to the other side. I fix squeaking brakes using thunderstorms. If you live in a city, especially with a petrochemical plant somewhere, the air is extremely polluted, here, it essentially turns out rain into some kind of degreaser. I just rode around during a thunderstorm 2 days ago and my brakes stopped squeaking. Also uh, it once degreased my chain for me.
@@marzzipanik Same question here, how long do the brakes stay firmer? New brakes here, they were spongy, but get better after some bed-in. I'm asking because I can see no setting for that issue? Also no settings on the calliper, neither for alignment, nor spacing... On my 30 years old rim brakes I can adjust spacing and alignment with a dedicated screw and the ring at the end of the cable (or by adjusting the cable, too)...
Centering the brake calliper can be a bit tricky, but I do - and it's worked every time for me - is to loosen the calliper bolts, squeeze que brake lever a bit and tighten the bolts. Works every time.
@@darinsteele7091 I only have to do this when I swap wheels; the disk is in a slightly different position. Also, in my case, the "loosen-the-bolts-and-squeeze-the-lever" method isn't precise enough for my bike. I have had the most success my inspecting to see which side is actually rubbing, then (carefully/sensitively) moving the brake by hand. It is also important to not fully tighten the bolts; gradually tighten them by alternating between them, while holding the brake in place with your free hand.
as a mechanic, i disagree with all of this being good practice. if your brakes are mushy, you must bleed them, it's an indicator of wear/air/other issues. if your rotor is rubbing, don't push the pad's directly and clean the pistons before pressing them in, this can lead to stuck pistons, or worse, damages piston seal. noise is generally contamination or too much heat. causing pad glazing. i can see how the rotors in this video show signs of overheating, those pad were glazed from contamination as well. rotor truing advice is fine.
Exactly!
As an engineer I would say the best solution is rim brakes 😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀
How do you clean the pistons...?
@@truthseeker8483 rim brakes are a form of disc brakes
@@kevinnielsen1356 yes and with a 700mm rotor 😀
Thanks for these user friendly tips! I am going to try the spongy levers one overnight tonight. Is the “glazed over” disc pads issue the same thing as the dreaded “contaminated” disc brake pads? I’ve always had this idea in my head about contaminated pads being a total wash, just toss them and start over issue. I’ve never had the issue because I’m so scared of it happening that I approach any operation that involves contact with the pads like I’m handling live monkey pox cultures! It would be cool to know what exactly contaminated brake pads are and if there is a fix for them.
Let us know if the levers got any better
I boiled my oily brake pads in a pan with half a drop of washing up liquid until all the water evaporated and they've stopped squealing and seem to be working well
Yes. Lovely and firm. Top tipp!
i tried doing that loosening the calliper and squeezing brake thing but doesn't always work for me. i find doing it by eye is a more accurate way to centre your disc between the pads. i just used one hand to adjust the calliper whilst i used my other hand to tighten the bolts, and by looking through the gap in the calliper i could see whether the disc was touching any of the pads or not. got it perfectly aligned and only took a couple of extra seconds than the other method but had so many failed attempts of alignment doing it the other way.
I don't get any air in my brakes...I use an amazing hack...........RIM BRAKES 😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀
Hydraulic brake system is not an open system, unless it is leaking, it relies on the pressure, i.e. you are not getting rid of the air by taping the lever to the bar overnight, you are relocating the bubbles to one spot and temporarily improving performance.
🧐 You would have to open your bleed port on the lever before taking the tape off, suck the air on top out and push in more fluid whilst loosening the lever.
Disc brake on a road bike is simply SHIT!!!🤢🤢🤢 RIM BRAKE for the win👌🏻💪🏻🚴🏻♂️
I love my disc brakes and being a heavier rider they are essential. but boy they are constant work!! Swap wheels,,They rub.. clean your bike,,they rub. bleed your brakes…they rub. Oh and then have to do a lever bleed again a few months later as a massive bubble has mysteriously appeared under the bleed bolt… reset everything. go for one joyous ride. go for a second ride and…they rub lol
You can set your wheels up to swap out. I've done it. It takes some work though. I used shims to get on identical to the other. Unfortunately, when you change rotors on one, you have to do it again but that isn't very often. But, I've since given up swapping wheels though. Not because of rotors but because tubeless. Too much hassle maintaining two two sets of wheels setup tubeless.
Low maintenance???
There’s not enough tolerance on road or gravel disc brakes, never had a problem with mountain bikes because the calliper is on a hearty fork leg and not a spindly fork that flexes, I reckon that’s the biggest issue, a fork should be compliant for comfort , as soon as I’m out of the saddle on my gravel bike I got disc rub because the fork is flexing 🙄
Get an alloy fork then. I have a carbon frame but i replaced my fork with an alloy fork. No more fork flex problems. i don't have problems with "compliance" or whatever because tires are the ones that are supposed to soak a bit of that shock anyway.
@@sepg5084 bizarre that a bike should need to have a reverse build, quality drop to appease a poor design.
"Compliant" = flexible = sucking up your power. A proper road bike should be as stiff as possible. Enduro bikes for weekend warriors are a different breed.
That is a problem with your bike. I've never experienced that on my road or gravel bike and I'm a big and strong guy.
@@DaveCM the problem could be it has a quick release and not a through axle, it’s a 2017 bianchi all road, the new gravel bikes all have through axle to stiffen the forks, I’m only 160lb rider so no fatty🤣
To find the “wobble” or “bend” in the disc use a permanent marker and draw on disc as you spin it around.. then once you turn the wheel the bent section will rub off when passing pst the pads..
That’s such a great hack, I never even thought about it!
What a pain in the a** why bother
You fucking legend
You just want to laugh 🤣🤣🤣 wait till they bring out double sided rotors with ABS very soon and road bikes weighing over 10kg....watch this space😆😆😆
@@fernandodisola6675 literally takes 5 mins
For my mountain bike I love disc brakes. For my road bike all I need is rim brakes. They are lighter, simpler, easy to service and easier to align than disc brakes.
💯
@Hans i don't ride in the wet...if i do use special brake blocks which desipate the water really well, at least i don't lock up my brakes on 25mm tyres at 100psi now thats dangerous, you'll be riding double sided rotors with abs brakes 😅😅😅🤣🤣 very soon watch this space and race bikes weigh over 11kg🤣🤣🤣 disk brakes are great on MTB gravel bikes and commuting not on performance road bikes absolutely no need
@Hans my carbon rims have basalt impregnated brake track...extremely hard wearing and much better wet braking than aluminium rims!
Unless you do a lot of climbing... And when you descend again the rims wear out too fast, even when dry. In the wet they wear twice as fast again.
Yes, totally agree, mountain disc, road rim.
0:10 "they require very little maintenance"
Me watching this video: "LIES!!!😡"
i have had luck and can't complain, but the noise will 100% not be fixed by rubbing them on sand paper, buy high quality ones not some Shimano crap
what is a far bigger problem is the rear shifter on my next bike, I will definitely get a gear box
Disc brakes require little maintenance? It must be a joke. They are maintenance nightmare. This video proves it.
This is video is a great argument for rim brakes 😎
Yup. Replace your inner and outer cables once a season and the pads when they are worn out.
I was on a cycling holiday a few weeks ago, and I was one of a few with rim brake.
None of us rim brake guys had any trouble, while the others had problems with spongy levers, leaks and pads that wore out after a single (but very long) descent.
It was quite entertaining to see them trying to find a bikeshop with SRAM brake pads in the Italian countryside.
@@panzerveps if you are wearing out a set of pads on one descent, you are braking too much.😁
sure if you wanna have no stopping power.
@@NonLegitNation2 i wonder how people managed to stop their bikes in the century before discs.... 🤦
@@NonLegitNation2 I do have a disc gravel bike. I'll often ride it for a week and then get back on the faster rim brake bike, and think 'be careful brakes won't be as good', but they always feel better than I expect.
I love disc brake on MTB, gravel bike & cycle cross but no way on a performance road bike what fuff to maintain.
You talked me out of ever getting disk brakes.
To fix disc brakes you throw them away and purchase rim brakes.
John Harris: There are issues with rim brakes also. Among the many is the fact that, if your wheel isn't true, rim brakes will exhibit uneven braking...or worse like inability to use your bicycle unless you totally open the brakes. If you overheat the rim brake it's possible to have a blow out, very dangerous going downhill at speed. Rim brakes aren't as powerful, in general, as disc brakes and, if you are at load (bike packing, etc.) that can present a stopping power issue. Usually, with rim brakes, one has to open up the brakes to remove the wheel. Problem is that many forget to close them when returning the wheel back onto the bicycle. That's not a big issue but it does occur.
The fact is that disk brakes are relatively more effective and safer to operate.
Mechanical discs aren’t too bad; but those hydraulic ones suck. Especially the ones that use DOT brake fluid. Nasty stuff.
@@jerrykuc149 Mechanical disc brakes neatly combine the disadvantages of rim brakes with the disadvantages of disc brakes.
I went for a mic of a hydraulic rim brake with a hydraulic disc. Both required zero maintenance in years. Both were vastly superior to wire-pull brakes.
Your best video short and right to the point ! Learned a lot , but still love my rim brakes .
I never going back to rim brakes.
I ride mechanical brakes I do not ride my road bike in rain if I can help it I got a fixed gear for that and with that said I will ride down any hill and trust my campy Daytona to stop me
No, this is not "Open system". It is the same as in MTB or Motorcycles and Cars. If your brakes feel "mushy" after some time or hanging on rack, it is indicator that you have not bled them correctly. Idea with tape it just "quick fix", because you will only force air to go into reservoir in lever. It is not proper solution, because source of problem is incorrect bleeding.
Brake and clutch cleaner from a motor factors is far cheaper than Muc Off.
I just use 80%alcohol to clean, even cheaper.
I have both style brakes. Prefer a rim job.
And sometimes disc brakes (Dura-Ace in my case) squeal like stuck pigs every time it rains without there being any detectable problem, but are totally quiet when it's dry. Not my idea of progress given rim brakes are normally quiet, and cheaper, lighter, simpler and allow a comfier fork too...
imagine having two disc brake bikes? lol
I have three. Two hydraulic and one mechanical. They work great and the stopping power is superior to rim brakes.
An open brake system does not or should not let air in. If you have a spongy lever it is because it is not bled properly! Open system just means fluid can move from the line into a compensating chamber, or bladder.
You're quite right I probably wasn't super clear, was just meaning that the seals aren’t perfect and the expansion and contraction of the fluid and bladder diaphragm can be more likely to let air enter than a closed system which is why they tend to need more bleeding
I think the most overlooked factor is worn out discs, for some reason we think its ok to go for a year or so without replacing them, the pads are not made to travel too far so it rly helps.
So you bleed and top up the fluid, then you seal it.
Then your pads wear, so the pistons move out. Now the internal fluid system is a larger volume but you didn't add more fluid.
So what makes up the extra volume? Vacuum.
If you put any fluid under vacuum it boils. The oxygen that was bonded to the fluid separates and becomes air bubbles.
Almost all fluid contains h2o. There's oxygen in your fluid system to begin with it was just bonded to hydrogen
@@davidarthur Sorry the only reason they need bled other than changing the fluid which should be done regularly is to purge air that was in there already, and not properly removed. At no time does air "get in" unless there is a fault. Check with Shimano, Sram or Hope for a comment. Also a closed system is the same as an open except it does not allow for expansion without user input. (old Hope brakes had an adjuster cap for this as they were "closed") I really like your reviews and videos, refreshing change from the usual BS form CGN etc, please don't go down the "made up mechanics" hole.
@@janeblogs324 Speaking as someone who spends most of their working day working with vacuum machines and hydraulics the "vacuum" effect on a bike brake system is so insignificant its never going to be a concern. Even Water has very little effect below 500mb of vacuum( 10deg approx.) It would be almost impossible for a bike brake system to be even close to a fraction of this level of Vacuum. We are also dealing with oils and fluids, which even at worst case "wet" are still 60%+ higher boiling points than water. Also once the line is closed(when the lever is pulled, it can only be positive pressure in the line. So any small vacuum that exist in the system is now in the reservoir, closed off from the line. In a DOT system, being hydroscopic, continued heat cycles will cause the fluid to degrade, and water to form steam, and give spongy brakes. A different issue to a poorly bled brake, entirely.
The fact that this and many other videos like it exist, tells me I want to stick with rim brakes for as long as I can.
Half this stuff you never have to do with rim brakes, i hardly or never have to touch mine. Accept for a pad replacement.
Agree, the hydraulic discs on my commuter demand constant attention, they really only worked well the first year when they were new. By the way the drum brakes on my bad weather bike have not needed maintenance or adjustment for the last 5 years...!
New bikes usually only come with discs brakes :(
@@waynosfotos Now that you mentioned pads replacement they lasted at least two years. I do a lot hill climbing and with disc brakes have to go through rotor plus brake pads replacement every 6 months. This is more than double running cost that only benefits manufactures not consumers.
Just change the disc brakes completely then. If you all have the money for a good bike pay some money for new brakes. It's much safer. Just my humble opinion.
Thanks for the info, very useful. Just a suggestion on using abrasive paper to deglaze the pads. Wash them off with brake cleaner after doing this to get rid of any fine abrasive particles before re assembly.
Right. And don't use standard abrasives. There's a reason why those of us who work on cars know you should ONLY use garnet on brake systems. Unless you want to pollute your discs with aluminium oxide and ruin your brake pads.
@@lobuxracer right nobody cares about such details
There are situations where disc excel. Rim brakes are much easier to maintain - next bike will be a classic rim bike one.
On road bikes rim brakes are better because road riding is about speed not stopping unlike gravel and mountain bike. I don't get the road disc gimmick.
@@johnnyveganite9141 Cycling industry have to keep making zillions,they keep changing stuff like fashion
@@interceptor7905 👍think you are right, trends to keep the money rolling in...
Disk brakes have amazing stopping power in wet conditions. I would see them as being more necessary for mountain and commuter bikes than road bikes.
@@lihtan for sure
Disc brakes much better for mountain bikes.
My 28" diameter brake rotors work just fine, calipers are eazy to adjust. Never squeaks.
more than just rotors
0:01 do we love disc brakes?
how do you know about my uncle bob?🤔🤣🍻
One main reason for loud brakes from my experience is that break mounts on most frames are not faced out of the factory (regardless of the brand / price) and as such the calipers can't be adjusted to sit perfectly. There is no hack around this but to take the frame to a bike shop and pay them to do what the factory should have done.
That's a really good point Botond thanks for sharing
And how would you notice the difference between needing facing, brake misalignement and bend discs?
@@Loekie-de-leeuw Steel rule.
@@Loekie-de-leeuw From my experience if you spin your wheel while looking down at the rotor, using the brake pads as a reference it's quite easy to see if the rotor is bent. When setting up your brake calipers and no matter how you try to adjust them you can't get them to sit perfectly parallel to the rotor (provided the rotor is straight) it's fair to assume that your frames brake mounts were not faced so that they are in the correct angle to your axles.
My s work frame doing really good
I've been using road disc brakes for a number of years now and have always found them to be disappointing. Admittedly not high end but well reviewed like the TRP Spyre and Avid BB7's on road based bikes, obviously not hydraulic. I have returned to rim brakes recently with a road bike with the 105 5800 rim brake set up and question why ever went down the disc route.😜
TRP is junk. Had them on a bike I acquired second hand. Never again. Not in the same league as SRAM, let alone Shimano hydraulic road disc. I have Shimano 105 on my rain bike, Ultegra on my new road race bike. Infinitely better than the Ultegra rim brakes on my soon-to-be-sold road race bike.
@@hawkeyelikesbikes I agree, whilst the BB7's weren't too bad, the spyre were awful. I changed rotors, pads, non compression outers etc and they were still awful. I'm sticking with rim brakes for the foreseeable future. Though I wouldn't mind having a go on decent hydraulic road brakes. Then again I'm enthralled with simplicity and excellent performance of my rim brakes.👍
Those are woeful disc brakes. Try some new shimano and you will never go back to rim.
That's like saying "I ate cement and went back to eating just dirt. I wonder why I ate cement all this time..."
that's because mechanical disc brakes suck compared to hydraulic. I've used both and mechanical were clearly like a half step above stopping flintstone style.
Oh Christ, here come the “just use rim brakes” brigade
I have rim brakes
...on my 1977 Schwinn Continental II
@@RedWingsninetyone I have them awsel on my 2021 TCR 👌
@@danc1829 both rim and disc work fine, but the rim nazis will have you believe that human civilisation is in doubt if the disc brake witchcraft is not culled
@@dh7314 indeed they do I've actually owned a disc and rim TCR of the same year and sold the disc one as I personally just preferred rim brakes.
I've no issue with discs but think a lot of people get more annoyed due to the force in change its not like changing a groupset u require a whole new bike. Manufacturers doing this are just in it to get more and more money off us which I get they're a business.
But it's very sad u hardly get a choice when you're spending a lot of money... I would of loved to try a specialized aethos as an example in rim brakes but there sadly isn't an option even though its aimed at climbing so I had no option but to go the tcr route.
Neither are perfect it's more the fact they're forcing a change a lot of people don't need / want imo
@@danc1829 if they really wanted to force it they would, but it has been a 10 year decline in rim sales. People have had a choice for ages and chose disc, they could flat out have discontinued rim years ago if they had some sort of weird agenda to do that. I don’t buy the argument that change has been thrust upon the consumer, the consumer has driven this. Rim works fine but so do disc, I own both but don’t mourn the passing of rim brakes because it’s just not that big a deal. Technology moves on
That first hack of wrapping the brake handles in engaged position is something ANY of us can do. Thanks for sharing that! :D
Back to Rim Brake, Zero Issues...... sometimes de future is not going forward....
Great and concise advise. If I could add a tip from my experience as a professional mechanic. When using a rotor truing tool while the bike is on the bike, do your bends on the opposite side of the axle relative to the caliper. For instance the caliper is around 2 o’clock from the axle, rotate the segment of rotor needing bending to 8 o’clock. This prevents the caliper from becoming a bending tool as well.
Discs arent necessary on road but for mtbing they are a vast improvement over rim brakes.
And needed for an e bike
The spongy brakes hack works.. thank you this🙌🙌🙌😁😁😁🚴🚴🚴🚴 now I have working brakes.
Most of the tips are good for, obviously, hydraulic/hybrid hydraulic brakes.
Would it be possible to give a video how to adjust fully mechanical disc brakes? All hydraulic are 99% 2 pistons. Mechanical brakes are 99% 1 piston & 1 stactic wall with adjustment screw.
I ride in the winter salty montreal road and i'm not going back to hydraulic because salts will find it's way between the pistons and jam them.
I know how to adjust them but i'm sure many peoples would be interested.
Hidraulic brakes Maintance free? 🤔 ill stick with rims
Oh...and MORE troublesome features....LOOK..I am NOT knocking disc brakes...GREAT for MTB..GREAT for GRAVEL...in fact..great for everything APART from ROAD...the tech is not their YET....
Great video, David. I actually learned something new in this presentation about brake noise and how to address it. (So thank you for that!) I'm currently running the previous generation of Ultegra Di2 with the BR-R8070 disc brakes. I am having an issue with the caliper pistons as they seem to retract very slowly upon a sustained braking event. In other words, I can hear the pads brushing up against the rotors for about 100 meters or so before they retract enough for my brakes to go silent again. I want to try your degreasing recommendation to see if the pistons aren't mucked up internally.
One other thing I learned that I would like to share with your community regarding noisy brake pads. When installing new pads, (I use Ice Tech in general); one of the thing I like to do to keep things very quiet is to use a metallic brake pad on the inside surface of the rotor and a resin pad on the outside surface of the rotor for both the front and rear calipers. In my experience, this keeps braking extremely quiet even in wet conditions. When coupled with your recommendations, I think everyone will have a very noise-free braking experience 🙂
I didn't touch on sticky pistons as that's not something I've suffered from at all so maybe I can look at that in another video soon, as it appears it happens to a few people and is causing you some issues.
First time I've ever heard about mixing different types of brake pads. Genius. Might have to try that
I had rotors rubbing the pads on a second-hand bike I bought. The bike had the same BR-R8070 brake calipers and mileage around 2000km. The Park Tool video (m.ua-cam.com/video/vQXFFgRButo/v-deo.html) about cleaning and lubricating the piston seals was SUPER helpful, I thoroughly recommend watching that. Just make sure you're not pushing the pistons too far out from the caliper. I noticed that the pistons were quite lazy, so they must've been depleted of lubrication, causing them to retract poorly hence rubbing the rotor. After following the procedure on the Park Tool video, the pistons are now super smooth and gosh, what a relief it was on my next ride not hearing a single rubbing noise! Pure bliss! :)
@@pedalscript I had same problem but cleaning and lubricating did not help. I replaced the caliper. Lazy retraction action still persists.
@@halfglassfull I guess if the piston seals are deformed or damaged enough, then cleaning and lubricating them potentially doesn't help. Did you try "exercising" the pistons? What I forgot to mention on my comment was that I had to pump the pistons in and out quite a few times before the lazy piston started moving more smoothly again. It wasn't enough to actually just clean and lubricate the piston surfaces, but the crucial part was precisely to "exercise" the pistons in order to free them up. This was explained very well on the Park Tool video but I forgot to refer to that part of the procedure.
Anyway, I'm sure Shimano acknowledges this issue so it's possible to just get a warranty replacement if it occurs within the first two years (which is the warranty period). I actually had this exact issue on a NEW (!) Shimano GRX RX400 brake caliper, and had to clean, lubricate and exercise them because after bleeding the brakes, the outer piston just wouldn't retract properly and the rotor was rubbing. Doing the piston maintenance solved the issue. I could have just returned the caliper back to the online store for a new one, except that they are as scarce as hen's teeth at the moment, with delivery estimates of 6 months or up to 12 months. I didn't want to wait so long so I decided to try the piston maintenance procedure which did the trick.
I've had my share of the Shimano brake caliper issues. Another caliper was micro-leaking mineral fluid through the piston seals (another known problem for their brake calipers), this was also a brand-new caliper (Deore M6000) that was bled properly. It had me spending quite some frustrating moments trying to locate the source of leak as well as having to clean and sand the brake pads due to contamination, all for nothing as the leaking persisted and ended up returning the caliper for a warranty replacement (luckily these calipers were in stock at the time!) 🤷🏼♂️
Edit. Oh, and I noticed that you commented having replaced the caliper and the problem still persisted. I don't know if there is a problem with the lever or the caliper, then, but like I said, I had poorly retracting pistons on a NEW Shimano brake caliper, so I wouldn't be surprised if your caliper was also faulty. I should've also mentioned that when I push the pistons back into the caliper with a plastic tire lever, and the system is freshly bled, I tend to first open the bleed port screw on the brake lever before pushing the pistons in, to prevent this action from damaging the seals/bladder inside the lever (because the system might be slightly "overfilled" with fluid after a bleed, so I believe that pushing the pistons back in might increase the pressure in the system, which is why I open the bleed port screw on the lever and usually some drops of brake fluid come out due to the pressure when pushing the pistons back into the caliper). I saw this mentioned on an online discussion forum so take it with a pinch of salt, but I think there's at least some truth to the theory because according to my experience, some fluid does come up the bleed port on the lever when pushing the pistons into the caliper, suggesting that there is a pressure increase in the system when doing this.
That said, I would believe that a damaged seal/bladder on the lever would also give other symptoms than just lazily retracting pistons on the calipers, such as leakage of brake fluid through the bracket and/or spongy brake lever.
I have the same brakes and suffer from the same issue on the front brake. Sometimes the pistons just seem too slow and everything rubs like all h*ll for a few hundred meters. Tried fixing it myself by cleanign the pads, the pistons and realigning the caliper but nothing really seemed to help. I eventually turned it in to a bike shop. They bled the brakes and all that but again to little or no avail. Next bike is going to rim brakes again for me. I'll take the poorer braking performace over all the bending, rubbing, bleeding and squeeling any day of the week.
Also whatever you do DO NOT attempt to bleed them yourself! The bleedport screw is EXTREMELY easy to round out and strip the threads off, it takes NO force AT ALL and once you've done that you're looking at a replacement brake-lever which is not only crazy expensive but also unavailable at the moment...so just don't.
Hahahaha, welcome to the world of motor bikes. Once every month should do it. But it does shorten the life of your MC piston seals
Has anyone else experienced this?
All my qr and disc bikes I’ve had rubbing issues.
Non of my thru axle bikes have had this.
Granted all my qr bikes were cheaper.
Difficult to maintain (bleed brakes...even mtb’ers go to a shop...perhaps £20 quid a pop...) COME ON...
Hydraulic brakes feel great but the extra maintenance kills it for me.
+1, great video, David! Cleaning your pistons is more of maintenance than hack, but build up of brake dust will gum up the piston seals, reducing how much they will move back. Over time that can exacerbate rubbing from other causes: bent rotors, deformation after hard braking, etc.
“Use your tool...” erm..what tool? “Once you know how to do it..” erm..what after you have not only knackered a disc..and spent more money..buying ANOTHER..but ALSO you ruined your Sunday ride!!!
Let’s face it..what a faf...! and an annoyance...
It’s all excuses to JUSTIFY the product....
This is piffle - it’s a work around for improperly bled brakes…if you ride brakes that are fixed by this method, you’ll find that the mushy feel returns when the fluid heats up.
Bleed brakes properly and they’ll be maintenance free for 2 years…
No adjustment required apart from pads - can’t say the same for rim brakes…adjust calipers, replace pads, cables, rims…
Another HACK.....Just dust off your “old” LIGHTER, RIM BRAKE bike (and don’t get started on electronic..I have seen LOTS..too many) in my work (l work on the trains) with people coming home earlier than expected because “..a wire is lose” (gone into limp mode) “battery is dead” (gone into limp mode) “don’t know what the problem is..batts charged etc” (gone into limp mode) Mmmmmm pattern forming here isn’t there?
Oh..and where are the OTHER hacks....(having taped your lever) on a Saturday afternoon IF your discs are NOT working properly? (You get up ON THAT SUNDAY ride..for example)...Call the bike shop? Borrow another bike? Sit tandem on your mates bike?
It’s...ALL TIME David...Time when one gets up.all prepared.then finds it’s not working (either properly..or at all..) its ALL the time (measure this to the mm, get the dot fluid out, put gloves on, get a blow torch out to re alight the disc on the workbench.....the list goes on...
You are then missing the Eddy Merckx statement of “just ride..any distance, anytime, just ride”
Well it cannot be done..because the actual bike CANNOT be ridden properly..if at all...
Go to the internet and get another loan to buy another exact same bike (just like the Femmes race where one rider changed her bike 7..yes S.E.V.E.N times in ONE stage)
I had terrible front rotor rub on my roadie and it was driving me bats especially when it was raining and my front calibre would lockup and then i had it serviced still kept doing only till i asked them to check the tension in my front wheel spokes well that sorted the issue out the front wheel spokes where terribly loose now i dont have the issue thank goodness
Also when buying a new bike with hydraulic disc brakes 'm told afther 500 km allready let's do a check up that everything is good and I allways did that with my other bikes too. Offcourse if you have a problem earlier go asap to a mechan. It's a disgrace that on some racebikes it's just not good when they come out off the factory. And if it's a bike from 2000 or 12000 euro ,I don't give a sh*g they have to see that there (hydraulic) disc brakes work! I rode a testlap with the new bike, and breaks are
good no squaling at all. It was only 15km but I looked up the most uphill/downhills to test it before I do like 70-100 km rides. Also first a bikefitting 12 August. Like I said I had to buy everything new because my Campagnolo was sold, and before that my Scott catapulted in the air on rim brakes afther malfunction on the descent off the Stockeu and rode against a camionette it was a hard impact, and very weird actually that a bike can fly so "high". If it was against a car, I was through the rear window for sure. So no rimbrakes for me anymore In hot weather they're trash. Since that I'm a bit scared off descends despite it being not my fault, and anyone that knows the full Stockey 2600m at 9,8% knows it's not techninal at all but just very steep when you descend the last km. And the ascend is good but the descent so what they do in LBL was still a horrible road. It's now a long time can anyone tell me that the descent from the (I think it calls rue de Somagne if you ride that side instead off the actual Stockeu where it begins is now also good asphalt?) Like for example Thier de Coo since couple off years now is really good to ride on but before that it was a horrible road . Any Belgian's here or Dutchman? If so you all know what I'm talking about.. I go withing a month- six weeks max for 1 weekend to Stavelot. Not a week, for that my form is not good enough yet. I'm only 8 weeks out off a depression and then started again. I weight myself again only once a week the same day in morning, and evening. I lost 11kg in 7 weeks. Well good news it's now 13kg in 8 weeks allready. Beginning next year I will have a great condition again. Although I won't go lower than between 73kg min-77kg max. I'm 1m89cm so yeah.. in Corona I gained 38kg from Booze Booze and booze and depression and then also corticoids for my disease so yeah now from 113kg to 100kg in 8 weeks without starving myself, just eat healthy and NO alcohol. So when I go in like a month-6 weeks It will be around 85kg - 90kg because I will become slimmer more rapidly because I will do the training then allready on my new Scott roadbike with the 105- R7000 so not bad, not great, but first I have a bikefitting. (Ow yeah this is not the first time that I have had this problem). The first time my weight was 58kg, and went to 97kg and then too I was very fast on a good weight/power again, it was also depression/corticoids and lots off alcohol. But 58kg is to low for me. Around 75kg is perfect then I have the most power.
And like I said everywhere, when I was almost 14 until 2years and 6 months later it was all over with the disease Spondylitis Ankylosans. And I was really not bad at cycling. Ok I had not a good sprint but in hilly stages I still have lots off results here on paper, and articles out off the regional paper about me. I rode most important races in Benelux and some races in . And yeah still a top 10 and top 15's so allways with the best off the bunch I'm hilly stages wasn't bad and I had then allready lots off inflammations but the last year it was huge and a blood result showed the factor B27 so yeah I was screwed and heartbroken and still think about it now and again. And if I was a totally crappie rider okay. But I wasn't. But that's all long time ago now. I just want to have fun and hope to find some friends from Benelux to ride with. Especially next year I would like to have a cycling friend alleready that goes with me to the Vosges not to do incredible performances but to enjoy a 1 week bike vacation and do all the most beautifull colls there. And also the hardest like steep planche de belles filles. I have a great Garmin, we can even plan some rides together then.
BTW I live 17km from Muur van Geraardsbergen top. Also I become 33year old in december. So if anyone wants to ride with me, please just say the word and we can go on a ride here in the Flemish Ardennes or so together .. And in winter on Zwift will be great too and then in February we can start on the road again. I want to be very descent again, like Ollie from GCN for example that has a lot off fun when he climbs on a very decent pace imo. Considering he's not an ex pro like the rest there.
So exactly I hope somebody from Belgium or Netherlands reads this and we can become cycling buddies. Old/young female/male black/white I don't care. I just want a cycling buddy is all!
If I have typos sorry but this gsm is annoying asf to type with, it makes up his own words sometimes. I have a new Samsung galaxy fortunately still in the box.
While often left out of the bike delivery process Disc brakes should come with a pad spacer/block. The Sram Avid one I use has one side for pushing pads apart to get the right spacing and reseting calipers. The other side is to insert while travelling so you dont pinch the pads together. Of course make sure its cleaned with alocohol each time.
Shimano has a simular block but it lacks the wider side for reseting pads.
Ask your shop for 2 of these if they didn't include them with your bike or at least one for pad/caliper adjustment.
Had rim brakes for many years, barely done *any* servicing at all, didn't even change the pads once! Switched to hydro discs and doing at least some maintenance every month or two and buying new pads regualrly all for a smidge of improved performance.
I had a Specialized MTB with Shimano hydraulic discs, had it for 5 years, never had to touch the brakes once. Now I have a Scott MTB, It has the same brakes, 2 yrs in, and I havent had any braking issues..0 maintenance.....I ride on average, about 35 to 40 miles a day.
@@steveharrigan7811 I dunno man, I also have Shimano hydro, and mine are fiddly af.
@@Mixail747 Im on my second bike with hydraulics....Never had to touch them. Both Shimano.
@@Mixail747 Maybe you need to clean them... What are your brakes brand/model? if you have to replace the pads because of poor performance, you have a main issue, disc brakes should be extremely powerful. Maybe no bed-in? Or poor alignment of the calliper with the rotor? I had to align my rear calliper on my new bike, tolerance is so low and when braking the rotor was bent! I was a bit surprised to see I had to basically loosen the main screws, no setting for that on S 105 (otoh there is a screw especially for alignment on my old Shimano rim brakes, in addition to spacing). Maybe check that alignment, it's less obvious than with rim brakes, you have to look exactly in the plane of the rotor, and maybe a light behind it.
Replacing the pads is also a bit more subtle than on rim's, but in both cases, they should last a few thousands kilometers of normal use?
Of course riding styles vary a lot, I'm mostly on flat roads, no mountains... I have to replace rim's pads every few years/thousands kilometers, a bit like tyres (those also vary a lot in durability depending on the brand/model and use).
Worst thing about disk brake is that idiots doesn't really know when to brake and how to brake. Other issues let the mechanic deal with it or if you want DIY repairs UA-cam is the key 🤣😂🤣
I love disc brakes but for a bicycle I prefer cables. The stopping power is ridiculous enough. A while ago I was looking at second hand MTB's. Literally every hydraulic one I looked at had problems. OK for people who buy new material every year, or can afford a mechanic that maintains their bike after every ride.
What do you mean by "they are open system"? They are not and the air must not get in. If it does get in, there some leakage issues in the system. If everything is how it should be with the system - it's sealed up, no leaking and bled properly - you won't have any spongy or mushy levers in years to come. In almost 10 years of using hydraulic brakes on my mtb, just last year I had to replace the oil on one of them (the front one) and recently the rear is beginning to give a signs that is needing a new oil.
Sorry, but stoped watching after thar statement.
Sometimes brake pad gets stuck on the disk, what causes that? It should be fairly clean. I have mechanical disc brakes.
You should be able to hang the bike on a wall without affecting the brakes, if they go spongy they need bleeding. if they continually go spongy there is a fault or they need a different bleeding technique
Only put electrical tape on you handle bar if you wear gloves while riding, it will leave a horrible sticky residue!!
3:02 holy fuck please tell me thats not a tool specifically for bending rotors? this is why bicycle people piss me. its the type of thing like them thinking they need a specific tool just to get a job done. it seems like theres many instances where shit like an adjustable wrench would work just fine but they insist that crap like this is better or even needed.
Take a drink for ever person in the comments that wears spandex when riding, lol.
O. I wish you had said hydraulic. I'm still on steel, pulled from leaver to wheel 😋.
Don't use disc straightening tools on shimano ice-tec rotors. It will leave dents in them. Just a quick tip
This is why i don't like disc brakes. I have rim break now since 18 year now with no issus.
Agreed. Newer isn't always better. Rim brakes are so much easier to maintain
Disc brake and tubeless, you can make alots of video from it. Lolzzz..
I tried the spongy brake hack and it actually worked! BUT why did it work?? What’s actually happening??? (Edit) Aaah just saw the reply by Kevin in the comments. Brilliant Hack!
The main thing I don’t like about disc brakes is the look ugly
I hate disk brakes,way too many parts to brake,compared with good old brakes,
If you call this low maintenance, you haven't discovered coaster brakes yet😊
...or just get a rim braked bike in the first place and avoid all this faff!
Chapeau!
I have mountain bikes and a gravel bike with disc brakes. I do nothing extra to them. Although I don’t have road disc, I don’t see see why all the grumbling about how their harder to maintain.
Let me tell you what is annoying. Hitting a pothole denting your Fulcrum Zero Nite front wheel and now it’s unrideable because the dent totally screws up the front braking! Looking at the wheel it looks fine. If this was disc brake wheel, it would still be rideable
The worst thing about disc brakes is itself :D so best solution to prevent disc releated issues is basically to swap a brand new rim brake bike, if you find one ....
There are no good rim brakes.
Not worth it, disc brake is just nicer to have in general despite the flaws
The most annoying of them all is the brake rub when out the saddle.
oooh those brakes suck big time i rather ride instead of doing all this pampering
The worst thing about disk brakes is usually the comments section
And this is easy maintenance? Have you ever tried V-brakes? :D
Great video & very informative with easy fixes 👍🚴♂️🚴♂️
I've found that often the best way to deal with rubbing disc brakes is to clean them with disc brake cleaner!
Yes that's the only thing I do to. For anything else I go to a mechanic. I rather pay and be safe than try to do it and fail and yeah...
This cleaner is probably the worst thing I ever spent money on.
spouting lies less than 20s into the video. Low maintenance my a$$!! You constantly have to make sure they are spotlessly clean. Make sure pistons have not got stuck, calliper is still aligned, rotor is still straight. any of these not perfect you get problems
I literally spend bugger all time looking after my disc brakes, they just work all the time
My disc brakes don't cause any issues and I have now sold off my rim brake bikes. I live In a hilly area and rim brakes just don't deal with the terrain and with most people on the rides now using disc brakes, the problem is those who don't and can't stop in a reasonable time _ very dangerous in group rides
@@monty2078 Bruh rim is way better in very hilly places. Disc just overheat then start rubbing and screeching and modulation goes out the window. So why are there more people crashing in pro cycling after locking out wheels and losing control. doesn't happen with rim. Disc are far too sensitive and its too easy to grab too much brake
@@ezquiel700c t
Totally disagree. I would never go back to rim brakes. I think you are probably setting them up incorrectly
@@monty2078 I have them set up perfectly and cleaning regularly, which I never have to do with rim.
this was cool - would love to see the game changes and oddities (purp's bug) first in order
The worst part of disc brakes is the modulation...
Who in their right mind would spend a fortune on a lightweight summer use road bike and then weigh it down needlessly with disk brakes and destroy the feel of a lightweight frame and forks because of the beefed up areas for the disc mounts? Makes no sense at all, rim brakes work fine on the road, just gullible people falling for the marketing snake oil.
R u OK?
if you're racing then that makes sense, but if not then the added grams doesn't make a difference. Seriouly we're talking about maybe adding 26-58 grams of weight over rim brakes.
@@NonLegitNation2 If you're not racing and don't live in a mountainous area you probably don't need hydros anyway
What?
Its not that deep
...geez.. just spend the 5 minutes it would take to bleed them.
Glad I watched this video, now I know I’m not switching to disc brakes.
After switching to disk brakes, I would never go back to rim brakes.
Is the hack with tape useful when bike is hanging on the rack in vertical position? I have found that to long time on race makes disc brakes need of bleeding.
Just got 2 new discs to chuck on my old bike, I swear both of them have a warp. I didn't bend em, I barely looked at them incase they decided to do it themselves. Hate this system.
Вообще не понял прикола с зажимом тормоза на ночь. Система остаётся тупо закрыта и там ничего не может произойти.
Using soap water to washing bike isn`t good idea. It goes in to bearings.
Diet coke excellent fir squealing dusc brakes.
Some things extra, if you've been using Shimano brakes and go to a bike with SRAM, the brakes may feel spongy, nothing's wrong, that's just how the modulation works.
If you are using Shimano rotors, I think it's ice tech or something, they may be extremely thin, do not use a tool, just use some tissues and do it with your fingers or you will definitely bend it off to the other side.
I fix squeaking brakes using thunderstorms.
If you live in a city, especially with a petrochemical plant somewhere, the air is extremely polluted, here, it essentially turns out rain into some kind of degreaser. I just rode around during a thunderstorm 2 days ago and my brakes stopped squeaking.
Also uh, it once degreased my chain for me.
I never knew that Bob was my uncle. 😂👍🏻
Thanks for sharing. My rear break was spongy and with the tape hack the problem was solved the next day.
For how long? Honest question.
@@marzzipanik Same question here, how long do the brakes stay firmer? New brakes here, they were spongy, but get better after some bed-in.
I'm asking because I can see no setting for that issue? Also no settings on the calliper, neither for alignment, nor spacing... On my 30 years old rim brakes I can adjust spacing and alignment with a dedicated screw and the ring at the end of the cable (or by adjusting the cable, too)...
Hydraulic brakes are not a open system.
Great brake hack!!! Thank you !!
Centering the brake calliper can be a bit tricky, but I do - and it's worked every time for me - is to loosen the calliper bolts, squeeze que brake lever a bit and tighten the bolts. Works every time.
@@darinsteele7091 I only have to do this when I swap wheels; the disk is in a slightly different position. Also, in my case, the "loosen-the-bolts-and-squeeze-the-lever" method isn't precise enough for my bike.
I have had the most success my inspecting to see which side is actually rubbing, then (carefully/sensitively) moving the brake by hand. It is also important to not fully tighten the bolts; gradually tighten them by alternating between them, while holding the brake in place with your free hand.
That is what he did on the vid.
And keep the the brake lever tight while you tighten.