Check out how the braking power grows as a brake beds in, in 40 repetitions of 1 second pulls the braking torque almost doubles! The interface between the pad and the rotor is as unique as a fingerprint, make sure you lay down a consistent track.
If you are short on time you can wet the pads which will help them deposit faster. In the lab, we observed that at least 10-20 repetitions were needed to reach maximum braking torque. Do as many repetitions as you can, or until the brake no longer feels like it is improving. Just before you reach a standstill release the brake and allow the bike to return to speed, no skids or stoppies, then repeat. Once up to a gentle running speed carefully apply a single brake smoothly and firmly, you don’t want to skid or stop, just controlled braking. Find a long, gradual hill that you can roll down comfortably. Brake pads are expensive, and it’s essential to spend five minutes bedding in your pads properly to the rotors. All you do is build up heavy deposits on the sections of the disc where you locked the wheel, resulting in imperfections, noise and sub-optimal braking – error. We live in an immediate world, we expect instant results, but simply throwing in some fresh pads, doing a couple of stoppies and then hitting the trails for some violent braking to bed them in simply won’t work. This is also the process that everyone gets wrong. ‘Bedding in’ is the process where the disc brake pad transfers some of its material on to the rotor, filling in the microscopic imperfections and ensuring maximum friction for the life of the brake pad.
#Haro bicycle with disc pads pro
Bleed your brakes like a pro to avoid sponginess and poor performance Don’t be a doughnut, bed your brakes in properly. Also, flick the hoses and tap the brake lever body, air is your enemy when bleeding brakes, do not let any survive. When bleeding, always give the calliper a couple of firm taps on the body (we used a plastic-wrapped Allen key handle), this will dislodge any air tenaciously hanging on around the pistons and give a much better bleed.
#Haro bicycle with disc pads how to
There are many excellent online resources available explaining how to bleed your brakes, but here’s a pro tip from us. If your brakes feel spongy at the lever it’s time for a bleed. However, if over time that fluid becomes contaminated with air past the seals, air can compress and when you pull the lever it compresses the air rather than pushing the pads against the rotor. Brake fluid, whether it be mineral oil or DOT fluid, cannot be compressed, meaning all the force you put in at the lever is delivered to the rotor. No matter what disc brakes you have fitted to your bike (OK, maybe not if you have cable brakes, but then you really should upgrade), they all work in the same way – a piston in the lever pushes fluid down through the hose and forces paired pistons in the calliper to squeeze the pads against the rotor. Don’t be afraid of big rotors, no matter if you ride trail or DH, we all need good brakes Tip tap for a better bleed.
Before increasing rotor size check the recommended maximum rotor size for your frame and fork. Our top tip would be to run 200 / 200 mm rotors for all applications, ultimate force, we would even consider a 220 mm on the front for 29ers. Fitting a bigger rotor will not only give you increased power, reduce arm pump, but also improve modulation and heat management as the rotor will heat up slower and cool faster over the larger radius. Why should we not have more powerful, controllable and reliable braking in all categories? Moving up from a 180 to 200 mm rotor adds just 40g (SRAM CENTERLINE) to the bikes weight, about the same as a small multitool in your pocket, but improves the braking torque between 20 and 30 % – a monstrous improvement. Why is it when it comes to rotor size, convention tells us to use 160 mm for XC, 180 mm for Trail and 200 mm for DH? We call ‘bullshit’ on that advice. However, we don’t all have a bank balance with lots of black 00’s so we show you how to make the most of your current braking setup.
The easiest way of improving the performance of your brakes is to simply buy new ones, and the best resource for that is our 2018 disc brake group test. But just like that cutting-edge laptop you bought last year, slowly but surely the performance dwindles, leaving you panic braking into corners and swearing at the spinning ‘loading’ icon on Netflix. Remember the first time you tested your new bike? Chances are you looked to your riding buddies and went ‘woah, these brakes are awesome’.
0 kommentar(er)
