Just replaced the front brake of my bike, its terrible. It can barely even stop the wheel against me pedaling. The back brake is still using the original pad and doing a significantly better job.
All I did was remove the old one and put the new one in. Adjust the brake position slightly to avoid rubbing when the wheel spins.
Does it take time for a new brake pad to wear in at all? Is there something else worth trying? Its terrible currently.
Are they disc brakes or rim brakes? Cable driven or hydraulic? Either way putting in new pads always requires an adjustment of whatever the thing is that causes the pad to engage with the braking surface. Your old pad was worn by however many mm, and the new pad adds that many mm back and the brake system has been set up for old pad width. On cable driven brakes you can just use the barrel adjuster either on your brake lever or at the break itself and reduce the cable tension (feed it “in” toward the brake). On hydraulic systems you need to remove the pads and push the pistons back to their neutral state.
Hydraulic, I did push the pistons back. Although I only changed the front pads first and they are not as worn so it was only a small adjustment.
You can also recenter the caliper by loosening the caliper bolts, then spin the wheel, grab the brake, then while still holding the brake down (or having a friend/second set of hands do it) tighten the caliper bolts again.
I did try that, got mostly aligned but had to manually nudge it after to stop it rubbing slightly. Think it might be worth cutting out a shim from a drink can and sliding that down each side of the rotor between the pads and doing the same thing, that should ensure an air gap on each side.
And if you have a bike shop nearby, you can go to them and let them do it, while you observe and learn
That depends heavily on the bike shops you have nearby. My town has maybe 6 bike shops that I know of. I only trust one of them to do work on my bike and even that place I check their work afterwards as if the younger kid that works there ends up with my work I know the work is gonna be trash.
You have the shops like say Walmart or decathlon who sell cheaper bikes and employ a “mechanic” too. They can’t even be trusted to build a basic bike up they are selling.
Then you have more specialised bike shops where that is their main trade who are quite often elitiest cunts who talk down to you and think they are the hottest shit ever.
In my experience it is very hard to find a bike shop that knows what they are doing properly and also don’t treat you like shit the moment you walk in, in my experience.
My point is I think you learn more from YouTube than you could from a bike shop employee usually.
Then you have more specialised bike shops where that is their main trade who are quite often elitiest cunts who talk down to you and think they are the hottest shit ever.
Yeah, lol. The type who don’t think any bicycle is worth touching unless it costs at least 5 figures.
“Sorry bro, I don’t work on anything cheaper than 105”
Yeah, i perfectly agree. In my city I too have about 7 shops, a decathlon, and 5 high end ones that are just elitist cunts that are worse than fucking car mechanics.
Then there’s this one algerian guy in the middle of the city, that’s a fucking pro, invites you to watch and learn, and doesn’t overcharge (too much) you. Basically all the people I know only go to him, lol. I have no idea how the other 5 shops make a living.
Yup. Sounds pretty similar to my area. Dude isn’t Algerian but my guy is just a laid back guy who is out here trying to teach everyone that comes in so hopefully they learn about the issues for the future and then often tries to undercharge me for his time when I do pop in myself.
I have nearly punched on with the cunts at a couple of the other shops when I have been forced to go in a a try and find a part locally due to how disrespectful and obnoxious they can be.
Ah, another tip: there’s probably a workshop or something in your city that cathers to bike-owners
For my city, in the port, there’s a guy that every weekend morning comes with a fully decked out cargo bike and repairs people’s bikes for free (more like, he tells you what to do with what, and makes you yourself fix it)
Is it possible you got some oil on the brake pads or discs? That can cause really bad braking performance, and it won’t be fixed until you clean the oil off.
Possibly, even just oils from your hand could cause some drop in performance, though I doubt that would be as severe as what you’re talking about.
But if you handled the new brake pads with oily/greasy hands, that might be enough to really ruin the braking performance.
My other guess would be that you got scammed with some really shitty brake pads, with somebody selling you junk that looks like brake pads, but is actually made of cheap, shitty materials that don’t work well.
Planning to get some brake cleaner to make sure it is clean, along with giving them a bit more usage on the way home tonight. Hopefully that is enough to solve it and they aren’t dodgy brakes.
I’ve had good success with alcohol + fire (pads in alcohol and then lighting them up shortly) and a good proper bed in afterwards. You should really feel the braking power increase during that process.
Look into brake bedding.
OK sounds like its quite a few (15-30) repeated braking cycles, not just a couple brakes at low speed. Sounds like I am going to get a leg workout later.
Might also look at getting some disc brake cleaner. Just saw you can get alignment tools that are a thin bit of metal each side of the brake rotor to help make sure the pads are aligned with a slight air gap each side, might help aligning them better and avoid rubbing.
Find the longest downhill near you or better: have someone tow you with a car. It’s definitely going to be a workout but you’ll notice once it starts to work because the grip improves significantly. Just make sure not to lock the brakes while doing this.
This area is as flat as the Netherlands and none of my friends with cars are
funirresponsible enough to consider it. Think I will be doing a lot of pedaling.
