How To Care For Your Disc Brakes | Road Bike Maintenance
Published on January 22nd 2018
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Disc brakes give super reliable braking performance, in all weathers. Come on rim brake die hards, that much is a fact… What is talked about less though is the maintenance required to keep them in tip top condition. The good news is that it’s not difficult, these three simple tasks will get your discs back to as-new condition. Cleaning, basic caliper service, and bleeding. Cleaning your pads and rotors is a reasonably straightforward job, but is a great way to get your disc brakes working well (and silently). You’ll need a dedicated disc brake cleaner, some lint free shop towel, nitrile gloves, and some isopropyl alcohol and some good medium grit sandpaper. Remove your pads and drop the wheels out so that the rotors are out of the caliper too. SRAM recommend just cleaning parts with soapy water, and it’s easier now the pads are out to really get in there. Take a look firstly to see if your pads have any life left in them. Replacing them saves you half a job so it’s not all bad if you need new ones. The rule of thumb is to replace them when you have about 1.5mm of pad left, similar to rim brake pads really. You could use them for longer but you risk causing damage to more expensive parts like rotors and pistons. If you are keeping your old ones Place them on some shop cloth and give them a good spray with the cleaner, and wipe away any dirt. Then give both the pads and the rotors a good scrub with fine sandpaper until you can’t see any marks on them. Also, whilst the pads are out give the inside of the caliper a spray with some isopropyl alcohol too and wipe it away with a clean cloth. Hacks For Flats 📹http://gcntech.co/hacksforflats Tour Down Under Tech 📹http://gcntech.co/tdutech Brought to you by the world’s biggest cycling channel, the Global Cycling Network (GCN), GCN Tech goes deeper into the bikes, kit and technology stories that matter. GCN Tech is utterly obsessed with seeking out and showcasing the best in bikes, tech, products and upgrades. Everywhere. Every week. From news and rumours, first ride exclusives, how-tos, the weekly GCN Tech Show, pro bikes, set-up tips and more, we geek out over the tiny details that can make the big differences to you. With years of racing and industry expertise, we also bring you instructive maintenance videos to hone your mechanical skills, as well as behind the scenes factory tours and in-depth analysis of kit chosen by the pro peloton to keep your finger on the pulse of cycling’s latest technological innovations. Engage with us every week on the channel and across social media – we’re here to answer every question you’ve got on mountain biking tech. Facebook - http://gcntech.co/gcntechfb Instagram - http://gcntech.co/gcntechinsta Twitter - http://gcntech.co/gcntechtweet