front brakes dragging....ideas?

[AJAY]

Finally put new rubber on over the weekend, but now it seems like my front brakes are dragging. Or maybe I'm just sensitive to the noise and never noticed it before. Can only hear it when pushing it around with the engine off. On stands, the wheel spins freely, but quickly stops due to brake pads. Any ideas?

 

[kromdom]

there is some "normal" rub/drag with pads which goes away when bike gets up to speed. all bolts (pads and hanger) torqued to specs?

 

[AJAY]

Calipers were removed at the mounting bolts, reinstalled and torqued to spec. I'm going to pull the pads, insert a spacer, extend the pistons, and wash down with some brake cleaner. Unless somebody has a better idea.

 

[pashnit]

So far, nothing sound abnormal. Take it for a ride & see if brakes feel any different. They shouldn't.
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[AJAY]

So far, nothing sound abnormal. Take it for a ride & see if brakes feel any different. They shouldn't.
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It rode fine, but they feel mushier than before. Maybe I'm just hypersensitive because I had things apart.

 

[lil charlie]

If they fell soft you need to double and tripple check everything.
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[CCbusa05]

Now don't laugh, but this worked for me one time after I had remounted a new front tire. Take the brake fluid reservoir cap off. Lift and then reseat that rubbber seal that protects the fluid, reinstall the cap. My front lever brake "feel" returned to normal.

 

[IG.]

Let me take a guess - your lever travels noticeably more before it engages the brakes.

Normally, when you release the brake lever, the rubber seals pull the pistons back just a little. This is not very noticeable because the pistons are settled in the position close to the pads. So, next time you squeeze the lever, it has to travel a bit before you start feeling the pressure.

You probably pushed pistons in when you were changing pads/removed calipers. This means that the pistons are a little bit further away from the pads than before. As you release the lever, the seals pull them back. And seemingly there is no way to to get them closer to the pistons.

If these are your symptoms, let me know - there is an easy fix, and there is nothing wrong with your braking system.

A different take: if your bike is at least a few years old, and you never rebuilt the calipers, I am pretty sure some pistons are binding more than others. This means when you release the brake lever, on pad is pulled back by the seals as explained above, while another pad is not - this one drags. Not really a big issue.

In any event, you can check how bad the drag actually is. Ride for a few miles without using the front brakes. Stop and check the temperature of your rotors. If one is very warm or even hot - you got a somewhat critical problem. Otherwise, not a big issue.

 

[AJAY]

Now don't laugh, but this worked for me one time after I had remounted a new front tire. Take the brake fluid reservoir cap off. Lift and then reseat that rubbber seal that protects the fluid, reinstall the cap. My front lever brake "feel" returned to normal.

I'm not laughing. Will give this a try.

Let me take a guess - your lever travels noticeably more before it engages the brakes.

Normally, when you release the brake lever, the rubber seals pull the pistons back just a little. This is not very noticeable because the pistons are settled in the position close to the pads. So, next time you squeeze the lever, it has to travel a bit before you start feeling the pressure.

You probably pushed pistons in when you were changing pads/removed calipers. This means that the pistons are a little bit further away from the pads than before. As you release the lever, the seals pull them back. And seemingly there is no way to to get them closer to the pistons.

If these are your symptoms, let me know - there is an easy fix, and there is nothing wrong with your braking system.

A different take: if your bike is at least a few years old, and you never rebuilt the calipers, I am pretty sure some pistons are binding more than others. This means when you release the brake lever, on pad is pulled back by the seals as explained above, while another pad is not - this one drags. Not really a big issue.

In any event, you can check how bad the drag actually is. Ride for a few miles without using the front brakes. Stop and check the temperature of your rotors. If one is very warm or even hot - you got a somewhat critical problem. Otherwise, not a big issue.

This is very helpful. I was thinking about seeing if one dragged more than the other per your suggestion, but I already pulled one caliper, so I might as well clean the exposed pistons per my earlier post.

It's a 2007 with only 7000 miles and no service has been done to the brakes. I need to flush the lines, but was waiting until I installed the new Galfer braided lines.

Here are some other clues. The lever was mushy when I first tried it, but that was expected after kicking back the pistons to reinstall the calipers. After multiple pumps, they came back to typical firmness and were fine for a 30 minute ride. I noticed the dragging sound putting the bike away yesterday afternoon. Trying the lever this morning, it was mushy again and the dragging was there when I put the front end up on a stand. Removing what I thought was the dragging caliper (by sound) proved that the other was also dragging.

I would just go ahead and replace the lines, but would at least like to get the brakes back to where they were before first. Solve one problem at a time...

 

[AJAY]

May have found the problem, and it's an "I'm a dumb chit" moment. When installing the tire, I had forgotten to make the wheel rotation direction on the brake disc. 50/50 chance I got it right. And the wheel is symmetric, so it doesn't matter, right? Not.

The wheel has a cast-in arrow indicating direction. I put the tire on backwards. Looking in the manual, you can see that the wheel is not perfectly symmetric. I don't know if this is the problem, but remounting the tire is still a prudent thing to do. (#$*&%@!)

 

[lankeeyankee]

Mine has a slight drag also nothing to be worried about, I like it when landing the front wheel after a wheelie that noise is makes when the front tire lands

 

[delbert]

if you mounted the rim backwards (so to speak) the rotors would have changed sides , this would mean the left hand pads have to bed in to the right hand rotor witch is now spinning in the opposite direction as well & visa versa for the other side ( hence mushy brakes )

 

[IG.]

Aside from mounting issue you described, pads dragging slightly while you are pushing the bike is perfectly normal.

Two easy things to try to get rid of the extra lever travel (based on your description, this seems to be the problem).

1. Pump the lever real hard a few times, and on the last pump squeeze and hold it pretty good for about 30 - 60 sec.

2. As you ride at normal highway speed, purposefully squeeze the lever lightly to force brakes to drag while being on the gas. In about 15 sec you will feel like the lever starts pushing back, and the bike slows down. Give the bike more gas, and hold the lever for another 10 - 15 sec, and then release. Keep going and don't apply the brakes for a minute or two to let the rotors cool. During those 30 sec everything gets pretty hot in the brake department, and the pistons may self adjust to being closer to the rotors resulting in less lever travel.

Let us know how it goes.

On a side note, I use a marker to mark the rotors "L" and "R" so I don't confuse the sides when the front wheel is off the bike.

 

[IG.]

Now don't laugh, but this worked for me one time after I had remounted a new front tire. Take the brake fluid reservoir cap off. Lift and then reseat that rubbber seal that protects the fluid, reinstall the cap. My front lever brake "feel" returned to normal.

That's a great point! If for whatever reason you got a vacuum inside the reservoir, it will try to pull the pistons in.

 

[AJAY]

Flipped the tire around & remounted the wheel. Cleaned the pistons with with some spray brake cleaner, but did not remove the pads and extend the pistons like I originally planned. There is now much less drag, just a gentle shooshing sound from the pads and the brake feel is normal.

Pretty weird. (Also pretty great!) There must be just enough offset in that wheel to make things drag, but I really don't understand the brake lever sponginess that there seemed to be. Note, all comments above are before riding the bike.

P.S. I learned that it's pretty easy to recover and re-use Dyna Beads when changing a tire.

 

[fastblackblur]

In any event, you can check how bad the drag actually is. Ride for a few miles without using the front brakes. Stop and check the temperature of your rotors. If one is very warm or even hot - you got a somewhat critical problem. Otherwise, not a big issue.

This is what I was going to recomend. They always make a little noise but if there is some heat building up there it needs to be addressed.

 

[dadofthree]

glad you got it

 

[Towboater68]

How can you tell if tire is on backwards?

 

[MC MUSTANG]

How can you tell if tire is on backwards?

There are arrows for direction of rotation on the tire sidewall and the left side of the rim...