brake maintenance

8/14/2019 Brake Maintenance

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No matter what type of bike you ride the brakes are likely to seizein winter riding. It only takes 10mins to clean them and make surethe pistons are free IF YOU DO IT ON A REGULAR BASIS. Otherwiseyou may encounter seized bits if you follow this process. I starteddoing this with all my bikes since having to have a pad retaining pin

drilled out of a calliper on a Honda superdream in order to replacethe brake pads. 24!! Years ago when I was a student. Your helpfulservice person will never clean your callipers as part of a service….and possibly not even when replacing pads.

For my NON ABS BM 2002 with evo callipers. I undo the two frontmudguard stays and undo (but don’t remove the brake pad pins onboth front callipers (allen key).

I then remove the Calliper bolts (torx bit) remove the calliper and

ease the brake hose to the calliper past the mudguard stay. Removethe pad pin, anti squeal shim and pads. If you haven't done thisbefore just remove one calliper at a time then if your wonderingwhich way the anti squeal shim goes you can have a look. Its prettystraightforward mind. DO NOT TWIST OR KINK THE BRAKE HOSE!!

Give the inside of the calliper a squirt of brake cleaner (most arecarbon tetrachloride so try not to breath to much in!!) and wipeclean with a clean cloth. Pump out the pistons a little by operatingthe brake (BE CAREFUL YOU DO NOT POP A PISTON OUT WHEN

YOU DO THIS!!) stick a block of wood or similar between the pistonsif your worried you may overdo it.. This exposes a ridge of brakedust and crud on the un-swept edge of the piston. Give the pistonsa squirt of cleaner (or some use new brake fluid….just don’t get iton the paintwork) and clean the ridges of crud off all four pistonswith a soft toothbrush.

After cleaning carefully work the pistons in and out a few times tomake sure they are operating freely. If you do this relatively oftenyou may find it is possible to rotate each piston with your fingers to

ensure they are properly clean all round.

Push clean pistons back into the calliper.

Clean the brake pad pin. If it has a bit of mild corrosion on itremove it with fine wet and dry. If it is grooved replace it.

Clean the anti-squeal shim. (this serves no useful purpose but looksnice and shiny when you look down at your calliper)

Apply a thin smear of copper grease to the pad pin and the threadthat screws into the calliper body.



Install pads pad pin and anti-squeal shim back into the calliper.(MAKE SURE THE PAD MATERIAL IS POINTING AT THE DISK!!)

Ease the calliper hose back past the mudguard stay and remount

the calliper. I usually put a dab of blue loctite or similar on thecalliper bolts and torque them up to 40NM.

Re- attach the mudguard stay (bit of blue loctite on the screws doesno harm). Repeat for the other side

AFTER DOING THE OTHER SIDE APPLY THE BRAKE SEVERAL TIMESTO PUMP THE PISTONS BACK OUT… THUS ENSURING PADS ARE INCONTACT WITH THE DISK. YOU WILL NOT HAVE ANY BRAKES THEFIRST TIME YOU USE THEM IF YOU FORGET TO DO THIS!! I will

leave it to your imagination whether I’ve forgotten this in the past!!

I’d say the rear calliper needs more cleaning and maintenance thanthe fronts due to the fact that it collects a lot more crud. Theprocedure for the rear calliper is much the same. With the followingdifferences:-

Remove the calliper hose-retaining loop on the paralever as this willgive you more latitude to move the calliper for cleaning purposes.

The pad retaining pin is not screwed in but is held with a little bentedge e-clip. Obtain a couple of spares of these before you start. Itcan be removed easily with a pair of long nosed pliers but this typeof clip is notorious for pinging off into the distance on removal orinstallation. If its been looked at recently the pin should pull outwith a pair of long nosed pliers if not it can be persuaded with a finepunch.

The calliper is a two piston sliding calliper design. So only twopistons to clean. But check the boots on the sliding portion of the

calliper……and that it slides. If these boots are damaged or thesliding part…… doesn’t then your in dismantling territory rather thancleaning.

FINALLY AFTER YOU HAVE FINISHED AND TORQUED THEMOUNTING BOLTS TO 40NM AND REMOUNTED THE CALLIPER HOSERETAINING LOOP WITH A 10MM SPANNER. PUMP THE REAR BRAKEUNTIL YOU HAVE NORMAL RESISTANCE. YOU WILL NOT HAVE REARBRAKES THE FIRST TIME YOU USE THEM IF YOU FORGET TO DOTHIS!!

DISCLAIMER……..I’m not sure what the effect is of pushing piston



back against abs systems and servo’s but you could still effect agood clean with a soft toothbrush without displacing the pistons andmake sure the pins are not seized. Don’t piss about with yourbrakes if your not confident about what you’re doing. This is only adescription of how I avoid brake grief in the winter.

Brakes do feel nice mind if kept clean and its very easy to changepads if nothing is seized!!

brake maintenance

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