Brakes pulling

[SUPERSTARDJ01]

Hi,

This morning I pulled the front brake on my curvey and it pulled to the right, now I don't mean the bike turnrd right like in a car it leaned right as though someone had pulled me.

Ideas?

Brake pads have around 1100 miles on them and I'm not a heavy braker.

[husky03]

get the calipers off and give them a service-no point in not doing it if you've had a braking issue

[Alpinestarhero]

Could be bad road surface (ruts left by excessive traffic, overlapping patches of tarmac). Did it keep happening?

[fastdruid]

get the calipers off and give them a service-no point in not doing it if you've had a braking issue

Unlike a car a braking discrepancy between calipers will *not* cause a bike to pull to one side.

I'd check everything was tight and couldn't move first.

Druid

[SUPERSTARDJ01]

It's happened twice on different parts of road, someone had suggested it could be some grit have got in the calipers not sure if that's true or not.

[sinbad]

You need to go out and try to make it happen again. (Carefully). Like Fastdruid says brakes can't "pull" to one side on a bike like they can on a car.

If braking actually has caused you too effectively countersteer to the left and as a result lean to the right and it was not a result of a dodgy bit of road like ASH suggests, then it's because the force involved caused something that could be loose to go out of allignment.

Either that or you braced yourself on the right hand side bar more than the left as you braked :)

[husky03]

i'd still be taking them off and servicing them no matter what

[sinbad]

i'd still be taking them off and servicing them no matter what

It never hurts, but it won't fix this problem (should a problem exist).

[husky03]

for peace of mind (imoa)

[Ceri JC]

Unlike a car a braking discrepancy between calipers will *not* cause a bike to pull to one side.


+1. Most small capacity bikes only have a disc on one side at the front (and think of your rear brake)! I would take it for a test ride and see if it happens again as it's possible that it was just chance that there was a groove/lump in the road surface pushing you to the side. Particularly common on the inside lane in motorways where lorries wear grooves in the road.

[Thingus]

Particularly common on the inside lane in motorways where lorries wear grooves in the road.

+1 happens a lot around here, if you ride in the middle of the road you'll notice a lump, if you stray to one side you'll sorta fall off it... not dangerous but noticeable.

If your brakes feel dodgy at all just clean 'em like has been said. Not a hard job and only an hours labour at a good place if you're not too sure of doing it yourself.

[TSM]

its unlikey but failed bearings, head bearings or fork bushes are all factors that can make the bike handle weird under breaking

but as everyone said, make sure it was not a a surface thing, go to flat road and check straight line breaking.

Also make sure you are not pushing or pulling the bars as you are breaking.