Fettling the brakes
 

Tonight I have had my left hand front brake caliper off and gave it a really good clean and re greasing. ( Did the RHS one last week ) I didn't take the cyclinders out, but I have cleaned the gunk and dust off the pads and the sliding bits. And put plenty of copper grease on all the bolts and bits.
What I want to know is what is the red [other type] of grease inside the rubbers on the slide bits?

The LHS one was much worse than the RHS one, I imagine that the bike leans to the LHS on the sidestand, the RHS one is likely to be the first one to get attention.

Also second time around the little clip is much more straightforward and I put it back with my fingers, last week I was at it for about an hour and it was going dark and cold and I was starting getting rained on..

i might do this

The red grease on the pistons is actually called "Red Rubber Grease"-by Rock Oil at least. Other manufacturers will have different names for it. It is basically a grease which does not degrade the rubber components in a hydraulic system, and also does not react with brake/clutch fluid. Now you know :wink:

It's called the same by most makers, the most commonly found variety is Castrol Girling Red Rubber Grease.

Don't allow any other type grease to come into contact with the rubber parts of the brakes.

You may want to clean out the hole in the caliper through which the largish sliding pin and rubber boot goes. Even after cleaning and lubing the sliding pins on mine it wouldn't slide nicely. Turned out that there was corrosion between the rubber boot and the caliper body which was making the boot pinch the pin. Pull the rubber boot right out of the caliper, clean out white powdery crap in the hole with a 10mm twist drill in yer fingers then reassemble with plenty of grease between the boot and the caliper body. That C shaped bit with the 10mm pins on, needs to slide freely through the caliper body otherwise its only the piston side pad doing the braking work. IMHO!
JonC

Update on the brake caliper service and cleaning.
For a few days after I noticed that the front brake lever had become wooden, and lacking "feel". It was quite stiff to press, and the brakes didn't seem to work as well, I couldn't stop quickly in a controlled fashion like before.

Anyhow, tonight I bled the front brakes and they are working fantastic again. I went for a blast for an hour around the town to check them and they are much better, possibly better than they have ever been while I've had the bike..

moral of the story - Bleed the brakes after fettling :idea: :riding: