Winter Brake Maintenance

Having just spent a very cold afternoon replacing brake pads I’d like to offer some advice on preventative maintenance.

Brake Pads: Do not try to get the most out of them in terms of wear.

Why? As the pads wear the pistons protrude from the calliper and are exposed to dirt and grit which facilitate corrosion. When you fit new pads you’ll need to push the pistons back into the calliper to fit the new pads on. The crud and corrosion will prevent the piston sliding easily past the dust and piston seals and will increase the risk of damaging the seals, allowing brake fluid to leak out.

Brake cleaner is your friend. Apply it to your exposed pistons fortnightly over winter. You don’t need to disassemble the brakes, just spray it on directly and it will dissolve a lot of crap before evaporating away.

Also, my rear brake was sticking. This was not due to a seized calliper as I originally feared.

Basically the rear brake pedal has a hole in the middle which allows the footrest to attach to the footrest bracket.

Water had got between the two component surfaces and corrosion was preventing the rear brake pedal from moving independently. The footrest is immobilised by a groove in the footrest-bracket so basically the corrosion was preventing the rear brake pedal from returning to its position after being depressed resulting in the rear brake dragging.

I disassembled the components and cleaned it up with some WD-40 and an abrasive cloth.

This will all be old hat to some of you guys but I figure everyday someone new comes to biking so this will be useful knowledge to someone.

Merry Christmas!