Front brake is slightly dragging, is it normal?

Yuri. · March 31, 2011, 12:21:38 AM

First I noticed, while lubing the chain, that the rear one was dragging a bit, so I loosened the brake pedal a little and now it's not dragging anymore.
So I decided to check the front brake also and it's dragging a bit, but unlike the rear one I had no idea how to solve that. Giving the wheel a hard push by hand it spins 2 times, also when riding I never noticed any dragging and when pushing it while parking I never had much trouble. Is that something to worry about?

mister · March 31, 2011, 01:38:58 AM

Front pad slightly touching rotor is normal.

Michael

Yuri. · March 31, 2011, 02:45:46 AM

Quote from: mister on March 31, 2011, 01:38:58 AM
Front pad slightly touching rotor is normal.

Michael

The question is up to what degree?
I've found an old thread where a guy recommends loosening the nut of the front wheel and forcing the wheel again a wall or something solid, I did that, plus a few bumps, and it got better, from 2 turns the wheel was now doing more than 3, I decided to do it more(WHY?) and it got back to where it was before, did it several more times and no luck.

AccidentalF · March 31, 2011, 04:46:56 AM

Theres really no mechanism to to pull the pads back from the rotor, no spring etc. With drag from the pads, bearings, dust seals, all of which are not new (i'm guessing) two revolutions doesn't sound too bad. If the rotor gets hot from cruising around without much braking, then be worried.

Yuri. · March 31, 2011, 11:45:10 AM

I see, thanks.
The bike is not really that old, 3 years and 9500kms, but I think even after I managed to make the wheel turn more than 3 times as I mentioned if I pumped the brake it would go back to where it was before.

scratch · March 31, 2011, 03:40:38 PM

Loosening the axle retaining bolt on the right leg is used to align the fork legs, but I don't see why you can't loosen that, spin the wheel, and then press down of the forks (no brakes)/push against a wall.

JAY W · April 01, 2011, 04:45:12 PM

I can`t understand why peaple are telling you to bang your wheel against a wall,ok if you want to push your bike a few meters or whatever.You need to clean the piston in your brake calliper and if still sticks fit new calliper seals,front brake grease the sliders.You will need to disconnect calliper remove pads pump piston out about 10mm carefully not to pump it right out and you can wrap a boot lace with some chrome cleaner round it,push back in with G clamp.Copper grease back of pads and reasemble.

PachmanP · April 01, 2011, 06:00:57 PM

Mine got a little better when I replaced the piston seals and cleaned them really good, but I agree that it's probably not a huge deal unless the rotor is getting hot.

gs500e · April 01, 2011, 07:04:46 PM

"Self-Adjusting Brakes
The single-piston floating-caliper disc brake is self-centering and self-adjusting. The caliper is able to slide from side to side so it will move to the center each time the brakes are applied. Also, since there is no spring to pull the pads away from the disc, the pads always stay in light contact with the rotor (the rubber piston seal and any wobble in the rotor may actually pull the pads a small distance away from the rotor). This is important because the pistons in the brakes are much larger in diameter than the ones in the master cylinder. If the brake pistons retracted into their cylinders, it might take several applications of the brake pedal to pump enough fluid into the brake cylinder to engage the brake pads.

Self-adjusting disc brake

Older cars had dual or four-piston fixed-caliper designs. A piston (or two) on each side of the rotor pushed the pad on that side. This design has been largely eliminated because single-piston designs are cheaper and more reliable."

It is completely normal for slight drag.

edit: source was 'howstuffworks.com'

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Front brake is slightly dragging, is it normal?