|   Need advice on heat stressed brakes | K.J.
Jul 21, 2003 3:26 PM | | I'm a xc geek who rides xc type trails 99.9% of the time, but yesterday I ended up doing a very long and steep downhill (4000 vertical-ft in 6 miles) which totally fried my disc brakes. I'm looking for some advice on how to treat heat stressed brakes (if at all). I have Hope Mini's set-up for xc use (F=165mm; R=145mm) and I'm uncertain how much abuse (heat stress) they can take before some preventative maintained is required.
The details on brake performance during the descent: 1) The brakes didn't fail at any point during the descent, but got EXTREMELY HOT (clearly no air or water moisture in the system). 2) Rear brake did develop some pump due to fluid expansion, but operated normally during the descent. 4) The brakes didn't develop any leaks (thank god) 5) Definitely burnt the Fibrax brake pads (smelled 'em) and started to squeal like a stuck pig at which point braking power started to fade slightly. 6) The brakes seem to work like normal once they cooled down.
So now what?? Do they need a re-bleed at this point (they contain DOT 5.1)? How about the brake pads?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks much.
Ride-On |
| Replace the pads, maybe, that's it.... | Monte
Jul 21, 2003 4:20 PM | | from your description the brakes sound like they are fine.
Monte |
| re: Need advice on heat stressed brakes | Dougal
Jul 21, 2003 5:26 PM | | They'll probably be fine, but there may be a film of glaze on the rotors and pads that wear off with use.
One of my mates cooked my hayes (turned the rotors blue) a few years ago. Once I wore through the glaze they returned to normal. I now run DOT 5.1 (super DOT 4), but back then they got hot enough to spew some of the stock fluid out.
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