"How to adjust your brakes and stop rotor rubbing"

PB Forum :: Beginners
"How to adjust your brakes and stop rotor rubbing"
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flag Rattsl
Posted: Mar 1, 2010 at 9:01 Quote
Things I do to stop rotor rubbing.

First. With rider off bike, apply brake presssure to problematic brake and watch if rotor moves to one side, towards wheel or outside. If so, loosen top two bolts that hold the caliper to the adapters for the frame. Then apply pressure again and tighten bolts enough so it just holds for another adjustment, spin wheel and check if rotor still moves, if so, loosen bolts a tad bit, not so it's super loose, but enough to move the caliper and move the caliper till the rotor doesn't have a lateral movement.

Stop squeeking.

First, if that didn't help^^^ then remove wheel off bike, get some rubbing alcohol, fine sandpaper and a torx key to remove rotor for better cleaning. Remove brake pads and put the sandpaper facing up towards you, in the direction of natural rotor movement, place pad facing braking face down into the sandpaper and start rubbing off the excess dirt and grime it has collected over time. You will see black then brown little bits of material. You should see the pad should have a crystal like color to it, kind of like Ti Ni, or a goldish color, way better than black or brown.
Next, take your rotor and apply some alcohol on it, some people will sand down their rotors as well, but you don't have to. Give your rotor an alcohol bath and clean it with a dry rag. Re-install everything and grab your bike. It will howl for a few minutes, but after a couple hard stops, it should be back to normal and feeling good as new.

If you have any other tips, post them up. This is to help out beginners and those alike.


To adjust a mech disc brake so it will feel close to a hydro with some modulation, get a good lever. Get some compressionless housing and slick cable, lube the cable or add some Shimano Special Grease and run it on the cable, adjust the caliper as said above and you should have a sweet mech brake system.
flag mhopper
Posted: Mar 10, 2010 at 11:01 Quote
Another solution is floating rotors such as the superstar floating rotor of the hope floating rotor
flag EdsE
Posted: Mar 10, 2010 at 11:05 Quote
I've tried sanding and so on but that doesn't work that well in rainy belgium. What did work perfectly. I wouldn't recommend doing because its quite hard. Is to apply grease on the backside of your brakepads. Not on the brake surface itself. But on the other side. Works perfect. Increases power and stops squealing. Just make sure none is on the other side or it is bye bye pads.
flag Rattsl
Posted: Mar 10, 2010 at 11:06 Quote
EdsE wrote:
I've tried sanding and so on but that doesn't work that well in rainy belgium. What did work perfectly. I wouldn't recommend doing because its quite hard. Is to apply grease on the backside of your brakepads. Not on the brake surface itself. But on the other side. Works perfect. Increases power and stops squealing. Just make sure none is on the other side or it is bye bye pads.
Is this for hydro or mech? What type of grease?
flag Blk-Mrkt
Posted: Mar 10, 2010 at 11:06 Quote
Yeah I have this problem except my rub is soo bad I crank my wheel with it suspended and it rolls for like 3 seconds which is A mungrel and I can't adjust it because it's rubbing towards the frame not the wheel :/
flag mayacorps
Posted: Mar 10, 2010 at 11:07 Quote
Hi there !

Here you can find the solution ( applicable to all disc bike's brakes ):
1. http://www.hopegb.com/page_mep_force_39.html
2. http://www.hopegb.com/page_mep_force_38.html3
3. http://steveukmtb.wordpress.com/

Watch the instruction clips carrefuly and I promise it'll help your brakes :-)

Greets.
flag Rattsl
Posted: Mar 10, 2010 at 11:07 Quote
Blk-Mrkt wrote:
Yeah I have this problem except my rub is soo bad I crank my wheel with it suspended and it rolls for like 3 seconds which is A mungrel and I can't adjust it because it's rubbing towards the frame not the wheel :/

What do you mean towards the frame? Loosen the bolts like I said.

These right here. Unsecure image, only https images allowed: http://www.thetrialsinshop.com/images/brakes/avid_bb7.jpg
The one that connects caliper to adapter.
flag EdsE
Posted: Mar 10, 2010 at 11:09 Quote
Rattsl wrote:
EdsE wrote:
I've tried sanding and so on but that doesn't work that well in rainy belgium. What did work perfectly. I wouldn't recommend doing because its quite hard. Is to apply grease on the backside of your brakepads. Not on the brake surface itself. But on the other side. Works perfect. Increases power and stops squealing. Just make sure none is on the other side or it is bye bye pads.
Is this for hydro or mech? What type of grease?
Hydro. Mech wouldn't make a difference I suppose when you do it or not. And normal white thick grease.
flag Rattsl
Posted: Mar 10, 2010 at 11:18 Quote
EdsE wrote:
Rattsl wrote:
EdsE wrote:
I've tried sanding and so on but that doesn't work that well in rainy belgium. What did work perfectly. I wouldn't recommend doing because its quite hard. Is to apply grease on the backside of your brakepads. Not on the brake surface itself. But on the other side. Works perfect. Increases power and stops squealing. Just make sure none is on the other side or it is bye bye pads.
Is this for hydro or mech? What type of grease?
Hydro. Mech wouldn't make a difference I suppose when you do it or not. And normal white thick grease.

I would have to check how that works out. Never heard that method.
flag seraph
Posted: Mar 10, 2010 at 11:22 Quote
p2ftw wrote:
Another solution is floating rotors such as the superstar floating rotor of the hope floating rotor

Floating rotors are almost constantly rubbing on the pads though. You should read the topic before you post next time.
flag Rattsl
Posted: Mar 10, 2010 at 11:25 Quote
Agreed, floating rotors technically are constantly rubbing because they sit "loose" on the hub, so rotor will move whatever direction the pad is in and when you brake, thats when the rotor aligns itself.
flag dkidd
O+
Posted: Mar 10, 2010 at 11:52 Quote
First: use clean water instead of iso- cleans away most pollutants, and wont cause excess squeal. Just pour clean h20 over your rotor while spinning the wheel and applying the brake.
secondly, a bit of copper compound (anti-seize type) on your rotor will stop most squealing. Keep in mind that until its burnt in your brakes will not work very well.
Those are the only tips I have to add right now.
flag Rattsl
Posted: Mar 10, 2010 at 11:54 Quote
Also, some people don't like brake squeeling at all either. So if you can recommend rotors unlike Avid it would be nice. I have been told Formula rotors are great.
flag pbuser102331
Posted: Mar 10, 2010 at 12:18 Quote
Copper slip on the back side of the pads can reduce squeal.

If your having trouble aligning up your pads during the setup and find that the pad rubs to one side even after adjustment slip in some paper in between the pad and rotor and adjust as normal,this will off set the caliper to where you need it.
flag lafalot
Posted: Mar 10, 2010 at 12:29 Quote
+1 for copper slip (brand name Copa slip) Use this instead of regular grease on the back of pads, because it is high temperature rated to around 1000 Celsius and is used on back of car brake pads for the same purpose. The problem with grease is that if you run sintered pads, the grease will heat up and start burning and making a mess in the caliper.

Also if fork/frame IS mount is not perfectly straight (needs to be faced), and you have a non-avid brake, you can get away with it by using avid IS adaptors which will allow fitting of those tri-align washers to allow adjustment of the brake on a 3rd axis.
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