- Welcome to another Maintenance Monday.
This week we are going to be focusing on
how to change your brake pads
or brake blocks as they can otherwise be known.
We'll also talk you though a few set up tips
and help you identify when your pads
actually need replacing as well.
(metal clashing)
If you're currently riding your bike a lot
in the wet, wintry weather
or you have lots of steep descents where you live,
or you're commuting on it daily,
you're going to need to check your pads for wear
more regularly than if you're just riding
in the warm sunshine.
That seems like a distant memory, doesn't it.
At this point you're going to need to establish
exactly what sort of pads you have.
Do you have a brake block where the pad
is integrated into the mounting system
or do you have a cartridge pad?
If you have a brake block,
we'll first address how you change that.
To gain easier access to your pad,
I would first always recommend removing the wheel.
You're likely to have some sort of quick release
which will open the caliper up,
simply undo your quick release
and remove the wheel.
I'm going to do the front one
just because it's that little bit easier.
Now first off, we're going to focus on the brake blocks,
the one piece item.
Traditionally these will be removed with either an Allen key
or as this one is, with a spanner,
an eight mill spanner in this case.
These would be mounted on the side of your pad
just like the cartridge pads
and they have the adjustability built into the collar
and the washer system.
So be careful that these washers are reapplied
in exactly the same order as they're removed.
You may find it easier to take pictures of this
whilst you're doing that.
Or keep the instructions to hand from the new set
that you just purchased.
To help you decide if you need to replace your pads or not,
you should remove them from the bike
and have a good, thorough look over them.
The pads should have a good couple of millimeters
left for water drainage,
a couple millimeters of grooving that is.
And you should also check that there aren't any
small stones seated and embedded into the pad
or little bits of aluminum,
as this will seriously eat away at your wheels
and cause faster wear to your rims.
Most pads will come with a wear indicator
built into them somewhere
and if you're not happy with how your pads are,
then it's definitely time to replace them.
Now, remounting these is simply the reverse
of removing them in the first place
and is very easy to do so
but the most important thing to remember
is to keep the washers in exactly the same order
as these will help position the pad against the rim
and that will help increase, decrease,
and alter your braking performance.
So what if, like me, you don't have
a brake block like this one?
Well then there's a chance
you're going to have one of these cartridge pads
in which case the removal is actually that little bit easier
because the pad will remain adjusted in the rim
because it's mounted separately from the cartridge.
Simply find an Allen key of the correct size,
now be really careful because these do often
have a tendency to round off.
And unwind it ever so slightly
leaving the little grub screw in there.
And you should be able to just pop the pad out quite easily.
Just like that.
Once you've removed the pad from the bike,
it's going to be a lot easier to see
just how far the pad is away from the wear indicator.
Now, this is a carbon fiber brake pad from Zip
and that's 'cause I'm using carbon wheels.
These don't wear quite as quickly
as an aluminum brake pad do.
Probably because of the lack of friction
that's used in the braking forces.
Now, I've removed this one from the bike,
it doesn't actually need replacing 'cause it's fairly new
so I'm just going to repeat the process
and slide it back in to the pad from behind.
And then simply finger tighten the grub screw back up
with the Allen key.
It's a two mill Allen key on this one,
each system's going to be slightly different
but they're generally two to three millimeters.
Excellent, I'm going to do the same on the other side then
and repeat the process.
Check the health of the pad,
check there are no stones
or little bits of shrapnel lodged into it,
and as you can see, it really is very, very easy.
Yep, that one looks good as well.
Retighten that grub screw,
imagine that was a set of brand new pads,
and you're done.
The only thing now we need to do is check over the rim,
check that there's nothing worn on there.
Check that that looks like it's in good condition
and it's not causing the brake pads any problems.
And then check the alignment of the pads on the rims.
So there's one more thing to add about these cartridge pads,
and that is because of the direction of the wheel,
it's constantly spinning that way through the forks,
you don't really need to worry about
these grub screws too much,
you don't need to over tighten them.
All they're doing is just sitting there
and they come with a little bit of Loctite
or something similar on the threads already.
So the chance of them actually coming out
is incredibly small.
In some cases, I've seen riders ride
without these in the past.
I would advise it because if you roll backwards
and put your brakes on, the pads will fall out
but in normal use, you'll be absolutely fine.
Now it's time to reintroduce the wheel.
Make sure the quick release is still open
in your front caliper,
clamp it up, I'd normally do this on the floor
just to make sure the wheel sits correctly in the drop outs.
Close the quick release up.
Now, if you've replaced your pads,
you may find that you need to undo this
and allow a little bit of cable to slip through.
But because my pads are the same as before,
it's absolutely fine.
Now, this is the point where
you may need to make some adjustments
to the toe in or the toe out of your pad,
maybe even adjust the angle.
If your pads have been in there a while
and they've worn right down almost to the cartridge,
you're probably going to need to adjust them quite a lot,
especially if you'd stayed on top of that adjustment before.
Now what you'd have to do is get
a four mill Allen key on this one,
unscrew it and the best way to adjust them
is actually to hold the caliper on
or pull the brake lever gently
whilst making those minor adjustments in there.
If you are making adjustments to this,
the best way I find to do this
is to pull the brake lever on quite hard,
unscrew this bolt and then when it comes to setting it up,
it's best to put a little piece of card
in at the back of the pad
as that will allow you a little bit of toe in
which will help with modulation
and also with correct braking performance.
So a credit card or something similar,
I'm using my driving license.
Make sure the pad hits the rim nice and squarely
so it's following the same sort of curvature of the wheel,
put it right in the middle of the braking area
and then simply squeeze the lever hard
and tighten it up.
Do this on both sides
and you'll have perfect braking performance all the time.
The next thing to do is to make sure your brake pads
are hitting the rim squarely,
that means they're both hitting at exactly the same time.
That way you get that nice, satisfying,
pounding noise on the rim.
These are dual pivot calipers and because of that,
they have this little adjustment screw on the side
which will help angle the caliper from one side to the next.
You'll quickly see by screwing it one way,
you're skewing the action of the caliper
and by unwinding it and screwing it the other way,
you're reversing that procedure.
Put it right in the middle
and you'll have perfect braking performance
for that really satisfying sound I mentioned before.
You'll also have a lighter lever action
and more consistent braking.
Now, the final step, once you're really happy,
is to make sure that everything is nice and tight.
You've used these concave washers
to make the adjustment for the toe in and the toe out.
And also you've made sure that everything's aligned
with the rim and the braking surface
is being met right in the middle.
Then squeeze the caliper, make sure they are nice and tight,
there will be a recommended torque setting
but you can also do that on feel.
But the most important one to get tight
is indeed the cable, as ultimately if that slips,
you're going to be in a spot of bother.
I'm pretty happy with that,
I'm looking forward to testing it out.
So there you have it, it really is quite simple
to replace the brake pads or the brake blocks on your bike.
Just remember, reverse the steps that you took
to remove the pads from your bike
when it comes to remounting them
and then absolutely nail that fine tuning at the end
as that really is what's going to improve
your braking performance.
If you enjoyed this video, and you found it useful,
do give it a thumbs up.
And for more Maintenance Mondays, click just down there.