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Rejuvenating hardened brake pads by sanding them down?
My son was saying that the brakes on the road bike that he expropriated
from my wife were not working well. They are properly adjusted but I think that the pad material has hardened with age. My cyclist friend said that when this happens you just have to sand off a little of the surface which has hardened and the material underneath will be fine. Has anyone else done this? New pads aren't expensive, but if the old ones are still okay there's no benefit in buying new ones. The pads are the original pads from when my wife bought the bicycle, a Raleigh Technium, in 1986. |
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#2
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Rejuvenating hardened brake pads by sanding them down?
On Thursday, June 15, 2017 at 7:54:48 PM UTC-4, sms wrote:
My son was saying that the brakes on the road bike that he expropriated from my wife were not working well. They are properly adjusted but I think that the pad material has hardened with age. My cyclist friend said that when this happens you just have to sand off a little of the surface which has hardened and the material underneath will be fine. Has anyone else done this? New pads aren't expensive, but if the old ones are still okay there's no benefit in buying new ones. The pads are the original pads from when my wife bought the bicycle, a Raleigh Technium, in 1986. If the entire pad has hardened then sanding them wont't do much. Why gamble that brakes won't work when REALLY needed, due to hardened pads? Put new pads on and be safe and sure. Cheers |
#3
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Rejuvenating hardened brake pads by sanding them down?
On Thursday, June 15, 2017 at 4:54:48 PM UTC-7, sms wrote:
My son was saying that the brakes on the road bike that he expropriated from my wife were not working well. They are properly adjusted but I think that the pad material has hardened with age. My cyclist friend said that when this happens you just have to sand off a little of the surface which has hardened and the material underneath will be fine. Has anyone else done this? Yes The pads are 1986. Tell us how it works out |
#4
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Rejuvenating hardened brake pads by sanding them down?
On 6/15/2017 6:35 PM, Sir Ridesalot wrote:
On Thursday, June 15, 2017 at 7:54:48 PM UTC-4, sms wrote: My son was saying that the brakes on the road bike that he expropriated from my wife were not working well. They are properly adjusted but I think that the pad material has hardened with age. My cyclist friend said that when this happens you just have to sand off a little of the surface which has hardened and the material underneath will be fine. Has anyone else done this? New pads aren't expensive, but if the old ones are still okay there's no benefit in buying new ones. The pads are the original pads from when my wife bought the bicycle, a Raleigh Technium, in 1986. If the entire pad has hardened then sanding them wont't do much. Why gamble that brakes won't work when REALLY needed, due to hardened pads? Put new pads on and be safe and sure. Cheers I'll try new pads but I suspect that he's expecting too much from side-pull caliper brakes from that era, and is comparing them with the powerful brakes on his mountain bike. My daughter used that same bike for more than a year and on big hills at UC Santa Cruz, and she never had an issue with the brakes. |
#5
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Rejuvenating hardened brake pads by sanding them down?
On Thu, 15 Jun 2017 16:51:04 -0700, sms
wrote: My son was saying that the brakes on the road bike that he expropriated from my wife were not working well. They are properly adjusted but I think that the pad material has hardened with age. My cyclist friend said that when this happens you just have to sand off a little of the surface which has hardened and the material underneath will be fine. Has anyone else done this? New pads aren't expensive, but if the old ones are still okay there's no benefit in buying new ones. The pads are the original pads from when my wife bought the bicycle, a Raleigh Technium, in 1986. I've done it but more in the nature of removing a surface that is glazed, probably from grease or oil getting on the pads. In my case it did improve the braking. In any event it is cheap to try it. -- Cheers, John B. |
#6
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Rejuvenating hardened brake pads by sanding them down?
On 6/15/2017 10:13 PM, John B. wrote:
On Thu, 15 Jun 2017 16:51:04 -0700, sms wrote: My son was saying that the brakes on the road bike that he expropriated from my wife were not working well. They are properly adjusted but I think that the pad material has hardened with age. My cyclist friend said that when this happens you just have to sand off a little of the surface which has hardened and the material underneath will be fine. Has anyone else done this? New pads aren't expensive, but if the old ones are still okay there's no benefit in buying new ones. The pads are the original pads from when my wife bought the bicycle, a Raleigh Technium, in 1986. I've done it but more in the nature of removing a surface that is glazed, probably from grease or oil getting on the pads. In my case it did improve the braking. In any event it is cheap to try it. That's what I was going to say. How hard could it be to try it? -- - Frank Krygowski |
#7
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Rejuvenating hardened brake pads by sanding them down?
On Thu, 15 Jun 2017 16:51:04 -0700, sms
wrote: My son was saying that the brakes on the road bike that he expropriated from my wife were not working well. They are properly adjusted but I think that the pad material has hardened with age. My cyclist friend said that when this happens you just have to sand off a little of the surface which has hardened and the material underneath will be fine. Has anyone else done this? New pads aren't expensive, but if the old ones are still okay there's no benefit in buying new ones. The pads are the original pads from when my wife bought the bicycle, a Raleigh Technium, in 1986. I suspect that your son is about to repeat one of my mistakes. I sanded some brake pads long ago not because they had hardened but because I had installed them wrong and the pads were wearing at an angle. To straighten them out, I sandpapered until they were straight and flat, or so I thought. After remounting the front pads only, I went for a test ride. No problem stopping for about a mile. Then, the brakes required more and more pressure until they appeared to be chattering and slipping. Thinking that I sanded them wrong, I repeated the sandpaper ceremony, only to have a repeat performance of the brake failure. I then took off the front pads and looked at them under a microscope. There were gouges and rough areas similar to what I would expect to find if I installed a new set of automobile disc brake pads on a rotor that had not been turned. There just weren't enough points of contact between the rim and pad to provide sufficient braking friction. At this point, a sane person would have tossed the pads and installed something that was flat. Instead, I pressed some 800 or 1000 grit aluminum oxide sandpaper onto the aluminum rim while it spun. I then used a rotary polisher and some polishing compound. On my 3rd try, it produced a fairly shiny polished rim that appeared to be fairly flat. I then used some polishing compound on the brake pads to get them shiny and flat. Hints: Push very lightly when polishing the rubber pads. It helps to lubricate the sandpaper with water or light oil. When I replaced the front wheel and brake pads, the brakes now worked better than they ever had, and did not fade out during subsequent rides. I never followed up on this as it was far too much cost and work to justify saving worn or hardened pads. Still, it was interesting and somewhat of a surprise. You might also try softening the rubber. In computahs and hi-fi repair, the magic elixir is "rubber restorer" which is mostly xylene. This stuff, mixed with a little mineral oil, causes the rubber to temporarily swell, allowing the oil to fill the voids. After the xylene evaporates and pollutes the atmosphere, the rubber shrinks back to normal, but with the surface properly oiled. It's the oil that give the rubber the flexibility (and the loss of oil causes the hardness). I don't know which brand to suggest. The problem is that xylene is on the California list of banned VoC (volatile organic chemicals) products. http://www.ebay.com/gds/How-to-Restore-Rubber-/10000000177771171/g.html Fedron is probably the most well known product. https://www.amazon.com/Fedron-Rejuvenator-Offset-Blanket-Duplicating-Processing/dp/B00PKOUEPC https://www.amazon.com/MG-Chemicals-Rubber-Liquid-Bottle/dp/B008O9X3KS Incidentally, they all have a rather foul smell and should be used outdoors. -- Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558 |
#8
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Rejuvenating hardened brake pads by sanding them down?
86 ? Buy new pads
The subject requires more background than 'sanding' There is restore n tweak for tour or race https://www.google.com/search?gl=us&...HavcCwMQ2wEIIA With drums, remove surface contaminants with ? Gum out ( auto shoes) then remove glaze with fine grit n sanding block. More grip...no problems but the equipment is antique materials not late 20c bicycle. The pad shape if extreme suggests new pads n checking the system thereafter.. |
#9
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Rejuvenating hardened brake pads by sanding them down?
Cleaning surface is spraying a dolly with solv eg nt, wiping surface, spraying clean dolly area wiping g surface
,spraying clean dolly area wiping surface NOT soaking the bicycle with solvent Ztrying to not disturb the pads surface I assume the manual or blog would give specific advice fir pad types |
#10
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Rejuvenating hardened brake pads by sanding them down?
On Thursday, June 15, 2017 at 4:54:48 PM UTC-7, sms wrote:
My son was saying that the brakes on the road bike that he expropriated from my wife were not working well. They are properly adjusted but I think that the pad material has hardened with age. My cyclist friend said that when this happens you just have to sand off a little of the surface which has hardened and the material underneath will be fine. Has anyone else done this? New pads aren't expensive, but if the old ones are still okay there's no benefit in buying new ones. The pads are the original pads from when my wife bought the bicycle, a Raleigh Technium, in 1986. If he has ridden fairly new MTB's with V-brakes or Disks he is simply expecting more violent braking than those old caliper type brakes can give. You can LIGHTLY sand the shoes to restore them if they haven't hardened to the core. Shoes though are cheap and there is high coefficient of friction shoes available - I think they are softer and yellow. They make quite a difference but they also wear pretty fast. |
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