Disk brakes? Hot!

Is there any warning I missed about not touching the disks? Is there
a limit to how long I can brake? Will long braking sessions cause
damage to the disks or brake pads?

Brakes get hot; don't touch them. Don't stick body parts in the chain or
the spokes. Do not wreck. Check your front tire mount often. Do not
attempt to remove a leaf which is rubbing a tire.

There. You've been warned.

There IS a limit to how long you can brake, just like in a car or any other
vehicle which uses friction brakes. You'll know when you've hit the limit:
they simply stop braking no matter how hard you apply them.

Just like in your car (if you are yet of driving age), you can indeed cook
the brakes, thereby shortening their life. That's why they make
replacement parts

"Pistof" wrote in message
. ..
Running w/ scissors is dumb, too.
Dave

Unless you are listening to the Wierd Al album of the same name!

ain wrote:

Hello everyone.

Kinda new here, been reading the newsgroup for about a week or two.

Just bought a new Specialized crossroads bike with disk brakes. I was riding
down a hill earlier tonight, It was pretty steep grade so I had the brakes
on all the way down, about a full minute give or take.

I was wondering if the disk brakes got warm after having them on for so long
so after I got down to the bottom of the hill I did a stupid thing. I
stopped, got off the bike, and touched the disk. I almost burned the skin
off my fingers, they were like 400 degrees.

Is there any warning I missed about not touching the disks? Is there a limit
to how long I can brake? Will long braking sessions cause damage to the
disks or brake pads?

Thanks in advance.


Welcome to AM-B. Went straight for the initiation did you?
;-)

Cheers,
Shawn

"ain" wrote:
Just bought a new Specialized crossroads bike with disk brakes. I was riding
down a hill earlier tonight, It was pretty steep grade so I had the brakes
on all the way down, about a full minute give or take.

I was wondering if the disk brakes got warm after having them on for so long
so after I got down to the bottom of the hill I did a stupid thing. I
stopped, got off the bike, and touched the disk. I almost burned the skin
off my fingers, they were like 400 degrees.

Is there any warning I missed about not touching the disks?

See there all you parents out there, this is what happens when you protect
your children from "unsupervised playtime". You get a whole population of
adults who expect everything that they touch to behave like a Fisher-Price
toy. No sharp edges, hot surfaces, etc.

See, life isn't like that. There's sharp, hot, caustic, dirty, and otherwise
unsafe stuff EVERYWHERE. If you don't learn that before you leave high
school, when do you learn it?

When I was a kid, my parents literally sent me out to play with a can of
lighter fluid and a box of matches. And I turned out OK.
--
Tom "who really needs eyelashes anyway?" Purvis
Salida, CO - http://www.arkansasvalley.net/tpurvis/

Tom Purvis wrote:

"ain" wrote:

Just bought a new Specialized crossroads bike with disk brakes. I was riding
down a hill earlier tonight, It was pretty steep grade so I had the brakes
on all the way down, about a full minute give or take.

I was wondering if the disk brakes got warm after having them on for so long
so after I got down to the bottom of the hill I did a stupid thing. I
stopped, got off the bike, and touched the disk. I almost burned the skin
off my fingers, they were like 400 degrees.

Is there any warning I missed about not touching the disks?


See there all you parents out there, this is what happens when you protect
your children from "unsupervised playtime". You get a whole population of
adults who expect everything that they touch to behave like a Fisher-Price
toy. No sharp edges, hot surfaces, etc.

See, life isn't like that. There's sharp, hot, caustic, dirty, and otherwise
unsafe stuff EVERYWHERE. If you don't learn that before you leave high
school, when do you learn it?

When I was a kid, my parents literally sent me out to play with a can of
lighter fluid and a box of matches. And I turned out OK.

You going on the Absolute ride today? Just leave the lighter fluid at
home OK?

Shawn

Tom Purvis wrote:
When I was a kid, my parents literally sent me out to play with a can
of lighter fluid and a box of matches.

Was this by any chance right after they took out a life insurance policy on
you?

And I turned out OK.

Yeah, much to their chagrin!

Bill "Little Tommy Boom-boom?" S.

On Tue, 04 May 2004 06:50:13 -0400, Zilla wrote:

Is there any warning I missed about not touching the disks? Is there
a limit to how long I can brake? Will long braking sessions cause
damage to the disks or brake pads?

Well, talk to any old timer roadie about sewups. They're glued to the
rims; too much braking and the glue melts and the tire comes off.

Sewups make for some seriously fast descents....

As for your question, where does the kinetic energy of you+bike@some high
speed go? Into heat. The only way you dissipate that energy, short of
hitting a large fixed object, is by converting it into heat. Rims get
warm; they have a larger surface area. Disks get hot; smaller surface
area.

And as for the warning, wasn't the yowling you heard warning enough? Will
you do it again? :-)

-Kamus

"Tom Purvis" wrote in message
om...
See there all you parents out there, this is what happens when you protect
your children from "unsupervised playtime". You get a whole population of
adults who expect everything that they touch to behave like a Fisher-Price
toy. No sharp edges, hot surfaces, etc.

Agreed. I am not that way with my son at all. I think that plays into why
so many Americans are sue happy.

ain wrote:
Hello everyone.

Kinda new here, been reading the newsgroup for about a week or two.

Just bought a new Specialized crossroads bike with disk brakes. I was
riding down a hill earlier tonight, It was pretty steep grade so I
had the brakes on all the way down, about a full minute give or take.

I was wondering if the disk brakes got warm after having them on for
so long so after I got down to the bottom of the hill I did a stupid
thing. I stopped, got off the bike, and touched the disk. I almost
burned the skin off my fingers, they were like 400 degrees.

Who's got that photo of the glow in the dark disc rotors that was posted
ages back?
Was that one of your's, Slacker????
It was a night-time photo of a blurry bike and you could see the rotors
glowing orange!

--
Westie
(Replace 'invalid' with 'yahoo' when replying.)

Westie wrote:
ain wrote:
Hello everyone.

Kinda new here, been reading the newsgroup for about a week or two.

Just bought a new Specialized crossroads bike with disk brakes. I was
riding down a hill earlier tonight, It was pretty steep grade so I
had the brakes on all the way down, about a full minute give or take.

I was wondering if the disk brakes got warm after having them on for
so long so after I got down to the bottom of the hill I did a stupid
thing. I stopped, got off the bike, and touched the disk. I almost
burned the skin off my fingers, they were like 400 degrees.

Who's got that photo of the glow in the dark disc rotors that was
posted ages back?
Was that one of your's, Slacker????
It was a night-time photo of a blurry bike and you could see the
rotors glowing orange!

My car has those .