[Mayo]

hello boys!
in brought myself a 02 norco dh team a while ago (august) and scince then my brakes have begun to fade, there not real grabby i cant do endos anymore or anything.
its affecting my racing.
how do i get my brakes to work right? its like the pads have lots their grip.
and no i havent got lube or grease on the rotor and accidently rubbed it though, there just not working that well.
thanks
Mayo

 

[Brian HCM#1]

They may need bleeding.

 

[KonaDude]

If they have a solid lever feel (there is a noticeable stop when they engage the rotor, and cannot be compressed much further without a lot of effort), then they do not need to be bled.

It sometimes (rarely) happens that the pads become glazed if used hard, particularly when new. They may need to have the glazed surface removed by sanding. You may also want to remove the glazed surface of the rotor. I've never had to do this, but I have heard of this situation.

Also, you may not have touched your brake rotor or gotten any substances on it, but you'd be surprised how fascinated other people are with shiny things. Clean your rotors with ethyl alcohol, and see if that helps. If not, you may need to try new pads.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the process, try realigning your caliper. Undo the caliper fixing bolts (the ones that bolt the caliper to the adapter) just a little bit, enough to let the caliper move side to side. Now, either line the caliper up to have even space between the pads and the rotor by eye, or squish the brake lever to center the caliper, then alternately and slowly take the fixing bolts up to torque.

Hope this helps.

 

[shootr]

I know that this will sound like it is way too obvious to be the problem, but check anyways, as this was a problem with mine and I frustrated over it for almost a month and then felt like an idiot for not checking.

and the symptoms felt like the brakes needed bleeding, (similar to what you are feeling)

there is an adjustment screw for the mater cylinder on the inside of the lever (little allen key) and mine continually vibrate back out, so now I have glued them and no more probs.
they would slowly back out and suddenly my brakes would feel like the pads were glazed and not gripping, I changed the pads twice, and bled the system and finally niticed that the screw had backed off, adjusted it in and viola, instant fix.
good luck