[sneakysnake]

Ok, I feel amazingly stupid for asking this but oh well. Here it goes, I got new brake pads (i have hayes nine brakes) for my xc bike and I changed them today and they were stupidly tight against the rotor, so much so that I had to work to get the wheel to turn.

So my question is what am I either not doing, or not doing right.

 

[binary visions]

Did you just pull the old pads out and put the new pads in?

Pull the wheel off and pull the pads out. Then take something like the open end of a 10mm wrench and use it to push the pistons back as far as you can (the pistons are the little round things on the inside of the calipers that push your brake pads against the rotors). You can use really anything as long as you're pushing on the piston itself and not on the little post in the middle of the piston that the pads clip to.

Do that on both sides. Then re-install your pads, re-install your wheel and pump your brakes several times. You should be good to go.

 

[sneakysnake]

Wonderful, thankyou very much.

 

[sanjuro]

btw, the reason why BV told you to use an open end wrench (as opposed to a screwdriver) is that Hayes has a smal post inside each piston which locks in the pad (if I am not mistaken).

Bend this post and you will have to replace the piston, which is basically destroying the brake....

 

[sunny]

I am so glad you people who know these things are around to answer these questions! :love:

I had a customer ask me today if there were any f/s bike bigger than the XL Epic (which has a 25" horizontal toptube length). I told him I could ask on RM and someone would be able to give me an answer...

He ended up going with a Rockhopper 23" (with a 26" TT length). He's primarily wanting to do adventure race, so suspension wasn't necessarily a priority. But knowing that I could ask almost anything and someone here would be able to give me the answer... PRICELESS!

Thanks guys!