So I was stripping the flaking paint off of my Shiver the other day and somehow managed to loosen the bolt on the bottom left side of my fork leg. Needless to say, I managed to get oil on everything, including my brakes. As everyone knows, oil + pads = zero stopping power.
I tried the baking, I tried the burn with rubbing alcohol and isopropyl alcohol, along with everything else that people had suggested, and nothing seemed to work. Then I got a bright idea. Oil is just a hydrocarbon, insoluble in water, but very soluble in an organic solvent. And being as that I'm getting a chemistry degree, the two little gears started tinking, and an organic solvent I could readily get my hands on came to mind. It's the ever-so-useful (and cheap) acetone.
The procedure:
I took my rotor and pads off my bike and soaked them in a covered acetone bath for about two hours (acetone boils at about 130 degrees, low enough to evaporate a bath in a couple hours at room temperature), twice removing the and wiping them down with a paper towel and swirling the acetone around. The bath at this point had taken on a very dirty apprearance. I pulled everything out, wiped the rotor with a clean paper towel and set it aside. Then I rinsed the pads with fresh acetone, and placed over a heat source (a hair dryer - but be sure to not combine those two steps, unless you really want to start a fire) to dry them and remove any acetone still on the pads. I reinstalled everything on my bike and after about 2 minutes of use, they worked better than before.
The moral of the story is that it's good to know that my $30K invested in college has paid off - I saved $20 on new brake pads. Maybe now my investment will help someone else out.
I tried the baking, I tried the burn with rubbing alcohol and isopropyl alcohol, along with everything else that people had suggested, and nothing seemed to work. Then I got a bright idea. Oil is just a hydrocarbon, insoluble in water, but very soluble in an organic solvent. And being as that I'm getting a chemistry degree, the two little gears started tinking, and an organic solvent I could readily get my hands on came to mind. It's the ever-so-useful (and cheap) acetone.
The procedure:
I took my rotor and pads off my bike and soaked them in a covered acetone bath for about two hours (acetone boils at about 130 degrees, low enough to evaporate a bath in a couple hours at room temperature), twice removing the and wiping them down with a paper towel and swirling the acetone around. The bath at this point had taken on a very dirty apprearance. I pulled everything out, wiped the rotor with a clean paper towel and set it aside. Then I rinsed the pads with fresh acetone, and placed over a heat source (a hair dryer - but be sure to not combine those two steps, unless you really want to start a fire) to dry them and remove any acetone still on the pads. I reinstalled everything on my bike and after about 2 minutes of use, they worked better than before.
The moral of the story is that it's good to know that my $30K invested in college has paid off - I saved $20 on new brake pads. Maybe now my investment will help someone else out.