How hard is it? Anyone have any pictures? Im pretty good at working on my bike but ive never done brakes and i dont want to screw them up.

remove the calipers and old pads. push the pistons back in with a c clamp (make sure you open your resevoir cap first) and install the new pads.

It's almost self explanatory when you get the caliper off.

Do one side at a time. If you want to know why.... well, just try it if you want to learn the hard way.

Ya, theres nothing to screw up in my opinion. You should be alright.

Ya, theres nothing to screw up in my opinion. You should be alright.

You can always screw up something! It's not "simple stupid" but close.

Yeah.... one last thing. Don't throw the shims away with your old pads!

Grasshopper say no extra parts!!! haha ...

Grasshopper say no extra parts!!! haha ...

they always give you extra parts, its amazing how many extra bolts/screws you can find when you strip something down.

When you can take the extra parts from the palm of my hand grasshopper ... then you will know the ways of the brake!

http://www.nostalgiacentral.com/images_tv/drama/kungfu_1.jpg

why do we do one side at a time?


first off, i'd clean the whole caliper.

take off the calipers (and wheels so you have more room)

- remove old pads (throw out the stupid dust shields),

- get you some brake cleaner and spray the caliper out like MAD - you might even pump the brakes up to push the piston out further, and spray all that.

-clean off the gunk with a old tooth brush or w/e you have

-clean your old rotors with some emory paper or that stupid green scrub pad your mom would use cleaning her counters or something. (get a new one though)

- so open the bleeder and have towel or catch can and push the piston back in.

-put in the new pads and bleed your brakes good to always be having fresh fluid in your system

Why? So we don't see a new thread from this guy on Monday saying "one of the pistons popped out and I've got brake fluid everywere".

haha that doesn't matter, just put it back in.

i'd suggest TAKING them out anyhow, to clean them.

I guess I don't know what you mean by one side at a time? I put the new pads in, space the pistons apart and put it on the rotor. Then do the other caliper?

Ya, by the very algorithm ya have to one at a time ... its kinda hard to do em at the same time unless ya have a friend and yell GO!

One at a time, meaning only one caliper pulled off at a time with the front wheel installed. That, or stuff the other one full of business cards to keep the pistons from pushing out.

If you want to keep it simple and just change the pads:

1) remove the calipers and don't remove the wheel
2) do not touch that brake lever one the pad it out.

If you do it like that, it's simple. (30 minutes for both front disks including taking out and putting away tools... that is if you don't have a stuck bolt).

When your brake fluide is due to be changed, you'll have to bleed you brake to change it anyhow... so decide to thoroughly clean your calipers then and change your pads at that time... but this will be a bigger job... especially if you don't have a special bleeding tool and you have to pump your brake to push out the fluid.

no special tool really needed to bleed your brakes. i've changed out a master cylinder and steel lines, and bled them through with in 10-15min of install after putting the mc and lines on.

but you really can't take out old pads, put in new pads. 99% of the time the new pads are thicker then the old ones, and will require you to space them out before you put it back on the caliper.

i've seen several and heard of several siezed calipers. you can almost contribute that to lack of bleeding, cleaning, and inspecting of brake systems.

Yes, cleaning is important. But you don't have to take the pistons out to do it. Nor do you have to break the system. New pads, full resivoir. The diaphram collapses as the pads wear. New pads, push the fluid back to the resivoir. No need to remove the cap. Closed systems don't change volume. Too many people keep topping off their brake system. As long as it's above the minimum mark, you're fine. In fact, opening the system is bad for it. You're just letting in more moisture.

How hard is it? Anyone have any pictures? Im pretty good at working on my bike but ive never done brakes and i dont want to screw them up.


if you can make a ham and cheese sandwich, youre golden

if you can make a ham and cheese sandwich, youre golden

I like that one! :punk

i think most of my comments are coming from the perspective of a motorcycle always being pushed hard.

no i don't mean any kind of canyon riding either. You don't run 150-200miles of constand knee dragging redline speeds in the canyons in one day, and do it 3 days at a time sometimes...

so, that is why i push if the system is apart go ahead and clean it the best you can now, b/c esp for street riders there is no telling when it'll be apart again.....3000 miles or the next tire change?

a racer has his bike alot more

http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=69233