Advice on Brakes

[Anonymous]

I just put new front brake pads on my '80 GS850G. After bumbling through the process and leaving off the chatter clips the first time, etc. they finally work great, without noise and stop hard. However, after I was done and test ridden, I noticed that the rotors seemed very hot. I didn't do any extreme braking by any means. The wheel seems to turn reasonably freely (easy to push bike and no unusual noise) so I'm not sure that I should be worried about this (I never really checked before). Can I get advice as to whether I should be concerned about really hot rotors and or any other potential problems this nice old bike may have...thanks g

[Anonymous]

I'd bet it might be part of a break-in process (no pun intended).

Michael

[earlfor]

Re: Advice on Brakes

New pads are frequently at maximum thickness the opening of the calipers will allow. Consequently, they initially rub a little more until they seat. Its normal for a pad to drag slightly. As long as you can put the bike on the centerstand and turn the wheel with you hand without excessive effort, everything is fine. Give them a hunred miles or so to wear in.
Dont worry about it. :-)

Earl

I just put new front brake pads on my '80 GS850G. After bumbling through the process and leaving off the chatter clips the first time, etc. they finally work great, without noise and stop hard. However, after I was done and test ridden, I noticed that the rotors seemed very hot. I didn't do any extreme braking by any means. The wheel seems to turn reasonably freely (easy to push bike and no unusual noise) so I'm not sure that I should be worried about this (I never really checked before). Can I get advice as to whether I should be concerned about really hot rotors and or any other potential problems this nice old bike may have...thanks g

[bwringer]

PLEASE check that you can still spin the tire by hand before riding again!

We need to keep all the GS850 riders and their bikes alive!

A little extra drag and heat is normal as the new pads bed in, but you shouldn't be getting a lot of "hot brake" odor or other symptoms of sticking (like no brakes...)

[Anonymous]

Thanks all for your responses on this. I am in agreement that we need to keep all our GS850 riders alive. Especially me. Along those lines if there is too much drag to easily spin the wheel by hand, what other things should I be looking for (ie: caliper bleed, sticking pistons, etc). Is there anything inherent to this bike that would cause this? The reason I changed these pads were that the fork seals had leaked oil all over the pads and they were all messed up. Since they were well oiled I had never seen any heat issues...