Ghetto Pad Contact adjustment.

[basikbiker]

This is a very specific mod/ bad idea i had and use. it works for me, but is in no way garunteed. so here it goes. i have hayes 9's on my demo and they engage too late and close to my fingers,and to get the correct lever reach it cant be done comfortably for me. i like my levers semi close and engage almost imediatly. so here is my solution since i absolutly hate bleeding my brakes. I have aftermarket levers so i dunno if itll work with other levers. take a ziptie and loop it through the lever and around the main lever body. slowly tighten the tie so it will pull the lever closer and closer. be sure to spin your wheel so that you dont tighten it too much. once you have your desired reach, use the normal lever reach to adjust your pad contact point. clip the excess tie and drop a drop of super glue into the little lock part of the tie. the pictures explain a lot. and it works for me, rode mammoth hit big stuff bounced around and off and they havent locked up my brakes or anything.

[madmikearmo]

there is an adjustment screw inside the lever that you loosen to fix your problem buddy.....or you can rebleed your brakes.

smart guy

[basikbiker]

Originally Posted by madmikearmo

there is an adjustment screw inside the lever that you loosen to fix your problem buddy.....or you can rebleed your brakes.

smart guy

yeah the adjustment screw is for lever reach, and i hate bleeding brakes with a passion. but this way i can adjust when the pads contact like a juicy 7.

[Sirbikesalot]

Have you every tried bleeding Hayes? Its really simple and would be way more reliable than zip ties. Its a neat idea to mess around with but I wouldn't rely on that method on a trail. A good trick to get good pad contact is to stick a buiscut (or something clean and slightly larger than a rotor) in the caliper right after bleeding and grab the brake lever a couple times. After this the contact point should be good and the rest can be done with the reach adjustment.

[madmikearmo]

im telling you. put the reach adjustment or whatever the fuuck you want to call it all the way out. this should work.

[Sirbikesalot]

Originally Posted by madmikearmo

im telling you. put the reach adjustment or whatever the fuuck you want to call it all the way out. this should work.

That will bring his levers really far out with a good cantact point on the pull. He's trying to get rid of the far initial grab. Juicy 7's are crazy, I love them. I finally bought 'em after having Hayes and havn't looked back.

I'm prolly over thinking it but holding the master cylinder down with the zip tie might have some negative effects since it never returns to open. I derno, something to think about.

[KevBurns]

Ghetto solution to a common problem. Kudos.

Just make sure that rotor stays nice and true