Mountain Bike Forums

The last time I used my mountain bike was a couple of weeks ago in heavy rain (Been preferring the dry comfort of a car ever since!!) I thought I’d brave the commute again yesterday, so set about giving the bike a quick wipe down and also thought a drop of oil on each of the axles wouldn’t hurt.

When I eventually set off to ride home from work I can only imagine I got a drop of oil on the rear disk, as my once-amazing brakes now do next to nothing.

How can I restore the brakes to be as powerful as they used to be? I tried wiping everything down with some washing-up liquid but it’s only helped a tiny bit. I read somewhere that putting some soil on the brakes would help. That sounds a bit nuts!!

Probably best starting off with a set of new pads, as likely that the oil will have soaked into the pads and contaminated them. Also, I wouldn’t recommend cleaning discs with washing up liquid as the detergent will leave behind a residue that will effect braking performance - you can buy specialist disc brake cleaner for this.

Poo, don’t really want to spend out on new pads. What I’ve done for the time being and had another go at cleaning them. Then switch the front and rear pads over, as the fornts are OK. Hopefully that will bring some braking back for my ride home tonight!

I feel there’s a lesson to be learned from this experience

And yeah, buy some more pads!

The lesson is just don’t bother oiling anything!! Also a drop of oil on my chain has succeeded in spraying one trouser leg with black oil, causing me to tread it into my carpet all over the house!! FFS All I was doing was trying to keep the bike maintained!! lol

never, ever, maintain your bike. It puts JDs out of business.

Johna - 28 June 2008 09:58 PM

never, ever, maintain your bike. It puts JDs out of business.

Not the mail order side Who cares about the service centre!