The Brake Spring Trail...

Well it's not about another trail that has been discovered. With the tearing down everywhere for new development, fat chance of discovering anymore ride worthy areas.

How many people who used Shimano brakes experienced that notchy feeling in the servo wave cam and thought it was due to all the muck and grit thrown up during rides into the recesses of the levers? Lots of Q-tip and swiping at the roller and surrounding area followed by some lubing is the usual remedy...although chances are, the scratchy lever pull would soon return...

I knew from all the years that pushing the roller back in usually solves the issue briefly before it comes back and so far have attributed to the aforementioned "issues".  But the pair of XTR Trail levers here are lightly used. he roller hasn't even "dropped" for it to be able to be pushed  inwards...

Cleaning vigorously.. it will be fine for maybe a few lever pull before the sickening 'ticking" is felt again. The feeling is akin to crappy air shocks where you get that staggered feel as it moves through the travel.

Absentmindedly squeezing the front lever.. I look down and realize something was not right with the pads movement. Right side hardly moved. Pull it in towards the rotor and it moves freely, approximately equidistant to the left pad, during which in in those few squeezes, the lever was smooth. Then the pad stopped moving again and its back to the notchy feel in the lever... Weird.

Left: Off center spring right: bent back and centered

The misaligned spring was obvious but how it all leads up to the lever feel was not. However the fact that a one sided pad movement was somehow linked to the lever feel was all it takes to bend things back in place. (Though when movement is one sided, often it could signal more issues with the pistons being stuck, ).

Easy minor maintenance. Separately I have of course taken the brakes off and totally dismantled them and realigned the springs and clean out everything umpteen times which magically solves all the braking issue including those at the levers but never once thought how the two could be linked.


Out on a full ride today-- brakes working perfectly but damn I think my feeling about a vibrating fork lower at low speed braking is more than just the neurons swishing about in the head... more troubleshooting again.