SRAM HydroR questions

[wheelzqc]

Any ideas ? My rear brake is not as strong I think it should be. It gets a bit stronger when it's wet. Pads are SRAM, rotors are 160mm Shimano. They are not really old (from June and no hard riding) Any ideas ? Possible missmatch of rotor and pads ?! Also the front one, I can hear the "liquid" if I brake hard enough. Is that normal ?

thanks !

[motorapido]

Guess you've tried the obvious of bleeding the brakes, other possibilities are calliper misalignment causing only partial pad contact. glazed pads or contamination from the disc either with previous pad material used with the discs if they aren't new, or it could be a sticky piston. any other symptoms like a soft lever feel or squealing ?

[wheelzqc]

I've switched pads (front and back) and it looks like one pad is weaker. Now the other brake is the weakest one. They were squealing before but I believe it was due to sticky pistons as I think I've fixed that.

Weirdly at the lever, I have more pull with one set of pads then the other.

[motorapido]

Sounds like the weaker set of pads are contaminated with oil or brake fluid, best bet is to replace them and give the discs a good clean with brake cleaner before you bed the new pads in, it doesn't take much contamination to reduce the braking significantly.

[wheelzqc]

Thanks for the info. Have you had success sanding the pads down?

[motorapido]

Nope, best bet is just replace them, the oil or brake fluid will have soaked into the pad material and no manner of sanding will clean them up properly,

[wheelzqc]

Thanks again for the info/help.

[PhilippCX]

As pointed out already, your issues sees pad related.

In general though, I also find the stopping power of my Red Hydros somewhat lacking. I'm running 160/140 mm SRAM rotors front/rear and overall performance feels slightly worse than the mechanical(!) Shimpanso CX77 with Ashima Ai2 on my CX bike.

That being said, both systems are superior to any rim brake setup. In particular in wet conditions.

[wheelzqc]

I had a "oh shit I have to turn here and brake hard" moment yesterday and the power was easily accessible. I'm not sure I would want more power, it could lead to problems in a slippery ground, but I knew (by testing other bikes) that there was a problem with my setup.