Campagnolo H11 Pad/Rotor Clearance

[RyanH]

I can't find documentation on what it's supposed to be but I don't think there is enough clearance for a sheet of paper (~0.05mm to 0.1mm). How much clearance should there be? A friend stopped by and glances at it and said Shimano clearance is at least 3x of what mine is setup at the moment.

Obviously, this has made centering the calipers a royal PITA and random rub throughout my ride.

Assuming that this isn't correctly setup, since I have the bleed kit do I need to start over or something else?

[TobinHatesYou]

Only thing I can think of is too much hydro fluid when it was initially bled...if the pistons weren’t reset before the end of the process. However this usually just results in really low lever throw, and not pad clearance issues.

My Hope RX4s have enough space for one business card on either side with new pads. My SRAM HRD pads had about .4mm on either side.

[jeanjacques]

0.4 ? My Sram Red is less than that, two sheet of paper one side, little bit less on the other. No rub but take time to have it perfect.
I tried a shorter lever pull (bleed with piston little bit outside), it works but no clearance change.

[RyanH]

I stopped by a shop that deals primarily in MTB and they were able to true the rotor enough that I didn't get any rub today. His only comment was how thick the H11 rotor was compared to what he normally sees.

I'm still not positive that it isn't a bleed issue because Campy H11 has two leverage settings and you're supposed to set it to Short when you bleed the brakes. I don't know what happens if you put it in Long.

[TobinHatesYou]

SRAM instructs you to back out the contact point adjuster too. It prevents overfilling the system.

[graeme_f_k]

I stopped by a shop that deals primarily in MTB and they were able to true the rotor enough that I didn't get any rub today. His only comment was how thick the H11 rotor was compared to what he normally sees.

I'm still not positive that it isn't a bleed issue because Campy H11 has two leverage settings and you're supposed to set it to Short when you bleed the brakes. I don't know what happens if you put it in Long.

Did you use the Campagnolo oil level tool when you did the initial fill and bleed?
If you fill / bleed "pads in", on the rotor, or if you use an alternative bleed block of different thickness, you may end up with an incorrect intial setting of the pistons and / or an incorrect fluid volume, either of which will compromise brake performance.

The setting to short bite point pre-filling / bleeding is there to prevent the system ending up with too much oil in it - if you set the bite point to "long" and fill the system, the port to the resovoir in the master cylinder that diverts a percentage of the oil moved by the master cylinder into the resovoir on stroking the lever is opened, so you will fill the system with an excess of oil equal to that volume.

Heating of the brakes causes fluid expansion, so if, in the bleed process, you have already (incorrectly) used some of the resovoir volume by beeding the brake with the bite point incorrectly set, it's possible to get a brake that binds and heats, binds and heats beacsue the expansion now has nowhere to go.

Having said that, this will not directly affect pad clearance, which is a function of correctly matched caliper and master cylinder volumes and the design of the seal at the piston which effectively "self adjusts" the system for pad wear.

I'd suggest dropping the wheels and pads out, purging the system, and starting again from sctratch with the oil level tool, both the levers set on long travel and short bite point. I've set up this system literally hundreds of times on multiple bikes and found no problem with set-up if the instructions are correctly followed.

The thickness of the rotor (1.85mm) is an irrelevance to this problem, the system is designed for that initial thickness of rotor ...

[brearley]

Having issues with this with the pad having barely any clearance at all. The rear seems fine but the front has had issues. Was originally bled by lbs who then had another go at it but didn't resolve the pad clearance issues.
I got myself a bleed kit and that didn't clear it up either.
I ran with xtr rotors at 1.65mm and campagnolo rotors at 1.80mm
Lever throw seems to be the same front and rear?

The lbs said when they bled a 2nd time there was an air lock in the system and they had to bleed it upside down on the recommendation of campagnolo representatives

How would I go about purging the system as above? Pull fluid from the bottom syringe?
I've also not seen an oil level tool? Only the two syringes

[rudye9mr]

The birzman spacer has been veryhelpful in swapping between wheels...i essentially place tool on rotor...thread it through the pads...squeeze brakes....

I may do on whole circumference of rotor if i get any rub on free rotation of wheel.

https://www.bike24.com/p2262520.html
^oil level tool

[okx]

Visually it's about 0.5-0.7mm from both sides of the disk.
If everything done correctlly and by campagnolo manuals it should be perfect.
Actually campag disk brakes is the only reason, why I'm sticking to campag groupset.

[F10]

When you bled the brakes, did you do it with pads and discs removed and a bleed block between the pistons? What thickness is the bleed block you used?

10.5mm is campy spec IIRC

[Yoln]

Couple of random thoughts as other already said a lot:

- yes it’s very tight on my setup too, but once properly setup it's good forever. Probably 2 sheets of paper on each side, no more

- yes campy rotors are a bit thicker than others, that's what I love about them actually, once true they are way less prone to bending than other options and stay true for ever, which is impressive given their fairly lightweight weight

- you can only adjust the reach screw on top of the short/long selector of the feel is too tight

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