I’m getting a lot of judder in my front brake at low speed and can’t quite work out what’s going on.

At high speed the brake is powerful and nice and smooth but at low speed judders quite a bit.

The rotors are new Zee ones, the lever’s old LX ones with Straitline levers and the callipers old Deores. The calliper is aligned correctly and done up nice an tight and as far as I can tell the pads and rotor is clean.

I was wondering if there’s anything I should be looking at.

I can live with the juddering for now (may be upgrading to XT fairly soon) as long as it’s not a portent of imminent catastrophe!

Are the fork bushings worn?

Not that I’m aware of but it might be worth having a look. I’ve been toying with the idea of going rigid so if the bushing have packed in it would be a good time to do so.

Contamination on the pads/disc? Give them a good “bedding in” again and see if taht works. Did for me.

is the headset okay? tight and/or needs regreasing?
*clutching at straws*

I had this at the weekend with some existing rotors etc. I just sprayed some water on them and then got them really hot. Judder gone.

I’d have thought that it the headset was loose it’d be knocking about all the time, not just at low speeds, but I’ll have a look.

I did get caught out in a pretty heavy rainstorm recently (squealing brakes) so it’s possible that some contaminants splashed onto the rotors; perhaps I’ll clean them up and see if that helps.

Are the caliper bolts done up tight?

Is the pad retaining doofer sat right?

I had this recently, tried all options mentioned above, eventually bit the bullet and changed the rotor, sorted, it was like there was different grip levels on different parts of the rotor, I had tried rubbing down the rotor and pads, but only worked for a while then problem came back, so new rotor was last option and did the job.

Brakes that judder as you slow and stop are contaminated with oil or brake fluid.

Put the pads in the dishwasher and clean the disc with glass cleaner, IPA or just hot water and detergent.