My alpine has some brand new shimano zee brakes with icetech pads and superstar floating rotors. The hoses were shortened and brakes bled by LBS last weekend.

Not had a proper ride on it yet but done a good few miles of pottering about with the kids and going on a few test runs, been trying to bed the brakes in and not sure if there is something wrong?

I’ve ridden around dragging the brakes until they got really hot (yes I did burn myself checking) several times and done some hard stops.

Just seems like I have to pull really hard to get any power, won’t even lock the rear with a full pull from speed. Am I just being impatient?

If you’ve got them hot enough to burn a couple if times they should be well bedded in.

Definitely no grease (overspray from fork juice etc) on them?

Otherwise I’d be wondering if they were properly bled… Zee’s should have power to spare…

No spray been used on any part of the bike so not contaminated pads, they do work just no where near as well as I was expecting. Will give them another try when I get a chance to go down some proper hills then will have to get the LBS to have a look as a trust them to bleed them properly Hopefully I don’t have to send them back as they are just duff ones….

PS I do weigh 16st so I’m not the easiest person to stop…

You shouldn’t drag the brakes to get them hot as that can glaze them, bedding should be done by repeated application of the brakes to bring you to a stop from a moderate pace.

Good point.

To be honest now I think about it I’ve never really given brake bedding in any thought, I just go easy out of the box and avoid big stops on the first ride. Never had a problem with it.

I have read the whole sizzle thing though – I think some recommend spitting on their discs to check.

I tend to run organics or Kevlar – never sintered – which may make a difference.

about 20mins normally, seem to work fine with a few hard grabs at the start them carry on as normal.

My new organic pads took 500ft to bed in. Awsome power to boot.

j’adore Deore

hmmm… will have to try harder and see what happens.

Hopefully they are working ok by the time I get to afan on saturday, although I did go there once the morning after coming home drunk and decided it was a good idea to bleed my brakes, spent the whole day with lots of squealing (me and the brakes) and not very much stopping.

How about removing the pads and running the braking surfaces over some sandpaper?

Sounds like you may have glazed them by dragging them. The sandpaper will remove any surface glaze and then you can go about bedding them in with a few hard to moderate stops. Might also be worthwhile to wipe the rotors with some brake cleaner or isopropyl.

Find a long slack hill – get up to speed, brake hard to a stop. Repeat 5-10 times. Sorted.

have you cleaned the rotors ?

My XT’s need 2 or 3 applications of brake on the road hill outside my house to bed in – pedal like fury, apply gradual brake pressure till bike comes to a stop. First one takes maybe 15m, second 10, third a few m and it wants to skid. Job done.

If you have handy muddy trails, go there, smear a heap of mud on the rotors and go ride 🙂

Just one thing. The bike should not come to a stop when bedding in brake pads as it will cause inconsistencies in the transfer material applied to the rotor.

Find a gradual downhill gradient, as already stated, then do 15-20 hard applications of the brake but ease off before the bike comes to a complete stop. That should see them bedded in nicely.

On a side note, some pads take longer to bed in than other and some pads have a better initial bite than others. Typically those with higher metal content will take longer to warm up/bed in. If you’re not getting on with the ones you have installed try some different type pads.

Überbike Components do a great pad which they call Race matrix. Great compound. I’ve been running them on both my bikes for a while now. Good price too.

^ These pads.Very little effort to bed in and stop you on a dime.

Find a long slack hill – get up to speed, brake hard to a stop. Repeat 5-10 times. Sorted.

Take care not to overdo it, I faded a set of Hope race pads doing this and they have never come back – I’ve roughed them up etc but they no longer have any power and squeal like hell.

Will give it a go but will be a bit annoyed if I have naffed up a set of brand new pads!

They are the sintered shimano icetech ones that came with the brakes, will just get some cheaper ones if they need replacing.

Takes me 30s to bed in new pads, all done prior to actually fitting them 😉

Get a flat stone, paving slab or I use a chisel sharpening stone. Wet stone and rub pad on it to create a black paste. Clean and then repeat.

Pads will be ready for instant bite. If you have a new rotor too, use a bit of wet & dry and spin disc Btw paper to take a bit of glaze off.

Little trick I learnt when I spannered in a 24hr endurance team when we had to fit new pads during a race.