Noticing a judder from my front wheel under braking.
Giant trance 2015. Slx brake. Pike fork. 203mm Shimano rotor.
Ok, so , suspecting a loose headset, bent rotor, or calliper, or fork bushing wear, I Have checked and can’t feel that any of these are the cause.
Don’t seem to notice it slowing fro higher speeds, but any low speed braking seems to make the whole bike shake.
Any thoughts please folks ?
Whole set up is about ten months old and pads aren’t overly worn.

Hub bearings? Give the wheel a good wobble.

Fork bushing wear can be hard to spot when the bike’s not moving, doesn’t take much to cause a judder but the seals can disguise it when you’re checking. Only way to be sure is to pop the seals up and check for play with them out of the way, be careful not to get dirt inside the forks.

I have the same thing on my Nicolai so curious to hear peoples thoughts. Have you checked the brake caliper fixings? May need nipping up a bit.

On mine it was an off centre rotor – no side to side movement but it was kinda egg shaped.

Contaminated pads/rotor?

I had this when I changed the stem and didn’t tighten everything in the right order (top bolt first…).

I had this problem on a set of Reba forks and it turned out to be loose bushings. SRAM replaced the bushings and lower legs under warranty.

Check your disc rotors are screwed in tight first though. That can also be the culprit.

A judder and a nasty squawk as you roll to a stop means the pads are contaminated. Put them in the dishwasher and clean the disc with glass cleaner.

hope its not contaminated with some of that nicely toxic brake fluid that is in your brake system……

poke sticking that in my dishwasher.

Tsk…. a tiny smear of brake fluid will disperse completely in the extremely hot caustic wash and disappear down the drain.

Ok guys, thanks. Certain it’s not bushings though. I’m going to thoroughly clean rotor and pads and double check re fitting caliper and rotor as well.
Cheers for now !

Have you let this guy ride your bike?

Mine is normally caused by glazed pads. Take them out and rub them on a bit of sandpaper and replace. Works for mine as i have a habit of riding the brakes a bit much when i get nervous.

check the disc bolts, seen far too many of those loose over the years…

It could well be the pads are overlapping onto the spokes of the rotor and this causes the fork to flutter. It’ll be more noticeable at low speed than high but it’ll be related to speed. If you’re getting a polished bit on the spokes you’ll need to chamfer the inside edge of the pads so they don’t overlap.

@Speeder. That’s an interesting point. I’ll have a closer look at where the pads bite, because I don’t really notice it at speed. Tonight’s little job.

Is it a wavey rotor?

Have you got the correct adaptor for 203?

Caliper the correct way up? Rotor the correct direction?