lost a calliper!!!!!

[aff-man]

Well.... went on that ride up north today and all was going fine untill i left dargaville.

Brakes had been feeling a bit wierd but i thought it might be the new pads I put on. Gave them a quick glance when we stopped and nothing seemed wrong so i assumed (I know dumb thing to do) that all was fine..

Then a few KM northish of dargers i hear this big clunk and here is me thinking shit that was a big rock i didn't see...... and to my surprise meer seconds later I found out that I didn't have any brakes when going into a corner (now that was interesting). So i pull over to find brake fluid pissing all over and my left caliper gone... SUX big time.


Anywho after searching for a while And not being able to locate said caliper i limped back towards dargers with only rear brakes.. Stopped at a little g.a.s. station (which i was surprised was open) and asked if they could help. Big ups to them the guy working there not only found a shorter brake hollow bolt thing but did the fluid change and everything for like $10.

So here i was in dargaville at 6pm with about 30-40% braking on the front, a front wheel and tyre covered in fluid (which the guy at the gas station thankfully washed the worst of it off) and a really bad case of the "really fucked off" syndrome......... Managed to get home in 2 hours so luckily traffic wasn't to bad.

CULPRIT: After some thinking and contemplation I think the cause may be a compounding of new brake pads and maybe a slightly warped disk. Cause when i changed the brake pads I tightened up both calipers the same (very tight) and the right one is all good. So I think some intence vibration under heavy braking might be the culprit but i'll never know.

THANKS: Have to go to ( I think) dv1nt and trever.... You know who you are....

KORNHOLIO SAYS: Man with no brakes learns to corner faster....

[thealmightytaco]

Cripes, sure you put it back together with all the washers in place? Especially spring ones if they have 'em, not sure havent been in there yet. And did them up to the white knuckled tigers?

They shouldn't be vibin' loose, no way. Scary ass.

[Highlander]

Well that could easily have been a lot worse.

Most impressive the guy at the GAS station got you sorted out enought to get home.

[inlinefour]

I lost my bike, some wank stole it last night... Glad it did not cause any injury though, bit of a bugger too eh. Hope its sorted soon dude.

[Big Dave]

Run Forest, Ruuuunnn

[White trash]

Service a few bikes do you?

Promise ya mate, it had nothing to do with a slightly warped rotor. How many callipers do you see pinging off Drunken Monkeys bike? You fucked up son, plain and simple.

[nudemetalz]

Sheesh...bad luck !!!

You might also want to put some loctite on your calliper bolts too.

[Unit:Me]

I'm just glad when I came across you on the side of the road you and bike were upright and in one piece. Mate you missed the best part of the ride too (I know you didnt need to hear that) as we were right on the edge of the forest. Was great you came along and got home safely.

[FROSTY:Me]

Aff man-I'm with trashy on this one.For the caliper to go west either the bolts have to strip the threads out ,sheer off or most likely just undoo themselves.
If its any consolation dude --You arent the first and ya won't be the last
There was a post classic guy a couple of years back did that --wondered why his brakes were getting worse and worse-then after therace noticed he hadnt tightened up his axle bolts.
I hope ya recovered the missing caliper

[V Twin Raver]

CULPRIT: After some thinking and contemplation I think the cause may be a compounding of new brake pads and maybe a slightly warped disk. Cause when i changed the brake pads I tightened up both calipers the same (very tight) and the right one is all good. So I think some intence vibration under heavy braking might be the culprit but i'll never know.

ummmm......wrong.......you simply failed to do up the bolts..........

[aff-man]

Aff man-I'm with trashy on this one.For the caliper to go west either the bolts have to strip the threads out ,sheer off or most likely just undoo themselves.
If its any consolation dude --You arent the first and ya won't be the last
There was a post classic guy a couple of years back did that --wondered why his brakes were getting worse and worse-then after therace noticed he hadnt tightened up his axle bolts.
I hope ya recovered the missing caliper

But it doesn't explain why it only happened on the left side if they were both tightened the same does it??

No i couldn't find the caliper..

[scumdog]

Hmmm, had a similar thing a few years ago, a big-arse fat bolt undid itself in towards the wheel from the caliper.
Wondered what the loud buzzing noise was, turns out the noise was caused by the wheel spokes hitting the head of said bolt .
That was the only thing that stopped the bolt falling out.
Had it been a one piece alloy rim I suspect the bolt would have gone between the spokes and locked up the front wheel - would have been exciting at 100kph+!!
Don't hold much chance of you ever finding the caliper and it would very likely be too damaged to re-use anyway.

BTW My experience (I believe) was caused by my inadequate tightening of this bolt. (it held the two halves of the caliper together)

[aff-man]

Hmmm, had a similar thing a few years ago, a big-arse fat bolt undid itself in towards the wheel from the caliper.
Wondered what the loud buzzing noise was, turns out the noise was caused by the wheel spokes hitting the head of said bolt .
That was the only thing that stopped the bolt falling out.
Had it been a one piece alloy rim I suspect the bolt would have gone between the spokes and locked up the front wheel - would have been exciting at 100kph+!!
Don't hold much chance of you ever finding the caliper and it would very likely be too damaged to re-use anyway.

BTW My experience (I believe) was caused by my inadequate tightening of this bolt. (it held the two halves of the caliper together)

Ahh but it's more the $65 that i just put in them...

Fine seeing as everyone is going to say I didn't tighten the bolt enough I might as well give into peer pressure (reads I've had a bad enough time to everone doesn't need to rub it in my face) Still doesn't explain why the otherside is still tight as????

[scumdog]

Ahh but it's more the $65 that i just put in them...

Fine seeing as everyone is going to say I didn't tighten the bolt enough I might as well give into peer pressure (reads I've had a bad enough time to everone doesn't need to rub it in my face) Still doesn't explain why the otherside is still tight as????

I though I HAD tightened mine enough but one side was more awkward to hold onto and get access to and that was the side that ended up coming undone.
And had not used Loctite - but I do ALWAYS now

BTW It was the left side on my bike too!

[sAsLEX]

CULPRIT: After some thinking and contemplation I think the cause may be a compounding of new brake pads and maybe a slightly warped disk

well I changed my pads and fiddled with my callipers when mine where playing up when they poked up during a SI trip, tried to fix them in New Plymouth and discovered that the disc was major warped put back together and made it to Auckland sweet as.

rebuilt the front and rear callipers since then and have had no issues with them falling off at all since