Restore Bicycle Disk Brake Pads

This is how to get cheap and acceptable brake pads for your mountain bike disk brakes.

Step 1: Find the Braking Material

Probably you can buy some of various types of braking material in automotive stores.
But I just got an old used braking pad from automobile and sawed off some of material with angle grinder.

By the way, mind the thickness. Only 2 or 3 millimeters of braking material can fit into bicycle brakes.

Step 2: Glue It On

I took my almost entirely used braking pad and glued piece of braking material that fitted.

The best choice of glue would probably be some kind of epoxy, but I just used cyanoacrylate gel glue.

If you put some baking soda on a detail glued with cyanoacrylate, it should hold better. Then just clamp it. Every glue needs a good clamping.

Step 3: That's It!

In the end, round any edges with a file.

This s the photo of braking pad after a good amount of braking that I gave it in three rides.

As you can see, It only starts to get fit to rotor, so braking force is not too good it first, but then it gets better.

Comments

[irsean]

I'm a big do it yourself her but some things just aren't worth it. I'd rather buy brand new shoes.

[TheKitMurkit.]

I didn't have money at the time :)
And BTW here people often restore pads at professional shops or even by themselves for cars. Then you use not only glue but also aluminium rivets.

[gm280]

Not to worry about asbestos in today's brake pads and shoes. They phased those materials out a long time ago. And for a good heat resistant type glue, go with JB Weld epoxy. It will not let go with heat and is used it a lot of high heat automotive uses. Nice project. I actually plan to do the same type thing with the brake stops on my lawn mower. Those pads are about shot now that stop the blades when disengaged. And a mere inch square pad will work like new again. Thumbs Up!

[TheKitMurkit.]

We can try to experiment with pads in places that are not in high risk. Like put diy pads only on the rear brake of the bicycle. And yes, the material is some kind of fused hard rubber and something metallic, pretty generic nowadays.

[mzungu]

Better be doing a little more research into using High-Temperature adhesive to glue that together, and check the CTE mismatch of the 3 different materials, because when the brakes do heat up, that cyanoacrylate gel glue is not going to hold up on your way down that hill.

[TheKitMurkit.]

Yeah, some good epoxy would be better of course, but even this cheap glue still holds it's burden.

[Sommer03mtb]

I don't think I would do this to my bike and ride the trails I ride. Good luck... wear a helmet!

[TheKitMurkit.]

Yep, this is a kind of experiment. I have put this glued pad only on the rear brake, so the front one is a factory made. So I really try to brake hard with this one, and it does not fall off. If something changes, there will be updates!

[zucchero]

Especially older brake pads contain asbestos which is known to cause cancer. I recommend to be very very cautious when choosing your material if you would like to carry out this project.