Brake pad friction on rotor after wheel replacement

So I just had to replace the front rim on my bike (after the original one being damaged in a low-side), and after installing the reconstructed wheel on the bike, I'm getting some friction between the brake pads and the rotor and wondering if it's fine, or what to do.

At first, there was a LOT of friction, getting only 1 full rotation (or less) when spinning the wheel. I made sure to keep the axle nuts loose, and then compress the forks with the brakes engaged to align things (as I was told in a Youtube video), and the issue was still present. So then I removed the calipers, took out the brake pads, and reset the pistons back into their sockets, put the brake pads back in and there was way more clearance. Reinstalled the caliper, gave the wheel a spin and it spun freely. Pumped the brakes a couple times lightly, gave it a spin, still good. Went back and gave the brakes a firmer pump and this time felt more resistance while doing so, gave the wheel a spin and could hear the rotor in contact with the brake pads. Not as bad as it was before, I can get about 2-3 full rotations on a spin, but it's enough that I'm a little concerned. I also worry that if I were to brake hard if it would stay compressed even more like it was before.

I read that having some friction is to be expected, though, due to the fact that nothing mechanical is pulling the pistons back into place. I have no idea how much/little friction there was prior to the crash. For all I know, this is how it could have been beforehand. I considered the possibility of the rotor having been warped in the crash, since I did go down on the right side of the bike where the rotor is, but in my visual inspection it looks fine, and the friction noise is constant, not in intervals which I would expect would be the case as only the warped side of the rotor would come in contact.

If anything, I'm thinking that the caliper pistons are not retracting as easily as they should. It took a LOT of force to push them back into their sockets. I was only able to do one with my finger, the others I had to use a flathead screwdriver (I know, not a good idea) to push in all the way. So I'm thinking my next move would be to try to clean the pistons.

Can anyone with more experience with this stuff give any advice or feedback? Thanks.

have you considered that more than just the wheel was damaged during lowside?

Pistons should be shiny. Anytime you pull calipers its a good idea to clean the pistons. Better to do that before pushing pistons in, all that crude could damage you're seals when pushed back in. Toothbrush and brake cleaner works well.

boyoboy said:

have you considered that more than just the wheel was damaged during lowside?

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Yes. I know the forks could have also been bent. Again, everything looks fine by visual inspection, and I intend to get the bike checked over, but would like to try to do as much of the work as I can so I can learn.

put the wheel on a balancer and check the rotor deflection to see how bad they are.

Check to see if the rotors are true as mentioned, you can do this while wheel is still on the bike
Check to make sure pistons are not dirty and full of crud which will stop them from retracting that little bit
Check to make sure the guide pins (if you have any) that they are clean and have at least some grease on them so the pads can slide freely on them
Have you done a brake flush, perhaps some crud in the line, or some air

Use a sharpie, paint around the entire rotor. Rotate the wheel a few times. Look at the rotor to see where there's touching. If it is localized to one area, you have your answer

gsxr guy said:

Pistons should be shiny. Anytime you pull calipers its a good idea to clean the pistons. Better to do that before pushing pistons in, all that crude could damage you're seals when pushed back in. Toothbrush and brake cleaner works well.

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Yeah, was planning on doing this today. Didn't have any brake cleaner last night, and was pushing 2AM, so decided to hold off until today. Picked some up earlier so I'm good to give this a go when I get home.

frekeyguy said:

put the wheel on a balancer and check the rotor deflection to see how bad they are.

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I don't have a dedicated balancer tool, but I did my visual inspection by spinning the wheel on the axle and looking at the rotor straight on to see any deformity... again, nothing discernible by eye.

GateKeeper said:

Check to see if the rotors are true as mentioned, you can do this while wheel is still on the bike
Check to make sure pistons are not dirty and full of crud which will stop them from retracting that little bit
Check to make sure the guide pins (if you have any) that they are clean and have at least some grease on them so the pads can slide freely on them
Have you done a brake flush, perhaps some crud in the line, or some air

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Yeah, I considered doing a flush of the brake lines, I think that's part of the 18k service schedule for my bike, and I just hit 15k. Will definitely look at that next if required

RockerGuy said:

Use a sharpie, paint around the entire rotor. Rotate the wheel a few times. Look at the rotor to see where there's touching. If it is localized to one area, you have your answer

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Good idea. I would have been too paranoid to put ink on the rotor, but I suppose a little bit wouldn't hurt.


Anyway, got everything needed to finish up the job, so hopefully I'll be reporting back good news. Either that or I might be the next addition to the fallen riders section (terrible joke, I know)

DJ-RK said:

Good idea. I would have been too paranoid to put ink on the rotor, but I suppose a little bit wouldn't hurt.


Anyway, got everything needed to finish up the job, so hopefully I'll be reporting back good news. Either that or I might be the next addition to the fallen riders section (terrible joke, I know)

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Ink should be no problem, crayon which is a wax might be a problem. Sharpie wipes off clean with rubbing alcohol

DJ-RK said:

Yeah, was planning on doing this today. Didn't have any brake cleaner last night, and was pushing 2AM, so decided to hold off until today. Picked some up earlier so I'm good to give this a go when I get home.



I don't have a dedicated balancer tool, but I did my visual inspection by spinning the wheel on the axle and looking at the rotor straight on to see any deformity... again, nothing discernible by eye.



Yeah, I considered doing a flush of the brake lines, I think that's part of the 18k service schedule for my bike, and I just hit 15k. Will definitely look at that next if required



Good idea. I would have been too paranoid to put ink on the rotor, but I suppose a little bit wouldn't hurt.


Anyway, got everything needed to finish up the job, so hopefully I'll be reporting back good news. Either that or I might be the next addition to the fallen riders section (terrible joke, I know)

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Stop by, bring a coffee - I can check it for you.

I'm back. Good news is I was able to ride my bike into work today, however I still have a few issues/concerns related to this. Quite simply, this whole thing has been a bit of a nightmare.

So I went home yesterday, cleaned the caliper pistons to be nice and shiny. Put them back on, and exact same thing: once I pump them, they do not want to retract and keep rubbing against the rotor. I'm able to ride this way, but I do feel like I'm being dragged slightly.

Another issue that is extremely frustrating was the wheel alignment. If I slide the axle all the way in and tighten all the bolts down to spec that way, that has the front wheel slightly off centre to the right side of the bike. The axle has a thicker diameter on the end, that acts like a stopper and does not allow it to pass through the spacer on left side of the front wheel, so when pushed all the way in, it creates a gap about 5mm between the fork and the spacer. No such gap exists between the right fork and spacer, and the rotor is aligned with the caliper when all the way to the right, so does not seem like there should be much, if any, gap on that side to match/offset the gap on the left side to allow the wheel to be centered between the forks. What I ended up doing was only pushing the axle in enough to keep the left spacer up against the left fork, and then tighten the axle nut on the right side probably WAY over spec to pull in the right fork against the right spacer. That had the wheel perfectly in center, but I'm worried that has the forks pulled in too tight now. Is that most likely the case, or is that how it should be?

So I'm thinking that tonight I'll try bleeding the brakes (hopefully that doesn't turn into a whole 'nother ordeal. I suspect it will ). One question I have is if I bleed the brakes dry, am I then able to remove the pistons to be able to clean them entirely, as well as the sockets, or would that be extremely bad to completely remove them?

As for the wheel alignment, I'm seriously at a loss. I've basically given the coles notes version of it all, I spent a LOT of time trying to get this right and am almost at the point of taking to a shop, or someone more experienced to hopefully guide me through this.

Again, any further feedback or advice will be appreciated.

frekeyguy said:

Stop by, bring a coffee - I can check it for you.

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Dude, that would be awesome. I've heard lots of praise for you on here and was going to contact you and see if you could spare some time. Will PM ya.

DJ-RK said:

I've heard lots of praise for you on here and was going to contact you...

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Now you're talkin', friend...
That's a good plan. You'll learn much from Frekeyguy!
Especially this time of year (when he's not insanely busy).

The master cylinder keeps a bit (around 7PSI) of pressure in the lines to keep the pads in contact with the disk to keep the disk clean. What you're seeing is normal... probably... maybe if you hold your bike up closer to your keyboard I will be able to see....

But don't let the lack of requisite knowledge keep you from screwing with your brakes.

When you mix and match a used rotors and pads, it takes a while for the pads to wear into the grooves of the new/used rotor. Or for the new pads to wear off material left on the rotors surface from the other pads it was running before. That can cause them to have more or even less drag right off the bat until everything wears in

On my track bike I have floating rotors and ceramic bearings, when my bike is cold and has not been ridden I can only get half a turn out of the front wheel when spinning it on a race stand. After I do a lap around the track it will spin for over a minute before stopping. So there is a big difference in drag between spinning a cold wheel/brakes and ones that have been warmed

It could also be a bent rotor, but it takes quite a bit of run out in a rotor to make it drag, a quick run out check can rule that out in 1 minute though


After that check piston retraction in the calipers, maybe its just dirty pistons or bad seals

Maybe you just need to rebuild the piston with seals. Rust can prevent a piston from going back

RockerGuy said:

Maybe you just need to rebuild the piston with seals. Rust can prevent a piston from going back

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I had the same problem this year. I did a 06 rim and rotor swap on my 99r1. I thought it was the offset , after trying to shim them a few times I realized that one of the 2 brake Pistons on the right side were seized. Ordered a set of 03 calipers that come stock with anodized Pistons from eBay. $50 U.S. And 1 week later problem fixed. Btw I rebuilt the front brakes about 6 years ago and cost $150. Much cheaper to find a set on eBay. Cycle reapers has great inventory of SS part btw. Save me tons of time and money.

Worked out just fine.

Just wanted to come back and report that I believe I've eliminated the rotor drag. I went back on Thurs evening and give the whole wheel install another go. This time I pumped the pistons almost entirely out so I was able to clean them entirely. I also picked up and added some brake lube to the pistons, which did the exact opposite of what it was supposed to and gummed them up real good. Cleaned them up again, and despite a brief stint of low braking pressure, they've been good since.

In the process I was able to determine that my forks are most likely out of alignment. Again, the only way I was able to get the front wheel centered was by tightening the axle nut way over spec to be enough to pull the right fork inward toward the wheel. The bike drives straight, but feels a little floaty at the odd time, and right turns feel a little bit off. I also doubt that the extra pressure on the fork is doing it any favours, and I really don't want to be riding when it decides it's had enough. Hoping it's a matter of them being twisted as opposed to being bent, which I've read can be a simple enough process to fix, but I can really only try one method (front tire between someone's knees, loosen fork bolts, and jolt things around). Most others require a triple tree stand, which I don't have.

Other than that, I realized one of my clip ons is bent upwards. Tried straightening that using a vice, but that wasn't able to do much so I'll need to replace that. Other than that, everything else seems ok.

boyoboy said:

have you considered that more than just the wheel was damaged during lowside?

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remember post #2 ?

did you take freakey up on his generous offer? would be a good idea. by your own description the bikes handling/steering is not right. if there was enough force to bend your wheel, there was enough force to damage other things. check your forks/triples for damage, and the front to rear wheel alignment for clues.

i bet freakey would be on this like a detective...