Zen Photon Pro - Disc Brake Pad Replacement

[Blunoser]

@CincyKid I also forgot to mention that if your front brake is squealing it is worth pulling the pads and sanding them too along with cleaning the rotor. Then you can bed in both brakes in one go and hopefully all is well. I found quite the learning curve when I got my first disc brake bike. They are very touchy about oil etc. on the pads. Finally learned the ropes and now they are the best thing ever.

 

[juggernaut]

This is good info, I'll wait to see what pads are in my brakes(Tektro E725) when the bike gets here. If they are green, I'll probably swap them out right away as I rely on having great brakes. I have a few different pads for my MTB that are supposed to fit so time to experiment it will be. BTW, I think your T-rex is one of the best looking ebikes I've ever seen. I hope my Photon with the same motor works as well as yours does for you.

At the same time as fitting the pads I also swapped the Tektro rotors to the Shimano Ice Tech‘s increasing the front rotor size, which are still fine after 1400+ klms.

The Ananda M100 is a great motor. You have the 52 volt version in the Photon which will have a tad more “sparkle” than the 48 volt version in my T-Rex. I very much doubt you would want for more.

 

[il Munduato]

@CincyKid I also forgot to mention that if your front brake is squealing it is worth pulling the pads and sanding them too along with cleaning the rotor. Then you can bed in both brakes in one go and hopefully all is well. I found quite the learning curve when I got my first disc brake bike. They are very touchy about oil etc. on the pads. Finally learned the ropes and now they are the best thing ever.

You can remove oil from pads with a dish soap like Dawn, a degreaser like Simple Green... or any other degreaser that rinses easily and completely.
Then do a wet sand and alcohol wipe down.
Alcohol wipe down should be sufficient for the rotors

 

[CincyKid]

Today was brake pad/disc refurbishment day. Pretty straight forward with the exception of centering the rear caliper. Probably because I don't possess a long handle Allen fit.

Pads looked really corroded. They cleaned up well with some 220 and brake cleaner.

I did front and rear. No bleeding.

Bedding in is next up.

I'm looking for for more lever on the rear, brakes that grab and no squealing from the front.

The photos are all from the rear. I did sand the rotors but forgot to take after pics.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Blunoser]

Your pads look like they cleaned up nicely. I'm wondering though about the two black circles from the pistons on the yellow back of the pad. It looks like fluid made these? Did they wipe off easy with a rag?
Also, looking at the colour of the rotor you indeed had them pretty hot lol. I know that some Tektro calipers allow the use of 2.3mm thick rotors(stock is 1.8-1.9mm), which have more mass and therefore can deal with more heat. Might be a cool(literally) upgrade when it is new rotor day, I'll measure mine when I get the bike to see if there will be clearance.

 

[Blunoser]

I found one video where they showed factory testing of a Suntour spring shock.
They pounded the living snot out of them and they didn't break.



As long as I don't feel obligated to service my forks every 40 hours, then I'll be fine.
I've already got WAY More hours than that.



Kool ,.. I know SKF.
They are one of the very few bearing manufacturers that actually make properly sealed wheel bearings for my car.
Crap bearings only have dust covers and water gets in.



Well, actually I'm a little overwhelmed right now,..

I'm watching another vid by Syd about setting up my suspension and I think that I might need shock tokens, but I'm not sure?
I had already figured out which way to turn the dials by simply turning them both (front and rear) all the to the and the , then bouncing around on my bike.
I've got 32 clicks up front and 9 at the back.
I left them both at the softest ( I think )

Syd Said, if your wheel doesn't bounce then you're good.
I've not noticed any wheel bounce, but I've got a ~90 pound e-bike.
I don't know if that's any different?


I keep forgetting what shocks I have because I can't remember how to spell it, let alone say the word? Is it a word? Three vowels followed by a consonant?

Suntour AION
EH EEE I OH AND YOU and sometimes WHY?

My forks are available with 3 or 4 different travel amounts.

Mine have 160 mm of travel but I can get the exact same fork, for the same money, with only 100 mm of travel if I want.
So do they just add more shock tokens to the suspension to reduce the travel?

I'm just reduced my travel by cranking up my air pressure.
I don't do any platform landing so maybe I don't need any shock tokens?

Not if you're like me and break stuff when you take it apart to see what makes it tick.

My dad used to say, "If it ain't broke, Don't Fix It!"
I'd say, "Don't worry, I'm sure I'll break something while fixing it."

I had a few minutes and was curious so I looked up your fork. Here is the link to a manual that shows how to set sag . It doesn't actually show how to service it however. I'm sure there must be one of those too, just didn't look. Any way try this one hope it works. /https://www.srsuntour.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Downloads/Consumer/Bike/Owners%20manuals/General_Fork_Manual/EN_MY22_SUS_fork_user_manual-20210820.pdf

 

[PCeBiker]

I had a few minutes and was curious so I looked up your fork. Here is the link to a manual that shows how to set sag.

Thanks @Blunoser I'll try to set my sag again. I just kinda guessed and set the air pressure kinda high.

I do happen to have the recommended tire size of 27.5 x 2.8 but the Super Moto X kinda suck in the mushy stuff.

I can't climb outta ruts with no side knobs.

 

[Blunoser]

Wow you are getting a lot more rain than us in NS. My biggest issue is dust when an atv passes me. Cough. That kind of riding requires serious concentration.

 

[PCeBiker]

Wow you are getting a lot more rain than us in NS. My biggest issue is dust when an atv passes me. Cough. That kind of riding requires serious concentration.

The roads are dry now but the ruts on the paths were still full of water and mud.
Some ruts were over a foot deep and the grass was covering up the smaller ruts so I couldn't see them.

I got stuck and had to walk my e-bike about a dozen times.
I managed to climb the first hill by pedaling but walked it up the rest of the hills using the throttle.

I don't think that the trails ever fully dried up this year?
We had local flooding and bridges out at least a couple times this year.

 

[PCeBiker]

Pads looked really corroded. They cleaned up well with some 220 and brake cleaner.

I found that if you've got mud all over your brakes, they tend to sand and polish themselves.

"Just Rub Some Dirt In It!" My dad used to say.

 

[il Munduato]

Today was brake pad/disc refurbishment day. Pretty straight forward with the exception of centering the rear caliper. Probably because I don't possess a long handle Allen fit.

Pads looked really corroded. They cleaned up well with some 220 and brake cleaner.

I did front and rear. No bleeding.

Bedding in is next up.

I'm looking for for more lever on the rear, brakes that grab and no squealing from the front.

The photos are all from the rear. I did sand the rotors but forgot to take after pics.

Thanks for the help!
View attachment 181748View attachment 181749View attachment 181750View attachment 181751View attachment 181752

Good Job... You get 2 merits!
Obviously brake cleaner works well, but since I don't clean my own automotive pads I won't purchase it just for my bike when I so seldom need to use it.
I try to keep chemicals to a minimum and use products that have multiple uses. Isopropyl alcohol being one of my go to.
My experience is that the rear wil have slighty more lever travel than the front and believe that do to the longer legnth of brake line. The difference is negligible.
1 merit for the lever bleed... so 2 more and you get your brake badge!

 

[CincyKid]

Good Job... You get 2 merits!
Obviously brake cleaner works well, but since I don't clean my own automotive pads I won't purchase it just for my bike when I so seldom need to use it.
I try to keep chemicals to a minimum and use products that have multiple uses. Isopropyl alcohol being one of my go to.
My experience is that the rear wil have slighty more lever travel than the front and believe that do to the longer legnth of brake line. The difference is negligible.
1 merit for the lever bleed... so 2 more and you get your brake badge!

Awesome! I will keep these merits next to my Schrute bucks.

I'm pleased with the performance of the front brake. No more squealing. Very good/solid grab. The rear? Not So much. Lever action is solid. I think I simply need new pads.

I do enjoy the maintenance aspect of riding. Provides an upclose look of how things really work.

 

[il Munduato]

I concur... Work on stuff yourself and you'll rarely be stuck on the road as you know what to do.
Also time well spent on the crapy weather days.

 

[PCeBiker]

I think @CincyKid should do a lever gravity bleed now.

It's done the same way as bleeding the bubbles, but you open the caliper bleeder screw to let gravity flush out the old fluid. You just have to keep the little funnel full of fluid.

There's a pretty good chance that your brake fluid is kinda toasted from all that heat.

That should be worth a lease one more merit point ??

 

[Blunoser]

If the lever is firm then it sounds like the pads are toasted. You likely simply overheated them to the point of no return. At least new pads are not too expensive. There is one other possibility however, you say you sanded the rotor? If it's too rough now than the pads might be skimming along the top of the grooves you made with the sandpaper. This could mean very little of the rotor is in play if true. When you bedded them in did they look like the pads were contacting the entire rotor? If not, you may need to hit the rotors again with a finer paper.
My money is on the pads though. I'd be curious to try another brand of pad just because. You have a really good choice living in the US. As Munduato said Ceramic based pads are a good option if you don't want to go all in with metal. Because they are fairly cheap I have a couple of different types to play with once my current pads are worn. I'm using semi-metal at the moment and they are much better than the stock resin pads that came with my Shimano SLX 4 piston brakes. Ceramics are up at the batter box waiting to go in.

 

[BlackHand]

I've had good luck with the Jagwire semi-metallic on my Tektro's. Plenty quiet and decently long lasting. A bleed kit is necessary Tektros (at least mine). Keep an eye on the pads for uneven wear from sticky pistons. I have to pull the pads pretty regularly to get the pistons cleaned up and all moving freely.


Jagwire - Shimano Disc Brake Pads | Sport Semi-Metallic, Pro Extreme Sintered and Sport Organic | Deore XT, Non-Series, Saint, XTR, ZEE, Tektro Dorado, Orion, TRP DH, Quadiem, Slate, Zurich https://a.co/d/bOEAUHs

 

[Blunoser]

Which model of brake are you using and what kind of riding are you mostly doing? I hope that my E725 ones are not high maintenance. I will rarely get them wet but they will see mostly gravel rail trails usage. Can be fairly dusty in the summer.

 

[BlackHand]

Mine are the Orion 4P M745. Looks like it might even be the same caliper as the Dorado uses, the Orion is for mid drive bikes so they don't have a cutoff switch in the lever.

Most of my riding is suburban/urban commuting so a lot of starting and stopping combined with a fair bit of up and down here in Seattle. Some USFS roads and rail trail sprinkled in when I can get away.

A little fiddly, but the only time they haven't been up to the task was on a 6 mile 8% descent on a logging road that was basically one long rock garden. The rear caliper started pumping out fluid about half way down.

 

[il Munduato]

I concur.. The Dorado and Orion name seem to be interchangeable and are very similar visually. There is a $30 difference in MSRP but I'm guessing that's for the "e" levers on the Dorado.

I have the TRP E.23 caliper which allows for the use of a 2.3mm thick rotor. They have awesome stopping power and greater heat management over the Dorado 4P

They are a bit bulky'r... but I see that as positive.



They came with the Dorado E725 levers as I don't believe they make an "e" specific lever for the E2.3 Caliper.
A lot of hills riden but none are extreme so with 4000mi on them.. not a single issue. I try to brake back to front as equally as practical so as to not overload one over the other.

The Bafang mid drives all have brake motor cut off built in and I for one appreciate the added safety feature as well as being able to manipulate the feature to get a crank or two in without motor engagement or having to change briefly to neutral PAS.

 

[Blunoser]

Mine are the Orion 4P M745. Looks like it might even be the same caliper as the Dorado uses, the Orion is for mid drive bikes so they don't have a cutoff switch in the lever.

Most of my riding is suburban/urban commuting so a lot of starting and stopping combined with a fair bit of up and down here in Seattle. Some USFS roads and rail trail sprinkled in when I can get away.

A little fiddly, but the only time they haven't been up to the task was on a 6 mile 8% descent on a logging road that was basically one long rock garden. The rear caliper started pumping out fluid about half way down.

I suspect that you are getting a lot more water into your brakes commuting in Seattle than I will. hopefully I will need to work on them less. When your caliper pumped out fluid did you take it apart to replace the piston seals? I'm curious where you might have sourced the parts if so.