Recently I’ve been having some troubles with the front brakes on my PC800. The front wheel is not spinning nearly as freely as it should. Thanks to the help of Fred, Seth, and others on the PC800 group, it is much better now but not entirely fixed. The left brake (with the anti-dive mechanism) works correctly and makes just a little noise but does not drag. The right brake drags and stops the wheel sooner than I recall it stopping before. It also makes the bike somewhat difficult to push around without power.
What precipitated finding this problem was replacing both my front and rear tires. Eventually I’ll post some photos of why I had to replace the tires before all of the tread was used up.
Fred suggested I try riding the bike to see if the right rotor gets very hot. That would indicate a real problem and not just something in my head. Before I take it out for a spin (hopefully this afternoon if I can find the time), I thought that I would put up a video of the wheel spinning. Didn’t have time this morning to take the right brake off to show the difference but with the right brake off, the wheel will spin for a minute or two once I give it a good start.
What do you, oh Pacific Coasters, think of the spin on that wheel? Is that acceptable? This evening, if no one thinks it is obviously unsafe to ride, I will take the bike for a spin to see how hot the rotor gets and will report back on the PC800 listserv and possibly here, too.
UPDATE: IPCRCer Fred put his bike up on a jack and gave his wheel a spin. It does the same thing as mine. I plan to road-test my bike as soon as I have a free hour to see if the dragging is still a big problem or not. Perhaps slightly dragging brakes are a feature of PC800s?
Hi Douglas,
I was just wondering what ever came about this? I have a 1995 PC800, and I just replaced the brake pads today. Prior to changing out the old pads, I did spin it a few times and didn’t have a riding brake problem. Now, just like you and after changing the pads to the new pads, I have a dragging problem with the front brakes that didn’t exist before. In fact, I posted it and was told to do the same thing as you – drive it around slowly to see if the disc gets really hot, but that will wait till tomorrow when I have daylight on my side.
Here’s the link to the thread I’m keeping to keep track of this problem, and pictures to go with it: https://www.twtex.com/forums/threads/the-pacific-coast-repair-and-blog-thread.107789/page-6#post1426662
Look forward to a response from you! Thanks much!
Howdy!
I was able to get the brakes to stop dragging by re-seating the whole wheel and axle on the forks. They were just slightly off and that made the dragging happen. With a new set of pads, it also might take a little bit of time for the pads to align themselves properly in the calipers. I’d try re-seating the wheel and axle though just to double-check.
-Douglas