‘No wonder it was squealing… there was no disc left!’
Neglect your brakes at your peril
Some motorcycles spend their time tucked away in a cosy garage, cosseted by their owner and enjoying rigorous mechanical love.
This Yamaha N-Max isn’t one of those and it has to work for a living, shouldering the burden of a daily delivery job.
We can all be guilty of taking liberties with maintenance, but when it comes to brakes, as this rider came close to discovering, doing so could cost more than a repair bill.
When a mystery noise appeared from his rear brake, the owner called upon the expert help of Paulo Drago, resident mechanical boffin of Dad’s Garage in Watford.
“He said the brake was squealing and had lost power – we put it on the bench and there was barely any disc left!”
The pads had worn so low that the piston had bored all the way through the backing material, leaving the disc paper thin and the piston looking rather sorry for itself.
“If he’d left it any longer it could’ve let go altogether and who knows what would’ve happened.
“A new piston wouldn’t have cost the earth, but we didn’t have one in stock and he needed the bike that day.” Every day the scoot was off the road its owner was sacrificing income so, through careful effort, Paulo was able to remove the burring and breathe some life back into the chewed-up piston.
With a fresh set of pads and a new disc the rider was ready to roll with a same-day turnaround. “We strongly advised him to replace the piston too, but he didn’t have a lot of money to throw at it.”
Hopefully in the future this rider will take a more vigilant approach... Or else!