KDXRIDER.NET

The rear brake on my 220 is waaay too sensitive. It locks up within the first inch of pedal travel, is there a way to adjust it???

Sure, I guess. You can adjust the pedal height just to the rear of the pivot.

Mine locks up within 1/2" of travel. It is supposed to.

Disc brake, yeah?

yes disc brake. I want it to be a bit more progressive then insta-lock. How do you adjust the pedal height?

wow awesome, thank you!

I understand how this will help (pedal position) but is there anyway to make the brakes less sensitive?

Remove them? Just a guess....


You should be using your front brakes mostly anyway.....

I'd lower the pedal a bit to change the angle between your foot and the pedal face.

Like Indawoods said, you should be using front - If you do need to use the rear, you should be locking it for sliding into turns or stopping on a hill.

stiffer return spring?

I use my rear brake all of about 5% of the time.

I would be lost without my front...Usually have at least one finger on it most of the time.

It really baffles me how many people I talk to and ride with that rarely use their front brake out of fear that they will wash out or go over the bars. I dont know how they can ride w/out using it constantly.

I set my rear foot lever very low so that I really have to TRY to get into it. When it is set high you can accidentally hit it when you least want to.

I'm not afraid of my front brake, i'm a pretty solid upper level intermediate rider, diamonds, double diamonds, triple diamonds, they dont bother me.

What bothers me is insta-lock on my rear brake. Is this just something i'll have to live with??? None of my previous bikes with a rear disc have insta locked, only the ones with drums.

Try this;
Take your rear pads off the bike and file some grooves in them. The grooves reduce the contact surface area to the rotor and should reduce the braking effectiveness. I've done this on other bikes I've owned.

Any chance those pads have been contaminated with something or other, like brake fluid? Caliper is firmly attached?

If all the above is fine and it hasn't gone metal to metal(pads worn through), then after adjusting the pedal to a lower level, I'd go with the grooving method.

or if the pads need replacing,could you go for a diffrent compound?
(allthough i dont even know if they make diffrent compounds)

alistair wrote:or if the pads need replacing,could you go for a diffrent compound?
(allthough i dont even know if they make diffrent compounds)

pads for wet are different than pad for dry...
Used a brand new "dry" pad in the mud, lasted 10 miles before it was metal to metal

Back to the question, you can always try the WD/40 solution

I use both brakes to the maximum they can take and generally go through two sets of rear pads compared to one up front. The rear is pounded on hard for straight line stopping and also is used for brake sliding. Try braking without the rear sometime in nasty hilly situations or downhill fireroads, ai chee wa-wa, that would not be fun. I wish the rear was bigger with a 2 piston design - a larger rotor would stay cooler for the same amount of braking.

As skipro and others have alluded to, the pads may be the problem if it is locking up too easily. Two things are common (for me anyway) that cause locking issues, one is the pads get too hot and get a glazed surface, then they lock easily. Another is when grasses and other things cause surface contamination (likely oils). In both cases, I've had good results sanding the pad surfaces with fine emery cloth while I bathe them in acetone - then they work like new again. I generally do this three or four times during the lifespan of the pads.

At least two pad compounds are available, sintered metallic and carbon. They used to make kevlar based too, but right now I can't find them for the KDX. The stockers are metallics and work good for everything, but when used on the rear especially tend to over-heat and squeak (for abusers anyway). Carbon pads stay cooler but don't have quite the stopping power of the metallics and they don't work as well in mud and water, carbons also wear faster. I use carbons because they work better for me.