The other day the headlight bulb burned out, so I replaced it with a PH11 LED headlamp from Amazon. It turned out the bulb wasn’t the problem—it was a failed direct-battery relay. And this new lamp is incredibly bright and white, with excellent visibility.
Feeling good about that… I worked on my own Spacy 100: Braking 76431 disc, Daytona sintered metal brake pad replacement, and a light caliper overhaul. &Fluid change and more.
Lately I’ve been thinking it sounds noisy, so I took a close look and… wow, the pads are worn down way more than I expected. I feel bad about that. Now that I think about it, I’ve never replaced the disc, so I checked the thickness… Yikes. That was a close call. I check other people’s bikes but neglect my own… I really need to do better. That was dangerous. Sunstar didn’t have a match, so I went with a Braking 76431 disc with a bit more vane area, plus Daytona sintered metal pads.
The compatibility between disc and pad really makes a difference in braking power and feel. A well-matched disc and pad that bite together means shorter engagement time, which I think helps both the pad and disc last longer. The caliper is in rough shape… I’ll give it a wash, but Honestly, it won’t budge at all. Trying to fix it in this state by spending time on it would be very inefficient.
Taking it apart is the way to get it truly clean and restore performance. *For customer vehicles, I think it’s better to recommend a caliper overhaul. The dust buildup is pretty bad too. Surprisingly, the seal groove wasn’t corroded. Since this is urgent, I’m reusing the seals and pistons. I’m not being super thorough, but even scrubbing it in a bucket, it won’t get this clean in such a short time. The piston, when put on the lathe and polished with a quick pass, comes out spotless in an instant. I painted the mounting bolt heads and called it done. The front tire was all cracked, so I ordered my favorite Michelin.
Today on my commute, I was braking hard to bed in the pads and disc, and the front slid—I almost went down. Man, these brakes work well. Once I swap the tire, they’ll probably work even better.
