'14 TE310R weird voodoo: brakes & wheels

Over the past 3 years, I have had a few weird things happen to my TE310R. None of 'em are interesting enough for a stand alone thread- so I'd thought I throw all of 'em in one thread; maybe I will get a comment or two for some additional insight.

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Brembo reservoir caps: on both front and back brakes, the cap vents have been clogged with a dust/condensation mixture. And there's been lots of water in the reservoir bladder. (It's pretty dry here in the mountains- I've never seen this much).

Now I change my fluid every 6 months (suck it out, put new fluid in. 45 seconds). I think this characteristic is why Brembo does not perform better than Nissin after a year or two.

anyways, dry the bladder, blow the vent holes out; on the rear cap, take a paper clip and push the dirt through, clean the cap. This goes for the clutch too.

If you go through a lot of water, do the back brakes often.

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Rim tape: Husky has the best rim tape I've run across. Kinda of thick vinyl. But I had the rim tape come out of the wheel on an inflated tire. I am not sure how this was even possible. BTW the tire in the picture is a Mountain Hybrid at 9lbs psi.

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Rim locks: I've had 7 (or 8?) flats in the last 3 years. And 3 of those flats have been caused by wear on the tube from the rimlock, which I've never seen happen before.

The rimlock was smooth but had some flashing on the tire side. I tried smoothing it but it was pretty smooth already. After the last flat, I put on normal rimlocks (Tusk) which were slightly heavier (95gms vs 115gms). BTW, I had 2 rear and 1 front flat from rimlocks.

The husky brand is "Alder"; they're aluminum and rubber- even though they look a little like the Motion Pro plastic ones.

They fail on two accounts: they cause wear-flats, AND they don't seem to hold the tire to the rim very well- which is why I have 'em in the first place. trashed.

And flip your tubes every time you take a tire off.

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I was on a flat single track about to go up a steep trail when I boiled my rear brake. WTF? I had just come down a steep trail but that was like 2 minutes earlier. After I crossed a creek my brakes came back- but it was now a little noisy.

I made a wrong turn about 3/4 mile up the hill and stopped; my kid stopped on his 511 stopped also. Since I was exhausted, we took a little "brake" (hah) and I decide to take a quick look at my rear caliper. And I saw that the inside pad had fallen out (the pad pins were still in)!

Edit: the intact pad was still hanging on the pin, but the front lip had fallen off the caliper shelf. This inside pad was now actually hanging on the outside of the rotor.

I slipped the pad in by pulling the hairpins & pad pin and putting the inside pad's lip on the "shelf" and reinstalled everything.

I did not know that this was even possible (anyone got any ideas or suggestions?)

(the fluid is coolant- I put a larger 3oz overflow reservoir in and have yet to figure out the overflow tube)

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A couple more pics...



it's a little hard to see, but that last image shows the inner brake pad on the outside of the disc, still on the pad pin too.

That 2nd picture is the front and rear stock Adler rimlocks; their sucky shape causes wear on the tube and eventually: a flat.

I can't get the husky rim lock to hold my rear tyre in place either.

White stuff... In my clutch reservoir too after clutch went away at elevation. Only thing I could think is residue from boiling fluid, liner of braided line or seal decomposing. I have no real idea though. Hole under bead lock. Quite possibly dirt getting past the bead under low pressure or during a water crossing. I still have most of my stock brake pads. Who uses brakes?

My front brake line snapped in half once on my SMR 450. Was at a local stunt spot with a friend and did an endo from like 70 km/h when suddenly front brake lost pressure. The bike was tilted a little bit in the air and I barely saved it. Hopped off the bike and didn't see anything wrong with the brake. Friend rolled up and said I was leaking liquid somewhere and saw that like brake was barely hanging on. Somehow the brake line had moved so that it could hit my brake rotor and the thing chewed the brake line in half. My line routing was completely normal so I have no idea what caused it

sorry to say but the brake pad was incorrectly installed off the mating surface lip. unless the mating surface was completely gone.

I have to think the rear brake pad was installed not in the front lip. I wonder if they had some crappy fluids in the Brembo components at one point? Mine still work like the day I got it and out perform the Nissin components by huge margin on my buddies 15 yz250fx. I have seen Rim locks cause flats from rubbing before like that but I haven't experienced it yet on my Husky. We had it happen on a Husaberg that we ride. On that bike the rim locks were wearing out and needed to be replaced. They didn't pinch the tire properly allowing things to move and one the rubber was starting to peel.

Thanks but I don't think I understand.

Are you talking about the friction material and how it was bonded to the pad's steel backing plate? Everything looked normal- although the pads are close to their wear limit.

Edit: the intact pad was still hanging from the pin, but the front lip had fallen out of the caliper. Actually, the pad had swung over to the opposite side of the rotor. Weird. It's hard to see in the picture, but if you squint you can sorta make it out. The picture was taken at dusk.

wait... these pictures are a little better:

Johnrg- I'm guessing the white stuff is aluminum oxide. But I don't know for sure, and I'm not sweating it too much.

I think my big concern is how much atmospheric water is getting into the bladder- and how much of that water is getting into the brake system.

I'm blaming Brembo's large vent holes; on the same side of the reservoir cover IIRC.

Rimlock flats: dirt abrasion is an interesting theory. I use talcum powder during installs most of the time. When I remove the tire there is lots of that tiny rubber dust & balls (mixed with talc, I'm assuming). Maybe thats acting as an abrasive. But the weird shape of the rimlock is definitely the big factor. I'll post a picture.
Thanks.

I use talc/baby powder/corn starch as well. My spares in a ziplock with powder in it. I did pick up a tub of Enforce Lube and may try it. I haven't noted any issues with my tires/tubes moving but haven't had any flats and run higher pressures to ward off pinch flats.

You can see how smooth the old-school rimlock is, but unfortunately the bump/ridge on the stock husky rimlock did not show up. if you go back to the picture of the tube, it shows clearly the indentation caused by the rimlock (as well as a round hole).



Johnrg- if you can, get the powder with talc in it; it's a solid lubricant like graphite (unlike corn starch). I have had a bottle for 20 years because I thought they quit making baby powder out of it. I was surprised to learn they still did until recently (lung health problems mainly; I am slightly incredulous of the ovarian cancer claims). You still may be able to find it.

I think they decided against the lawsuit after an appeal this fall. In any case makes sense. I tended to use what sat in the bathroom at the time

Pads at the wear limit?

I bet what happened is the caliper was pushed in by an impact and the piston compressed into the caliper enough for the worn pad to fall out of the front grove.....

If you have worn pads i bet you can make it happen in the garage. Compress the piston and shove the caliper over and the inside pad falls out.

I run tubliss on the rear of my wheels. Never a problem. Fronts are more problematic.

I change my brake fluid every year and my clutch every two years and I never had a problem and I used my bikes a lot.
where exactly are the vent holes in the covers?

The pads are not quite at the wear limit, but they're getting close.

hunh- I'm gonna hafta give that idea some thought.... maybe the caliper did get pushed over in a fall, giving enough room to the inside pad to fall off the "shelf" at an angle. hmmmm.

rim strip/tape: still scratching my head. I've never seen anything like that.

Vent Holes:
on the little reservoir for the back brakes- the paper clip is in the vent (first post)
Like Nissin, Brembo has two indents on the reservoir lid "lip" for vents. Unlike Nissin, these things are huge (2mm?) and on the same side. Way overkill; a pinhole is enough. On the 2nd cap picture near my index finger, you can (sorta) see one of the vents (2nd post)

Time for a new fx fc 350 trenchy

I wish! Except it'd be an FE350- my favorite bike.

But wait... don't they have the same Brembo brakes (which are great)? And God forbid they're using those useless Adler rimlocks.

Plus all the smog junk n mapping etc....

Edit: in no way am I bashing FE's was thinking off road only

The new Huskies for 18 use Magura for brakes and clutch.

sheeeeeeeeet... there's no bike in the world that was more corked up and lean than my stock '14 TE310R. It barely had 22hp.

(pretty damn sweet after the uncorking and remapping though)

Did not even know about the vents. Thanks

Oh yeah, those worn pads can fall right out.