[pjlehill]

I sent this request to Serial1 Support 3 days ago and have not heard anything back. Is this typical experience on wait time?

I'm experiencing loud grinding noise on my Mosh/City front brake similar to what @mudcamper reported in the Serial1 Forum. This started after riding the first 50 miles or so. I’ve followed the bedding in procedure in your video and re-aligned the caliper a number of times, but the noise is still there. This is despite any rubbing between the pads and the disc when I spin the wheel without braking.

Is this something that will improve over time (I do notice slight improvements but it may just be my imagination), or will it continue and eventually damage the brake? I haven’t noticed anything unusual with the brake so far. I have a different bike that I bought a year ago and it came with a smaller size disc and I never experienced the same problem. Please advise.

 

[onthego]

Welcome to the forum @pjlehill

Have you tried calling them? This number +1 (844) 737-4251 is listed on their site. How about the Serial 1 Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn pages? If not, I recommend trying those and not riding the bike while waiting for a response.

 

[Willows]

I sent this request to Serial1 Support 3 days ago and have not heard anything back. Is this typical experience on wait time?

I'm experiencing loud grinding noise on my Mosh/City front brake similar to what @mudcamper reported in the Serial1 Forum. This started after riding the first 50 miles or so. I’ve followed the bedding in procedure in your video and re-aligned the caliper a number of times, but the noise is still there. This is despite any rubbing between the pads and the disc when I spin the wheel without braking.

Is this something that will improve over time (I do notice slight improvements but it may just be my imagination), or will it continue and eventually damage the brake? I haven’t noticed anything unusual with the brake so far. I have a different bike that I bought a year ago and it came with a smaller size disc and I never experienced the same problem. Please advise.

Hey @pjlehill. Have you tried any other steps like these to try and deal with the noise? How long have you had the bike for?

How to Stop Brake Squeal - Electric Bike Action

 

[pjlehill]

Hi @onthego and @Willows- thanks for your responses. I finally got Support on the phone (had to wait till today since I'm in the PST zone). After describing everything I have tried to no avail, the tech suggested I remove the pads and giving them a sanding, re-install, re-align, and re-bed. I did that this morning but have not had a chance to take it out to re-bed yet. Will come back here to report if there is any improvement.

The noise is still puzzling since I don't have the same issue with the rear brake. The link @Willow provided may point to some clue (I doubt the rest are applicable since I've only had the bike since mid June), and by that I meant the torque and spoke tension. In your video you mentioned tightening the wheel at 15 N/m, but the label on the Mosh/City frame actually says maximum of 11 N/m. Which is it? Also, I'm still not sure what torque to use for the caliper to the frame since it is not mentioned anywhere.

 

[pjlehill]

Hi @onthego and @Willows- thanks for your responses. I finally got Support on the phone (had to wait till today since I'm in the PST zone). After describing everything I have tried to no avail, the tech suggested I remove the pads and giving them a sanding, re-install, re-align, and re-bed. I did that this morning but have not had a chance to take it out to re-bed yet. Will come back here to report if there is any improvement.

The noise is still puzzling since I don't have the same issue with the rear brake. The link @Willow provided may point to some clue (I doubt the rest are applicable since I've only had the bike since mid June), and by that I meant the torque and spoke tension. In your video you mentioned tightening the wheel at 15 N/m, but the label on the Mosh/City frame actually says maximum of 11 N/m. Which is it? Also, I'm still not sure what torque to use for the caliper to the frame since it is not mentioned anywhere.

Never mind...11 N/m for Mosh, and 15 N/m for Rush. My bad.

 

[Willows]

Hi @onthego and @Willows- thanks for your responses. I finally got Support on the phone (had to wait till today since I'm in the PST zone). After describing everything I have tried to no avail, the tech suggested I remove the pads and giving them a sanding, re-install, re-align, and re-bed. I did that this morning but have not had a chance to take it out to re-bed yet. Will come back here to report if there is any improvement.

The noise is still puzzling since I don't have the same issue with the rear brake. The link @Willow provided may point to some clue (I doubt the rest are applicable since I've only had the bike since mid June), and by that I meant the torque and spoke tension. In your video you mentioned tightening the wheel at 15 N/m, but the label on the Mosh/City frame actually says maximum of 11 N/m. Which is it? Also, I'm still not sure what torque to use for the caliper to the frame since it is not mentioned anywhere.

Whatever it says on the sticker is what I'd go with. Has the noise gotten better/worse since you removed the pads?

 

[pjlehill]

Whatever it says on the sticker is what I'd go with. Has the noise gotten better/worse since you removed the pads?

Hi @Willow: I sanded the pads, re-aligned the caliper, and took the bike out to bed in the front brake. There is definitely less noticeable grinding noise now, and only a bit of squealing similar to what I experience with the rear brake (which I consider tolerable). However, I think I need to test it in real world situations on my next weekend ride before I can give a verdict. Will keep you posted!

 

[mudcamper]

The noise is still puzzling since I don't have the same issue with the rear brake. The link @Willow provided may point to some clue (I doubt the rest are applicable since I've only had the bike since mid June), and by that I meant the torque and spoke tension. In your video you mentioned tightening the wheel at 15 N/m, but the label on the Mosh/City frame actually says maximum of 11 N/m. Which is it? Also, I'm still not sure what torque to use for the caliper to the frame since it is not mentioned anywhere.

Have you watched the video they put up on the brake bed-in process? Or rather, have you listened to it? Notice that weird sound that the bike in the video is making? My front brake makes this sound, only much worse. Apparently this is "normal" for 203mm MTB brakes, or so I am told. Plus my rear squeals like a pig, but I just live with it now. My daughter's Trek Townie Go has mechanical 180mm brakes, and they are smooth and silent. Why can't "high performance MTB" brakes be as quiet? I don't know.

 

[JoeG]

Have you checked that the disc is torqued down. My step-thrus front disc had just the slightest warp barely touching the pad but got worse and loud when riding. I checked the bolts and they were not torqued down as tight as I think they should have been. I torqued them to 7nm and now it is silent. This may not be causing your prob
lem but worth checking. We have 2 step-thru’s and I have found some bolts not torqued correctly between the 2 bikes.

 

[pjlehill]

Have you watched the video they put up on the brake bed-in process? Or rather, have you listened to it? Notice that weird sound that the bike in the video is making? My front brake makes this sound, only much worse. Apparently this is "normal" for 203mm MTB brakes, or so I am told. Plus my rear squeals like a pig, but I just live with it now. My daughter's Trek Townie Go has mechanical 180mm brakes, and they are smooth and silent. Why can't "high performance MTB" brakes be as quiet? I don't know.

Sorry for the late reply. Yes I did watch the video for brake bed-in, but didn't make a connection to the braking sound until you pointed it out. I'm very skeptical about the sound being "normal", as my rear brake does not make that sound. And my other bike with 160mm disc also does not make that sound.

 

[pjlehill]

Have you checked that the disc is torqued down. My step-thrus front disc had just the slightest warp barely touching the pad but got worse and loud when riding. I checked the bolts and they were not torqued down as tight as I think they should have been. I torqued them to 7nm and now it is silent. This may not be causing your prob
lem but worth checking. We have 2 step-thru’s and I have found some bolts not torqued correctly between the 2 bikes.

You brought up a good point. I checked my bolts and torqued them to 7NM, but the loud braking sound remained. So I removed all the bolts and re-torqued them to 7NM just to be sure. No difference.

My final resort was to align the disc with a truing fork as much as I could. This seems to make the most improvement. The front brake still makes a bit more noise than the rear, but is much better than the squealing pig noise I started with. Interestingly when I checked my 160mm disc on the other bike, they were not aligned either, but I never experienced any braking sound. Go figure.