all things considering if you get atleast 1 revolution with moderate strength spinning the wheel.a better way is ride the bike for a half hour try NOT to use those brakes during that time then stop and feel the caliper close to the pads if they are NOT hot your good to go if they are noticably hot then there is to much drag..this takes the guess work out..this goes for any hydraulics,brakes,auto steering rack etc ..hot is bad means something isnt right...just my .02

 

Thanks for the tip. From what I can see the caliper is centered and gripping the rotor, but I'll check it again. What did you do, shim it with something?

 

Not bothering to read all the posts, just putting my two cents in. Brake pad replacement should always have a lil drag, my rule of thumb is one wheel turn and I'm good to go.

 

Yep. If their is too much drag your rotor will get hot in minutes without using the front brake. Most riders do not know that checking and cleaning the calipers should be a regular thing. Bike calipers get hung up from brake dust (no dust boots on our calipers like a car) and do not retract, causing excessive drag, possibly rotor warping or worse.

http://lyndallracingbrakes.com/service_tech.htm

http://www.motorcyclemetal.com/downl...intenance2.pdf


ride safe all.

 

Did the new caliper come with shims? My PM caliper on my fatboy did. You can also loosen the caliper bolts and give the wheel a spin. If the wheel spins freely the caliper is not centered. At least that was the case for me.

 

On my bike I discovered that the caliper wasn't square with the rotor. The pads were worn crooked, thinner on one edge then the other, so there was a lot of drag till they wore in. I wound up shimming the caliper to align it with the rotor. Rotor is cooler and the wheel will spin fairly freely. I also noted the wheel spun easy and longer without the caliper bolts tight, and went from there.