Fork judder when braking

[Beekeeper]

I’ve been experiencing some nasty vibration when braking (front) particularly going downhill.
All the screws around the brake area seemed tight.
I then kept front brake depressed and rocked back and forth and could feel play between the head tube and fork. Also the spacers were all rotating quite easily.
Decided the headset might be loose so viewed this video and followed it.


It did seem loose so tightened it all up. The spacers no longer spin around which is probably a good thing I’m guessing. Also I don’t notice any play between head tube and fork now when I rock it.

Hopefully no brake judder now but not had a chance to test it yet.

Every day a learning day ?

 

[Mikerb]

Far better in my opinion to strip the headset, clean everything and regrease as necessary. The only reason a headset will come loose is new bearings settling a little or the bearings needing renewal or regreasing so best to cure the cause rather than deal with the symptoms. My experience has been that sealed bearings take a few weeks of good riding to finally settle from new. During that process the excess play allows dust sand and grit onto the bottom carrier. So better to strip and clean.

 

[Binhill1]

I’ve been experiencing some nasty vibration when braking (front) particularly going downhill.
All the screws around the brake area seemed tight.
I then kept front brake depressed and rocked back and forth and could feel play between the head tube and fork. Also the spacers were all rotating quite easily.
Decided the headset might be loose so viewed this video and followed it.


It did seem loose so tightened it all up. The spacers no longer spin around which is probably a good thing I’m guessing. Also I don’t notice any play between head tube and fork now when I rock it.

Hopefully no brake judder now but not had a chance to test it yet.

Every day a learning day ?

My headset loose last week could not believe the mud in bearing area when I dismantled.

 

[Zimmerframe]

particularly going downhill.

This is good, at least you're braking less going uphill than downhill ..

I had something similar on my Decathlon. In the end I cleaned the disks and pads and ran them in again from scratch and it was fine after that.

 

[Dan63]

Vibration when braking is caused by the brakes providing uneven braking power over the full circumference of the disc as it rotates through the caliper. Can be caused by contamination to the pads or rotors creating areas of low friction/high friction. Or it can be caused by the disc having run-out.

 

[MinusPrevious]

Yeah, im thinking this is a front brake issue. Possible bent or contaminated rotor?

 

[Dan63]

Yeah, im thinking this is a front brake issue. Possible bent or contaminated rotor?

That would be my guess. I've had issues on my bike and i'm now on my second rotor with the issue returning. I might look at a floating disc next time round.

 

[njn]

make sure there is no grease on the steerer tube or stem, otherwise it could loosen up again.

 

[Giff]

I’ve been experiencing some nasty vibration when braking (front) particularly going downhill.
All the screws around the brake area seemed tight.
I then kept front brake depressed and rocked back and forth and could feel play between the head tube and fork. Also the spacers were all rotating quite easily.
Decided the headset might be loose so viewed this video and followed it.


It did seem loose so tightened it all up. The spacers no longer spin around which is probably a good thing I’m guessing. Also I don’t notice any play between head tube and fork now when I rock it.

Hopefully no brake judder now but not had a chance to test it yet.

Every day a learning day ?

Thanyou for posting this. I have a Cube hybrid and I thought I had a distorted front disc, but tried this after reading your post....and it worked!

Great..G.