Comments on: avid bb5 disc brake seize fail

By: David

David — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 03:19:14 +0000

Aligning the brake I managed to strip the teeth from inside the star-shaped adjustment bolt… nearly destroyed the red plastic piece trying to use pliers to get it unstuck. I finally oiled the dial as the force being applied to the plastic was deforming against the metal inner bolt.

It’s unstuck now but I’d actually like to replace that metal bolt that got stripped out. I guess I am back in business so long as I rely on hand-tightening the dial…

By: Markowe

Markowe — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 08:43:28 +0000

Just to update, I got the other dial unseized too, with no damage apparently. In the meantime though I bought some cheap second-hand ones, like 25 bucks, so it was no big deal, got a spare set now for next winter :)

Sorry, keep forgetting to ask the bike shop guy what he sprayed on there…

By: Colin Watt

Colin Watt — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 13:43:38 +0000

Just had the same happen to my rear one after the bad weather. I hadn’t been checking that they could still be adjusted before they got to the point of being totally seized up either. If someone comes up with the name of an anti-seize compound that would be great – thanks.

By: John Girvin

John Girvin — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:20:00 +0000

Thanks for the info Mark, hope you get the calipers sorted out. I ended up buying new ones :/

By: markowe

markowe — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 09:26:12 +0000

P.S. The LBS guy managed to unseize one of the dials by treating it with some kind of anti-seize compound, forgot to ask which. So that’s worth a try if anyone has this problem. Still working on the other one…

By: markowe

markowe — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 12:38:52 +0000

Would you believe it – the exact same problem. I was training all winter and just didn’t think to check that dial. Took off both calipers (front AND back seized up), gave them an oil bath to no avail, destroyed the plastic trim, ruined the spline nut and have basically written them off, unless the LBS guy has some sort of heavy duty wrench that can unseize it. Bought another set of BB5s second-hand for 20 EUR. Lesson learned (I hope). Winter riding is really harsh on the bike – I also had a pedal just fall apart, my SPD shoes are a mess and a chain just snapped after less than 1000km riding. Next winter I need to get some beater to do my winter training on, because this is getting very expensive…

By: vectorbug

vectorbug — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 17:55:08 +0000

Same thing happened to my rear bb5 caliper after riding through a very brutal winter here in Chicago, so lots of salt.

I destroyed the little teeth on the red adjuster wheel with a big pair of pliers. I don’t have a star shaped tool to get it off either.

Your blog entry was actually quite helpful, now I know I’m not alone.