A couple of weeks ago I noticed light squeaking in what seemed like the front wheel that happened only occasionally (perhaps one out of 10 times I rode) and you could only hear it at a very low speed (<10mph). Everytime I would get home it would be gone though and now it started happening more frequently. Yesterday finally caught it when got home and put the bike on stands and after inspection I am 95% sure it's the brakes. Pushing brake pads apart from the wheel completely eliminates the noise the bearing looks as tight as it can be without any play. The wheel rotates freely and silently. Checked the rotors too, although I don't have the best setup to do that but they actually seem to be well within the specs (bike only has 8K miles on it so I'd be surprised if rotors were bad).
When pads are next to the rotor (brakes not applied) a good spin of the wheel only allows for 1-1.5 full rotations any idea if this is normal? Not sure what that should be. I also tried riding for a bit without using front brakes at all and the rotors seem to be cold to the touch right after, so my guess is that they aren't binding too hard but the brakepads are glazed and hence the squealing (it started when the weather got colder too, perhaps has something to do with that too, no idea). Also, brakes feel fine, they are firm, no pulsation or anything like that just the annoying squeaking once in awhile.
It's 2008 zx14 and I got it about a year ago with just over 2k miles on it. My guess is that given the age, even relatively small amount of residue can probably cake up and make pistons somewhat stuck (it doesn't look like any of them are stuck completely though). Given that it was minimally used I doubt that anyone bothered to ever open up the calipers. So, I am thinking about taking the calipers apart completely including the pistons, clean everything and maybe replace the rubber seals inside, pins (they look a bit worn and one looks stripped) and some bolts since some of them look stripped / almost stripped. And since I'd be committing some time/money to it, just replace the old brake pads (they still have probably about 50% life left in them, but figured I might as well and then I won't have to worry about brakes for a year or so until the next time for brake fluid change comes around).
Another question is - am I overdoing it? Is there a simple fix for that or any adjustments that I am not thinking about?
Oh yeah, I apologize for the wall of text...
* Last updated by: Fuzz on 10/21/2015 @ 2:41 PM *