front brake noise

[deez]

Just before winter I changed the front pads on my 98 tourer. with the fall weather I was riding with a full face helmet. Now this spring I am riding with a 3/4 or a shorty and have noticed what could best be described as a buzz in the brakes. It starts above 20mph, and will change intensity with speed. Side loading the bike back and forth will alternately quiet/stop the noise and increase it. Also when it is gone, applying the front brake brings it back loudly. looked at the rotor rivets (nowhere close to the pads) checked all the mountings everything was tight. So tonight I tore it all down, put in new wheel bearings (thinking maybe some play was involved) and reassembled it all by the book, including the sequence and torque specs. took it back out and the noise was still there. I'm wondering if the holes in the rotors are causing the pads to catch and rattle around in the calipers . any thoughts?

deez

[flcjr]

my 99 tourer makes the same noise you describe but only when i apply the front brakes inspected pads and rotors all in good shape. this is my first valk but noise seems wrong. i thought i would replace front pads and see if that helps. unless somebody as a better idea. not sure if pads are oem bought the bike last fall and only rode it a few times before winter. looking forward to lots if riding once the snow clears

[DFragn]

Non-Honda pads i.e. EBC don't like OEM rotors. They make a lot of noise. I threw my EBC's away and went back to Honda pads.

If they're Honda pads on there I would guess maybe there's some sort of contaminant on the pads or rotors. Or, misaligned axle to forks.

[deez]

They are not o.e.m. pads so that might be my problem . the odd part is that it's just the left side, the right is fairly quiet. I had a simular issue with an old kawasaki kz650 I owned. It was terrible about wet weather braking. I was in a tech school at the time and had access to a bridgeport end mill. I built a jig and cross drilled my own rotor (before it became standard factory practice, shows how old I am!) and I had to go back and chamfer the holes with a counter sink to ease the transition. they worked great and silently after that. Now back to the future... I might have to go back to o.e.pads to see it they are the deciding issue as my semi calibrated eye can't decern any real misalignment problems. Oh well, at least I have new front bearings for my efforts. (as a side note, I love my goldwing shock conversion, 800 miles and still all smiles!)

[Wildman]

I thought it was a fluttering buzz on mine. Baffeled me until the brake pads were gone and the pads steel backing plate started to scub the rotor.

It was worn brake pads.

Once the you wear down the pads to point that the slots in the pad are gone and they are just a flat surface you will hear a buzz.

The air in the holes in the rotor gets hot when the brakes are applied but has no slot to escape untill the hole passes the entire length of the pad. the hot air makes a slight buzz when does finally escape.

Once you know this, you know when to replace the pads. When you hear the buzz.

[deez]

P.S.  this last ride my wife was with me and she could hear it also, she said it sounded a lot like cicada's in the trees of some little kid with baseball cards in the spokes on his bicycle....ah I remember those days.... even then is was all about the sound!

[deez]

W-man,thanks for the input. guess I will junk the pads (ebay trash not even EBC's)

[deez]

  Well after reading thur the responses, I started thinking , regrouped and applied some ingeniuity. Fortunately I hadn't thrown away the old pads yet that had not given me any problems, and gave them a good look over. Sure enough they had vent grooves cut in them perpendicular to the rototion of the rotor. I removed my replacement pads and yes, they were solid. So I did what anyone as cheap as me would do... got out my diegrinder with the cutoff wheel arbor, chucked up a thin disc and cut my own grooves (just three equally spaced across the pads) then did a trick we use in the auto service world. Chamfered the leading and trailing edges of the pads to ease the transistion on the rotor face. reassembled everything and went for a ride. Absolute silence AND the braking improved dramaticly.  I love it when a plan comes together!
thanks for everyones imput!
 Happy Trail!

Deez