I don't understand this necessity to clean the disc's or rotate bobbins to make them work properly. Can someone please explain the mechanics of this necessity. p.s. If you think your brakes ain't up to much, try an old British bike with drum brakes, or a Suzuki GS with stainless discs in the wet
Unfortunately the position and design of the calipers means that they suck in all sorts of crap from the road, not just brake dust from the pads. This causes a nice layer of dirt to build up on everything to the point where it starts to affect the movement of the pads, the pad surface itself, eventually the caliper pistons and starts to clog the bobbins. The monobloc style radial calipers seem to suffer a lot more than the old P34 calipers, and it doesn't take much grime to clog a bobbin. Most of the Brembo disks on Ducatis (certainly all later model stuff) are semi-floating whereas other manufacturers tend to fit either their own (or subsidiary brand) brake components, and tend to be standard fixed disks which you obviously won't get this problem with, but the braking performance is not as good. It's a penalty to pay for having better components. Keeping stuff clean is one of the easiest and best ways to make sure that your brakes work!
Honestly, I'm a bit confused on how Ducati's (Brembo) radial calipers collect all this grit to the point of causing issues. Understandably, a caked piston/bore will stick, drag, and overheat pads. Not to mention warp rotors. But, nearly all of my bikes over the past 10 years have had radial calipers from various suppliers. I don't get any systemic issues from the layout. Now, is there a pad compound issue that transfers material improperly? Perhaps. But cleaning calipers hasn't been a mainstay of my maintenance regimen, and I ride throughout the seasons. Anywho...no stuck bobbins on this machine. All are good. Will give the calipers a good cleaning, just to get to a good baseline...
I had some noise from my 2013 GT but wasnt overly concerned as i used to take the pads out and clean the calipers every 4-6 weeks during winter commuting but even that isnt enough to stop crap getting into the pistons and jamming them up. After 2 winters and 30,000 miles my discs are completely shot with large movement on the bobbins and some small cracks starting to appear around the drilled holes on the discs. New Brembo pads and discs and the calipers stripped out completely ..... feels like a new bike and made me realise how crap the brakes had become but riding daily i just adapted and put up with it ....doh
I noticed on Sunday how my brakes have faded quite a lot and become a little wooden. 3k mikes on the first set of pads, now on 6500 and I know when had them out 500 miles ago they were a good over half worn. Might be time to check them again as they are normally great.
