"Buzzing" sound from front end
 

Well I just finished putting HHI wide glide trees, breakout wheels and new front brake pads on my rocker. Went for the test drive today and here's what I got.


Everytime I squeezed the front brake lever at speeds over 30 mph I kept hearing what I could only describe as a buzzing sound. It was so strange, it's definitely not a grinding noise. Nothing is binding in the front. All the cables have plenty of slack so nothing is getting pulled or twisted. I can't for the life of me figure out what the problem is.

I put brand new brake pads in the front. Not sure if that's what I'm hearing. Not sure that brake pads make any noise when they're brand new, just spit balling here.

The brake lever feels fine, it progressively gets stiffer as I squeeze the lever like it's supposed to.
I did make the mistake of overfilling the reservoir at first. I noticed cause it was leaking out a bit from between the cap and the reservoir as I was going down the road (no I didn't over tighten the cap). After I drained a little fluid out of the reservoir it stopped leaking but the buzzing noise was still there.

The noise is definitely coming from the front/left (caliper area).

The front wheel spins freely when its off the ground and the front rotor barely skims the brake pads when the wheel is off the ground.

When the bike is on the ground the front rotor is still centered in the caliper.
Anyone have any ideas or experience with anything like this?
Here is a quick pic.

My money is on the brake pads. I changed mine out this spring and noticed a change in sound when using the front brake. I actually shut my bike off and let it coast, then applied the front brakes, just to make sure that was where the noise was coming from.

Was your noise from the pads??




I wanna say it's the brake pads too man. They are brand new, and the rotors maybe only have 100 miles on them.

The rotors are also drilled so maybe that's also contributing to the humming noise?


Anyone else???

I think I have the same thing that happens on my 2014 BO with all original brakes/pads (buzzing or whirring sound from the front brakes at low speed when applying brakes). Dealer mechanic told me that it's normal and has too do with floating disk setup.


My other bikes all had floating disks and didn't make the noise so curious what others will post here...

Could be the brake pad...but, make sure it's not your wheel bearing just to be safe...I had two wheel bearing failures on my rocker and both times they each had less than 7 k miles on them...

Now that's a coincidence, I also have an odd noise when I put a little extra force on the front brake, since installing the BO wheel.
I have the stock rotor and calliper with Lyndall Gold+ pads.

Here are the brake rotors I'm running. They are not floating rotors so that's not it. Like I said they have around 100-150 miles on them. My neighbor suggested that it might be a combination of a few things.

The brake pads wearing in, the polished surface of the rotors wearing down and or the new pads making that noise when they make contact with the drilled portion of the rotors.

Definitely not the bearings on the wheel. I went out on a 50+ mile ride today and the bike felts fine, the front brakes worked like a champ, nice and even preassure and feel. Handled well and made no other noises.

When I came home I put it on the lift, checked the front wheel and it spins freely without any binding or any noise coming from the bearings. The front rotor is still centered in the caliper and the front rotor barely skims the brake pads when the wheel is spinning.

I also checked the mounting screws on the front rotor and front caliper. Those were still nice and tight.

I asked another guy I met when we stopped for a break and he said it's probably the pads breaking in.

I'm gonna ride it again this week, it's supposed to be in the 70s. I'm gonna find a place where I can get it up to speed, start to coast and then shut the engine down and get on the front brakes to really make sure it's nothing else.


Anyone else with ideas???