Avid BB7 Pad Spring/Retaining Clip Failure

[confusedcyclist]

Has anyone experienced or witnessed Avid BB7 pad spring/retaining clip failure before? On my way home last night the spring/retaining clip that separates the pads and keeps them in the calliper body become mangled. This resulted in a ruined pad, and ineffective front brake out on the road. Luckily I wasn't far from home when it happened, happily on a climb before a big descent. I limped home with a rear brake, having to back the pads fully out away from the rotor. It's possible that the clip became unseated from the pad base and came in contact with the rotor as a result of excessive wear of the braking surface, but there was still 3-4mm of good material on the pads, aside from a massive gouge which I assume was a result of the clip becoming lodged in the pad material/rotor.

Luckily I had a spare pair of pads and respective clip in stock at home so swiftly swapped them out. Not sure what happened here, possibly road debris, but there was no noticeable collision on the road or debris still within the calliper itself. Just curious if anyone else experienced this, or if this might be a sign that there is a problem with the calliper mechanism itself?

 

[confusedcyclist]

I just found a thread elsewhere on the net which confirms that the spring becomes prone to rotor interference once the pads become worn. That explains it.

 

[ManiaMuse]

I've never had a problem with them. I would throw away the old pin when you replace the pads though, they lose a bit of their springiness and you get a new pin with the set of pads when you buy them anyway.

 

[confusedcyclist]

Yep, already fitted new and discarded old.

 

[ianrauk]

I just found a thread elsewhere on the net which confirms that the spring becomes prone to rotor interference once the pads become worn. That explains it.

This ^^
When I have let the pads wear right down, as I'm prone to do, the springs make a gawdawful racket.

 

[I like Skol]

I'm not familiar with the BB7 brakes but that does sound like a pretty serious design flaw. I have run Shimano hydraulic pads down to the metal backing plate in the past and while they do get noticeably noisy towards the end they have never chewed up the return spring.

As you can see in this picture there was just a little friction material remaining at the top left. The return spring was making a little noise dragging on the rotor but even in this poor state of affairs the brakes still did the job.