Modern Buddy

As anyone who follows the "who's crashed" thread knows, my buddy hit the ground a couple weeks ago and went skidding along. Most of the damage appears to be cosmetic, but I did notice that a decent amount of metal is missing from the brake caliper.

I don't know how thick this metal is, or what pressure the fluid is under, or if I need to be worried about rust, but would people here suggest replacing the caliper? Stopping performance still seems fine.

personally, id probably leave it

as long as it isnt leaking id say youre ok with it staying on there

if the look bothers you, you can always rattle can it

It will probably continue to work fine. It might be a little more likely to crack if you have another incident, even a low speed tip over. Also, somewhere down the line, it might make it harder to resell the scooter to have the brake caliper look like that. At some point, you might want to see if you can score a used one for cheap.

jrsjr wrote:you might want to see if you can score a used one for cheap.

Good thought. The other question is whether an impact that would grind off that much of the casting would also push the caliper and disk out of alignment.

I'm a little more concerned about the partially ground-off lower caliper bolt. Can you still get a wrench on there? It looks like you may have trouble getting the bolt out. I hope I'm wrong.
Possibly end up grabbing it with vice grips or something.
There's usually thread locker on there and getting those bolts out the first time can be a little tough.

bleh, hit a curb or something?

If it works fine you should be OK. Maybe replace the bolts as you do things like change pads and the like. Might need a helicoil to get them out.

Tocsik wrote:I'm a little more concerned about the partially ground-off lower caliper bolt. Can you still get a wrench on there? It looks like you may have trouble getting the bolt out. I hope I'm wrong.
Possibly end up grabbing it with vice grips or something.
There's usually thread locker on there and getting those bolts out the first time can be a little tough.

Yeah, I thought about that, too, but I'm thinking that the caliper is so banged up already and the material is so malleable that a Dremel Moto Tool ought to be able to easily nibble away the material that's blocking the bolt from coming out. That's one of the reasons I'd not be in a huge hurry to swap out the caliper. Maybe wait until a friend with a Moto Tool can do a little cleanup on that thing before removing it?

Thanks for the tip guys @skylly93 - the scooter (and wife) got hit by a car a while back.

I've been riding around without any issues, so it seems fine. I'll keep the tips here in mind when it comes time to bleed the brakes.