On several occasions I have noticed my front wheels do not spin very freely. The left front being the worst. I can jack up the front, spin the wheels as hard as I can, and can not even get two full revolutions before they come to an abrupt halt. For comparison I did the same test on my brothers 450R and his front wheels spin much more freely than mine. After tinkering around I have found the problem to be that the front brake pads rub on the rotors even when disengaged. Is there any way to adjust them so they don't rub, or do I just have to wait for the pads to eventually wear down some?

 

You sure the rotors are not warped?
When is the last time you greased the wheel bearings and axel.

When spinning mine, I can hear the rotor/brake pads, but I do get many more than 2 revolutions.

All easy to fix, good luck!

 

brake drag....my pred has the same thing...i've heard of people using springs to pull the pads away from the rotors!!! but this makes it a little tougher to engage the front brakes!

 

It is definately the brake pads rubbing. With a flathead screwdriver I can pry the brake pad back off of the rotor and the wheel spins freely. As soon as I engage and release the brake lever it begins rubbing again.

 

try springs holding the pads back!!! you'll just have to pump the brakes to get them to work! expierement with different type of spring weights!!!

 

Also sometimes rocks, mud or sand get cramed up in your brakes. The problem was for me was that i got 2 much snow. It stopped my front left tire instant and spin me around.

 

there is no way to grease the font bearings.

the calipers work the exact same as cars, nothing returns them and nothing is needed if everything is in order.

more than likely its debris like steveo suggests, mud and grass and junk gets crammed up under the calipers between the calipers and brake pads and cause them to hang up a bit and continue rubbing after pressure is relieved from the master cylinder, I've had it so bad I've had to remove the pads to get the junk out. remove the calipers and then remove the pads and see if there's anything up under them. brake the bolts loose that go thru the pads prior to removing the calipers, its easier that way

 

the big trick in ice racing is to take off the front brakes to reduce wheel drag[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif[/img] only when you really want to go fast.

 

DSe
Check your master cyl and lever. If the m/cyl can not fully release it will hold some pressure on the pads. This was a problem on my old 250R when the lever pivot started to seize. It was not enough to realize a problem with the brakes but enough to hold some pressure on the pads. I found it the same way you did, by noticing that the wheel would not turn freely.

 

I took my front wheels off this weekend to look for any debris and could not find any. I decided to go ahead and spray down the pads and rotor with some aerosol brake cleaner and that seemed to do the trick. Might of just been the buildup of break dust. Not really sure but they spin much more freely now.