I just purchased a new JetMoto 150 which has front and rear hydraulic disc brakes. Overall I'm pleased with it but the front brakes are not as powerful as I expected. Even at low speeds I am unable to lock up the front tires under full braking on dirt or grass. The rear brake will easily lock up the rear tires under full braking power.

My other quads, a Yamaha YMF100 and a Honda Four Trax both have drum brakes which can lock the front tires. This is my first experience with a Chinese quad. Is this performance normal for these quads or do others have better braking performance?

 

I have a Marshin Titan Utility quad that I can lock up both front and rear wheels with no problem. At first they did not work so well though. I read that they ship the units with a oil on the break surfaces so that they don't rust in shipping. So I went out and cleaned both sides of the discs and the drum and wow I can stop now.

 

I have a 150 bought in August. It has very good stopping power from the front discs. Maybe there is some oil residue or something else causing poor performance. Easy thing to do is the clean them the discs really well with brake clean and see how that works. Check to see the pads are properly positioned and aligned parallel to the discs. Check to see if there is plenty of brake fluid. Maybe bleed the the brake lines, some air might have gotten in.

 

I'm glad to here that I should be able to get much better performance out of these brakes and this isn't just how they work.

I had already cleaned the discs with brakes cleaner and bleed the brake lines. I contacted RacewayATV about this problem on Monday and John thought it was the master cylinder. Without question he sent me a new master cylinder which I received yesterday (Excellent, Excellent Service!!) and installed. But I still have the same issue.

Without knowing any better it almost seems as if the brake pads are "soaked" in some sort of oil that I have not yet been able to remove. I'll look at the pads today and check to make sure they are properly positioned and aligned.

I also see quite a bit of "flex" in the entire brake caliber when applying the brakes hard. I have a couple of Motorcycles (Honda XR600 and Yamaha TTR125) that both have disc brakes and they have no flex in the caliper. But again, I don't know if this is just due to a different design or if it is a problem.

Thanks for the responses, I'll get back into the garage now and get this fixed.

 

Pads could be soaked with oil. You can take them off and hit them with some break clean and then sand them some with sand paper. Also you can rough up the discs a little too. The shipping oil they use is more a grease. When I looked at my discs they did'nt look oily, but once I started to clean them the rag was black with residue. I think I got to them before the oil soaked into the pads to far. They are getting even better now with use. I think I too might of had some air in the lines. I was going to bleed them, but never got around to it. Now I don't need to.