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On a new bike with a strange alignment on the front brakes.

The right pad is 5-6mm further to the front than left one.

Is there a way to align the pads or could something have been bent during transportation?

Edit: Brake model is Alhonga HJ-422ADQ and the rear brake pads and mounting screws looks well aligned.

front break pads not aligned front break pads not aligned enter image description here

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  • From the picture it looks as if the mounting screws for the pads were equally offset. Is that a feature?
    – Burki
    Commented Nov 18, 2022 at 9:28
  • You can probably best evaluate it yourself by comparing the front and back breaks which should look the same and be aligned.
    – Cyrille
    Commented Nov 22, 2022 at 20:31

5 Answers 5

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The brakes have three parts:

  1. The mounting 'plate' that's attached to the frame.
  2. The short arm.
  3. The long arm.

Both the short and long arm are fixed flush to the mounting plate and should be aligned.

I'm guessing that either the shaft of the mounting plate that goes into your bike frame is bent or an arm is bent/dislocated.

Can you take a picture from the side and directly above?

Here are some pictures of the break pads that show clearly that your set doesn't appear normal.

Black breaks Silver breaks

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    I guess ideally we would probably want to compare photos of the OP's brake and another brake, taken from the same angle and distance.
    – pateksan
    Commented Nov 23, 2022 at 1:25
  • The OP added in an edit that their back breaks are perfectly aligned... so it's clear that something's bent, loose, or miss-assembled on the front.
    – Cyrille
    Commented Nov 23, 2022 at 10:50
  • Good point. That's even better than, because the OP may find it easier to get the same angle and distance when taking photos of front and back.
    – pateksan
    Commented Nov 23, 2022 at 11:04
  • accepted the answer I got response from the store: "It does indeed look like there is something funky going on here with the brake. ". And I got a replacement brake
    – Constantin.FF
    Commented Jan 31, 2023 at 13:33
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The brake arms - green line - are not in line.
enter image description here

Something is off with the Alhonga brake.
Either something is bent, something is not assembled correctly, or they are just made that way.

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4

I would guess one of the brake pads is flipped over, OR there are two of the same handed pads on the one caliper.

Check the other brake and see if they're the opposite way out.

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    Look at the mounting screws. I doubt it's the brake pads ?
    – Burki
    Commented Nov 18, 2022 at 9:29
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    @Burki Excellent point and well observed - if you'd posted that as an answer it could earn you site reputation.
    – Criggie ♦
    Commented Nov 19, 2022 at 3:18
  • I was uncertain whether my observation was right. And hoping you could elaborate, if there's something wrong with the brake arms, or if it is a design feature.
    – Burki
    Commented Nov 20, 2022 at 9:07
  • All pads are in their proper direction and side. I am trying to find if unaligned brake pads can be a feature but I dont see any other brake model to have the same "feature".
    – Constantin.FF
    Commented Nov 20, 2022 at 12:01
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That is how that brake is. Nothing is damaged or incorrectly assembled here.

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    For my understanding (or feeling, rather), that seems to be poor design. Would this alingment not cause a bending momentum on the rim?
    – Burki
    Commented Nov 20, 2022 at 9:09
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    Brake model is Alhonga HJ-422ADQ and the rear brake pads and mounting screws are well aligned. Maybe also relevant that brakes are Dual Pivot. I went on test ride and everything about the brakes feels OK.
    – Constantin.FF
    Commented Nov 20, 2022 at 11:42
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    @Burki By some amount, but how significant I can't say. It doesn't cause brake steer or anything like that. A lot of low-end caliper brakes have some version of this, although visually this brake appears to have more than usual.
    – Nathan Knutson
    Commented Nov 20, 2022 at 17:09
  • I admit it I'm surprised. I would imagine it's a well thought out decision. Lots of questions come to my mind but I guess the main one is: how common is this?
    – pateksan
    Commented Nov 22, 2022 at 11:12
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    @pateksan Low-end sidepull calipers with some amount of this feature are not uncommon, but a lot of them are made of stamped or other thinner material and so it's not as prominent as in the picture.
    – Nathan Knutson
    Commented Nov 23, 2022 at 6:40
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Just an observation:

Aren't there too many washers here? Is it the same on the rear brake?

washers

On my road bike there's a fewer number of them.

Another thing I would check:

If you place something straight, like a ruler, flush to the brake arm, next to the pad bolt, is it parallel to the wheel?

This is how it looks on my bike:

enter image description here

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