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That's a symptom of having old brake fluid or having air in your brake system. You can easily bleed the brakes yourself in about 30 minutes for the cost of the brake fluid ($4) and some tubing and a bottle. You should also check the condition of the pads, which is easy to do. Just get under the caliper and look up into the pads, they have notches in them that indicate how worn they are...little to no notch left means it's time for new ones. Also easy to do.
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Nov 11, 2010 19:35
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| # ¿ May 4, 2024 22:23 |
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You can check the age of the brake fluid pretty easily. Just open the front brake reservoir (or look into the viewing glass if it's not too dirty) and see what color the fluid is. If it's amber you're good. If it's dark like chocolate, not good.
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Nov 11, 2010 21:10
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SlightlyMadman posted:I just ran out to the parking lot and checked. Brake pads have nice deep gaps in them still, and brake reservoir is a perfectly clear amber that's above the marked lower limit, although a good ways from the upper mark (maybe 1/4 full between the two). Feel your rotors and see if you can feel any oil or grease. That's to check to see if your pads got contaminated somehow (usually by a leaking fork seal). If that checks out and bleeding the brakes doesn't improve it, then I'm out of ideas. 
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Nov 12, 2010 14:38
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Crayvex posted:I had a similar experience Friday night. I was riding in rush hour traffic and in the dark. I had quite a gap between me and the cars in front of me. I got on the throttle and noticed brake lights. Everyone rides their god drat brakes in Michigan so I just figured they were slowing down. Nope, there was a whole gaggle of cars at a complete stop. I hit both brakes for panic stop and I hit the rear brake a little too hard and locked it up. Stayed on the back brake and pumped the front brake and kept it all upright and didn't hit anyone or anything. drat that rear brake is touchy on my R6! It is really hard to not lock up your rear under heavy braking because all the weight is transferred to the front wheel. I mostly won't touch my rear brake, even for hard stops. If I do use it, it's a very light application.
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Nov 16, 2010 15:07
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KozmoNaut posted:I was taught to start out with the rear brake to load the front and smoothly transfer to the front brake so I was completely off the rear brake once fully on the front. That's great for normal riding but in a panic stop I'm not going to have time to finesse the rear brake into the front brake. I simply do a careful initial bite with the front brake and then go hog wild, the limit being when my rear wheel leaves the ground. I pretty much only use the rear brake in situations where my front is already pretty loaded up and I need to tighten my line or slow down, and that's only on the track. I'm probably not even good enough to gently caress with the rear brake even then. Edit: Oh, and I'll probably be getting some use out of the rear brake to control rear wheel speed when I start backing my sumo in. 
FuzzyWuzzyBear fucked around with this message at 21:07 on Nov 16, 2010 |
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Nov 16, 2010 21:01
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Z3n posted:With proper suspension setup, the bike should be neutral on the brakes in a corner. A lot of the time when people talk about the bike standing up on the brakes, it's a mental thing...they start braking and they start looking to the outside and the bike follows what they expect it to do. I think this depends on how heavily the front brakes are applied. A light touch on the front brakes will not stand the bike up when cranked over, but if you start hauling on the front binders, the bike will stand itself up pretty aggressively, regardless of your pressure on the bars. At least I've noticed this tendency on both my CBR and my KTM, and they were both pretty bang-on suspension wise.
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Apr 4, 2011 02:07
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When I'm trailbraking deep on the KTM my front end gets a little flighty, and if I really get on the brakes it'll stand up, that's what I've noticed. It's been such a long time since I've touched a sportbike that I've forgotten what they feel like with light front brakes while leaned over. 
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Apr 4, 2011 02:29
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-Inu- posted:Was it a non o-ring chain? One of the kids at Jennings when I went last month had a brand new non o-ring RK on his SV650. They were having to adjust the tension after every session. Eventually the chain came off mid-session about halfway through the day. Granted this was on a track, but the bike wasn't being ridden that hard. I don't get the point of a chain lacking o-rings unless you are part of a race team that can afford replacing every consumable part on the bike after use. Seriously, it can't reduce rolling resistance that much over an o-ring chain?
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Feb 2, 2012 03:59
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| # ¿ May 4, 2024 22:23 |
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Had the front push on me today in a righthand turn thanks to some brake fluid on the edge of my front tire. This happened on a shakedown ride after bleeding the front calipers. Spiced up the ride nicely. I then proceeded to do a self-congratulatory victory wheelie for keeping the bike upright despite having a front tire that felt like riding on an ice sphere.
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Jun 7, 2012 20:56
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