a word of warning about brakes

[iainm9438]

i had a small problem on the ride home from last Wednesday's local bike night.
i had just pulled away from the meeting place on my way home and everything seemed fine until i came to a tee junction. i pulled away as normal but as i started to accelerate, it seemed like the engine was seizing
as i pulled over and put on the rear brake, there was nothing there...the pedal just went straight down with no resistance.
i thought it must have been my rear pads falling out and getting wedged in between the disc and caliper ......but how can this be? i check them regularly?
anyway, they were still in place and a couple of pumps of the pedal and all was fine again.
today, i stripped out the rear pads and found they had a couple of weird marks and grooves on them...almost like were about to disintegrate?
now, i only fitted them a couple of weeks ago and got them from Jaws so they are not cheap items.
anyway, i called John and straight away he told me that it sound like a problem he has seen recently on 3 or 4 other s where the rear brake secondary cylinder (on the left fork leg) doesn't return properly and causes the rear brake to stay on
so after stripping off the the pivoting caliper bracket i find that the top pivot point where the secondary cylinder clevis joins the bracket had seized!
a bit of careful cleaning and reaming out of the bush and plenty of grease and it was all nice and free moving again. i also took the time to clean and grease the bottom pivot point and the caliper sliders all round and now problem solved.
if this had happened whilst braking hard from speed, the outcome could have been a lot worse.

so the moral of the story is for the sake of 1/2 hours work, strip, check and grease your pivot points. as i have already said, John at Jaws has seen this happen to 2 or 4 other s recently so it is really worth checking for your own peace of mind

oh...and a big thank you to John who, as always, is extremely helpful and a pleasure to deal with

[deadman]

Thanks iainm for that info, its not some thing you would normally do, other than a quick visual, I will have a good look now,
Cheers,
Brian,

[dirk.diggler]

MMMMMMMMMMMMMM...Reaming the Bush....."Fnarr! Fnarr!", "Warf! Warf!", "Tsssk Tsssk", "Chortle Chortle"

[Simon S]

Cheers for the info Ian, got the front wheel out at the moment so will check and grease the pivot.
Brakes are quite a nice addition to the bike me finks

[Chrisevans41]

An excellent point Iaian phew bit of a close one that, and as the only thing you really need to work correctly on yer is the brakes and that measn being off as well as on when required. I recently serviced my front suspension and as the callipers have to be moved out of the way I gave the brakes a good clean, de gunk and grease of the copper stuff as required whilst also checking the pistons for corrosion and correct movement and operation.
Anyone thinking of bleeding the linked brakes may benefit from a draper pressurised bleeder for about £45 from most auotmotive tool shops as it allowed me to complete the task in about 1 - 1/2hrs. What a massive difference to the suspension with new oil. Stay on and stay safe

[T.Murphy aka Tim]

An excellent point Iaian phew bit of a close one that, and as the only thing you really need to work correctly on yer is the brakes and that measn being off as well as on when required. I recently serviced my front suspension and as the callipers have to be moved out of the way I gave the brakes a good clean, de gunk and grease of the copper stuff as required whilst also checking the pistons for corrosion and correct movement and operation.
Anyone thinking of bleeding the linked brakes may benefit from a draper pressurised bleeder for about £45 from most auotmotive tool shops as it allowed me to complete the task in about 1 - 1/2hrs. What a massive difference to the suspension with new oil. Stay on and stay safe

LOL.

Unless you're a tight Northern or Welsh bugga.


Maxx2...tell 'im about the jam jar will ya? Tell 'im go on.

[Chrisevans41]

Being a tight northerner I had to sell mi jam jars with the jam in them too, to buy the brake bleeder. Still need a jam jar for the bleeding, 'bleedin brakes'.

[MaXX2]

Never saw this Jam jar ( ), B&Q pipe (about £2 a meter), 1 ltr of DOT 5.1 and exactly 17 minutes (yes I did time it ) will replace all the hydraulic fluid in the brakes and clutch

If you're working with empty pipes, it takes longer. I spent the best part of 5 hours replacing the standard hoses with the stainless jobbies, but must say- the jam jar (now more than 15 years of age ) was still well up to the task even though it takes longer to be sure of a good result. I did cheat this time a bit though--- to get the fluid into the lines (and get things going) I attached a ten bob fleabay syringe to the nipples and drew down the first reservoir full. The jam jar ( ) took over from there.

Must say- bleeding the brakes is one of those truly wonderful jobs that I do every winter. Cost a tenner, takes a few minutes and I can feel a positive result every time. I just don't get that from expensive (but necessary) servicing like oil, plugs and filters.

[Kidbiker]

Gotta change me pads soon so will check me system over then......problem is me jam jar is already full from being too fookin lazy to empty it

Better get that toaster on the go and free me up another one.....prob easyer to empty the first but its like an ornament in the old garage now

plus i like the idea of eating to help out the work side

[Chrisevans41]

Never saw this Jam jar ( ), B&Q pipe (about £2 a meter), 1 ltr of DOT 5.1 and exactly 17 minutes (yes I did time it ) will replace all the hydraulic fluid in the brakes and clutch

If you're working with empty pipes, it takes longer. I spent the best part of 5 hours replacing the standard hoses with the stainless jobbies, but must say- the jam jar (now more than 15 years of age ) was still well up to the task even though it takes longer to be sure of a good result. I did cheat this time a bit though--- to get the fluid into the lines (and get things going) I attached a ten bob fleabay syringe to the nipples and drew down the first reservoir full. The jam jar ( ) took over from there.

Must say- bleeding the brakes is one of those truly wonderful jobs that I do every winter. Cost a tenner, takes a few minutes and I can feel a positive result every time. I just don't get that from expensive (but necessary) servicing like oil, plugs and filters.

Must just add MaXX2 that my 1 1/2 hrs was from a new set of hoses from filling start to finish. Well done on the 17 mins. Yorkshire minutes are world renowned for being longer . Cheers

[wolfieblue]

De link them an solve a multitude of problems

[MaXX2]

Mine are still linked... no problems to report, multitudinal or otherwise

[deadman]

Delinking my brakes would be a PITA,

I just bought a Kwaka ZR7, relearning to use the back brake, after not using it for so long on the Bird,

Nope, I wont be delinking, Maybe I am just too lazy to use a back brake, or I am getting old Hahahahaha

I wonder if it still works, The back one, Hahahaha

[MrSheen]

Cheers for the info Ian, got the front wheel out at the moment so will check and grease the pivot.
Brakes are quite a nice addition to the bike me finks

Just make sure you re fit the front wheel before you take her out to check the brakes

[xxstatic]

talking of brakes has anyone fitted the delinking kit from jaws also has anyone fitted a 97 98 99 swingarm on their bird

[Akuji]

talking of brakes has anyone fitted the delinking kit from jaws also has anyone fitted a 97 98 99 swingarm on their bird

i have a 99 swing arm on my - but then it is a 99 so all the other bits are too

[aj]

i had a small problem on the ride home from last Wednesday's local bike night.
i had just pulled away from the meeting place on my way home and everything seemed fine until i came to a tee junction. i pulled away as normal but as i started to accelerate, it seemed like the engine was seizing
as i pulled over and put on the rear brake, there was nothing there...the pedal just went straight down with no resistance.
i thought it must have been my rear pads falling out and getting wedged in between the disc and caliper ......but how can this be? i check them regularly?
anyway, they were still in place and a couple of pumps of the pedal and all was fine again.
today, i stripped out the rear pads and found they had a couple of weird marks and grooves on them...almost like were about to disintegrate?
now, i only fitted them a couple of weeks ago and got them from Jaws so they are not cheap items.
anyway, i called John and straight away he told me that it sound like a problem he has seen recently on 3 or 4 other s where the rear brake secondary cylinder (on the left fork leg) doesn't return properly and causes the rear brake to stay on
so after stripping off the the pivoting caliper bracket i find that the top pivot point where the secondary cylinder clevis joins the bracket had seized!
a bit of careful cleaning and reaming out of the bush and plenty of grease and it was all nice and free moving again. i also took the time to clean and grease the bottom pivot point and the caliper sliders all round and now problem solved.
if this had happened whilst braking hard from speed, the outcome could have been a lot worse.

so the moral of the story is for the sake of 1/2 hours work, strip, check and grease your pivot points. as i have already said, John at Jaws has seen this happen to 2 or 4 other s recently so it is really worth checking for your own peace of mind

parently treepithed had a problem with hot rear brake and did this clean up...
told him mine was running hot too, and before you could wink at Bridget, he'd had it out and was cleaning and lubing it...


then he said... ohhh yer chains slack... 2 winks later that was tightened...

pays to have mates who aren't tvats...


regards
aj

[Greenbriggs9]

I changed all three sets of pads a couple of days ago.
On my initial test ride, the brakes were binding like feck.

The back caliper was smoking :-o
Then everything just settled down.
I also had a non existent back brake for a couple of minutes.
By the time I got to work and the disks went from a glowing red ;-) to a normal and cool disk again, they were all spot on.
You could say I had bedded them in.
I had yo take off the left caliper for better access.
I also had to remove that doofy doo above the caliper.
I bet that is what caused all the hot brake commotion....