Clueless question: Running in brakes

They've fucked up major. The brake lever should not go back to the bar
and "bedding" in the brakes has nothing to do with the amount of travel
in the lever, only the efficiency of the pads working.

You will not, just make sure they are right when you leave the
workshop. The mechanic should not need to ride the bike to check the
brakes.

 

Sometimes if you pump the brake then gaffa tape it on, leave it a few
hours the air bleeds out and the brakes feel better, but you should
really take it back, and insist on them doing it right.

 

Yes, this is a clueless question but you're the best bunch to help me
out on it.

ER-5 had its 15,000 mile serve today (wahay!) = £94.40.

The garage in Cheriton replaced the front brake pads as they were
"almost down to the metal" - fair enough.

As soon as I got on the bike I noticed that the front brake lever felt
odd, there was a lot of travel in it and it didn't stop until it
reached the bar (it normally stops just under an inch from the bar).
I compressed it a few more times and gave it the benefit of the doubt.

Ignition on, move out at about 10mph about to join a main road, I put
the brakes on early to see what they're like and I keep on going for a
bit *too* long. I turn bike around and go outside the shop.

I yank the brake on as far as it will go while opening the throttle
and getting the clutch just past the biting point. Instead of
stalling or the engine protesting, the bike move forward, even with
the front brake on hard.

After a quick conversation with the bloke at the desk he says that
he'll have a ride on it to see how it goes, five minutes later he
arrives again and delivers it back to the workshop where they attach a
tube that leads into a gooey milk bottle (which I imagine contains
brake fluid) to a hole on the brake caliper mechanism and loosen a nut
(or something) and then they squeeze the brake lever, brake fluid
comes out, no gaps or bubbles. They then do something similar with
the fluid reservior and pump the lever gently (I presume to see if any
air is in the fluid, which there wasn't) - they top it up, put the top
back on and have a good squeeze on the lever, which still goes all the
way back to the bars when depressed fully.

He goes off for another bimble and comes back five minutes later and
says the pads just need bedding in, which will be done in about 50
miles...

....40 miles later and the front brakes are still horrid. The rear
(drum) brake has more stopping power than the front.

In short: My front brakes are so shit that I feel I'd get more
stopping power if I attached a brick to the rear of the bike with
string, and flung it off when I needed to slow down. Is it normal for
the brakes to be this shit after the pads are replaced (still got the
same disk which has been on there for 15,000 miles) and how long will
it be before I can expect the brakes to be back to a usable state?

I don't want to go back on Monday and make a fool of myself in a shop
when I can just do it here. Thanks for your help.

 

In uk.rec.motorcycles, BGN amazed us all with this pearl of wisdom:

There will always be a bit of a performance issue until the brakes bed
in but really, the lever shouldn't go back to the bar and certainly not
if it didn't do it before. I'd say 50 miles is about right but that's
doing a lot of stop and start.

You'll know when they've bedded in because you'll think "these feel
bedded in".

You'll look a bigger fool if you don't get it fixed and slide off or hit
something as a result.

JMHO.

 

I've got a GPZ (Similar bike) and had no problems when I had my front pads
changed but I'm sure someone here can give a better explaination as to why
your brakes are shit. Better try a breeze block rather than a house brick as
it does slow you down a bit quicker.

 

True.

What can be adjusted so that the brake lever doesn't go right back to
the bar?

 

In uk.rec.motorcycles, BGN amazed us all with this pearl of wisdom:

You could try twiddling the span adjuster but I'd still go back to the
shop, you've paid for something they've done badly at best and lethal at
worst.

 

No, they have fucked up somewhere. Even with bedding in you should still
be able to stop fairly normally. Indeed, I recently fitted some new pads
to the FJ, and quite the opposite problem, I had to brake sharpish to
avoid a cager that wasn't looking/indicating to manoever. I actually got
the front tyre to squeal (which woke up the cager too).

It has since got less fierce now they've bedded in.

 

BGN says...

Not normal. Take it back and tell them you want them to put the brake
lever feel back to what it was like when you brought it in. They
shouldn't have let it leave the workshop in that state.

 

Take it back, ask them to fix it or refund you for the job they failed
to do correctly.

Don't accept anything else... don't be afraid to say "liability" and
"trading standards". Or to put it another way, "This is your life".

If they refund you find somebody who knows what they're doing to sort
the brakes out. It's not all that difficult a job really.

 

They may have damaged the brake pipes by bending them out of the way, and
the rubber is bulging under pressure instead of transferring the force down
the way. This is the only time I had the same problem, self inflicted with
old rubber pipes, fixed by nice shiny custom made goodyears.

 

This posting is crap on so many levels I don't know where to begin....

 

Cheap.

<snip>

As others say, they've fucked up somewhere. Normally, yes, brakes do
need a bit of time to bed in, but this sounds horrendous. And even when
they are bedding in, they're not usuall spongey - they just lack a bit
of feel and bite.

 

snip

1: They have fucked up - probably by failing to bleed the system properly.
'Though how they've managed to get air in there just putting new pads in I
don't see ..... unless some utter, utter know nothing toss-pot has squeezed
the lever whilst the pads are out and caused one of the pistons to come out
and then they've bodged it back in? You just *don't* do that if you are
half way competent . And they shouldn't have done anything to let air in
changing pads. I s'pose if they were changing the brake fluid as routine
servicing that's good . But if they've let air in doing that that's real
amateur night stuff.

2. They are lying to you. This is not simply about properly fitted pads
'bedding in'

3. I wouldn't touch the cunts with a very long pole - you could end up dead
relying on shoddy work. Go somewhere else. Tell them what's happened. Pay
to have them fix it.

4. Then contact the original cowboys and demand they refund you the cost of
the work. They will refuse. They will say (rightly) the law requires you
allow them to make good. You reply you did that and they got it wrong the
second time, you no longer feel trust or confidence in them. Say you have
'taken initial legal advice' (they don't know you haven't) and you
understand you can and will take them to small claims court, and if you
have to do that they will then end up (a) paying for the work (b) with the
tab for your legal costs plus (c) it will go in the papers .... bye bye
business.

When they offer you 80% take it and never go back.

5. If you are in AA or RAC you could ring their helpline for advice / or you
could contact Trading Standards or CAB but, heh, *you* have got UKRM what
more do you need.

6. Try the trick with Duct tape .... or anything else which will tie the
lever back to the bar overnight. Sounds daft but putting something
vibrating - angle grinder (not the sharp end), drill on hammer mode (not
metal to metal) something from the back of your big sister's draw etc -
against the brake line and caliper can help shake trapped air up the pipe
..... with the lever tied back.

--
--
Nidge
ZX6R J2 Stunning in zit yellow. KX 125 MX 'I'm snot green -fly ME'. A few
bits of CB500S in Norwegian Parrot blue. BOTAFOT#63 BOMB#5

'Just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand'.
Homer (Simpson).

 

I like it, as surely it can't have been serious.....

....can it?

 

BGN wrote

In all likelihood it is air in the system. If this is the case then
things like tying the lever up overnight *may* help or may not. Bike
brake systems can be fickle things. Either way it should go straight
back to the shop on the back of their van for them to fix as they should
have done in the first place.

 

[/QUOTE]

Not just ordinary bollocks, but the genuine big fat hairy sweaty
elephant's bollocks. **** me, but you'd have to try hard to **** a
brake hose. And the shiny ones would be Goodridge items - Goodyear
make tyres and blimps.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Pip

"What's the difference between a tyre and 365 blow-jobs?"

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Manufacturer of the "Champion-105" range of rearsets
and Ducati Race Engineer.

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
ZZR1100, Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (On its hols) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"

 

They've fucked up, Nick. In a convincingly big and dangerous style.

Your bike should not have been allowed out of the workshop in that
condition - it is unroadworthy with no 'reserve' travel to the lever -
it shouldn't come back far enough to trap a finger behind it, never
mind hard to the bar. As Nidge says, they should come and get it with
a van and sort it out properly - I'd speak to the workshop manager
about this, or the big boss rather than any of the flunkeys.

I'm not sure how they've managed to do this with a simple pad change
on a nearly new bike, either. Mebbe they did pop a piston out and
failed to bleed the air bubble thus caused out - or perhaps one piston
is stuck in its bore, on a rolled-over seal or something.

Check the span adjuster and for fluid leaks - but get the brakes
sorted before you ride it again.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Pip

Speaking of which, are you busy on the morrow, Oh Ginger One?

Only I've fitted new hoses and stuff to the front end of the
BlingMobile, and have arrived at the regretful conclusion that bleeding
the bleeding bleeders is a job for a minimum of two sentient beings.

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Manufacturer of the "Champion-105" range of rearsets
and Ducati Race Engineer.

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
ZZR1100, Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (On its hols) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"