Brake Bleed Question (rear brake feels soft).

[cgguy09]

Hey team,
I have a brake question concerning my beautiful 2004 R1150R Rockster (servo-ABS brakes). She currently has 16,xxx miles on her. According to the prior owner, a Brake Bleed hadn’t been done before, although the brake fluid looked relatively clean, so I don’t believe that to really be the case. For the record, the brakes felt great when I changed the fluid.

I preformed my first brake bleed. For resources I used the JVB video and this guide. http://bmwsporttouring.com/ubbthreads/u ... mber=10156 (both great sources). I took her out and the front brakes felt fine. Roughly the same as before. But it feels like I can compress the rear brake lever further than I could before & it feels like it’s having less breaking power.

When I filled up the brake reservoirs, I was pretty good about making sure I was at the right level, further I was very careful not to get any air in the brakes lines. That being said, it was my first time, & I could have messed up. I rode 10 miles, and I didn’t receive any “brake failure” or “caution” lights.

Brake Pads have less than a few thousands miles on them & show little sign of wear.

I’m at work right now & intend to work on the bike tomorrow. But before I turn-to on the bike, I wanted to ask what you guys thought, and see if anyone could pinpoint my problem or direct me to look to certain things.

Thanks team.

cFogs OUT

BT
NNNN

[towerworker]

I too have an '04 with ABS. To be honest I never use the rear brake because the front and rear are linked thru the system. When I first bought it in '07 I had been used to an '03 w/o ABS and had always applied rear first immediately followed by front (standard stuff). I discovered after going thru a set of rear pads and a rotor in 12K that I was not allowing the system to do it's thing and was applying way too much rear brake resulting in premature pad and rotor wear. It's now been 35K since and the rears look fine. If you're not absolutely sure you didn't introduce some air in the rear circuit you might bleed that part again. Did you have the rear pads off at any time? If you had them off and pushed the pistons in a bit it may just take some riding to get things back in place.

[captaincable]

Look up CycleRobs posts on brakes if you want to correctly maintain your brakes , he got my brakes to work great with a few maintenance procedures and I have a older 1997 without abs. They work smoothly with the brake pads wearing evenly and brakes strong no mushy feeling. Btw the stainless brake lines helped also.I ride a lot on gravel the abs might be nice.
Mike

[cgguy09]

Hey folks, thanks for the information. I'm fairly certain I introduced air into the system, or maybe (now that Tower mentioned it) could have been the pistons I compressed.

Long story short, I didn't need to bleed the system. I put an ammo can filled with tools (about 10 lbs) on left it on the rear brake over 24-36 hours (it was a rainy weekend). Then, when I jumped on her on Monday morning, the brake felt perfect. I got the idea from a friend on ADVrider.com (Good guys over there). To explain it, apparently there was air going from the pedal to the abs unit and compressing the pedal over a period of time will force the small air bubbles out...apparently, this won't work if it's between the Brake proper and the ABS unit. Got lucky I guess. (I did not want to take off that damn gas tank).

I was so happy with the results I decide to put a zip tie on my front brake (which feels fine, but what the hell? I did buy the jumbo box of zip ties at Sams...might as well use them)

Thanks for the help & hopefully this helps some other poor loser.

Take care, boys!

cFogs OUT

BT
NNNN