Lone Wolf

Were you braking when lost traction? Accelerating? Gun it just before lost traction?

Like so many things in life, we have to look out for "Always" do this, or "Never" do that. It depends. In this case, it depends on the condition of the sprockets, and Canyon Chasers says if you replace a worn chain soon enough you can get 2 sprockets to one chain. If you wait, you can't. A lot of people have come to the conclusion that name brand chains on OEM motorcycles are not the same quality as that same brand chain aftermarket. At least you get to choose the best DID chain or whatever if you buy aftermarket. This is a really good video and article: How to Install a New Motorcycle Chain - CanyonChasers How do you know when your chain needs to be replaced? Go to your rear... In my experience, and most write ups, the front sprocket will get worn out first. I will purchase a new front sprocket when I buy the chain - then I can really compare the old sprocket to what it should look like when new. If it is starting to show wear, any slight signs of "hooking" (the middle photo below shows beginning of roundish indentations from where the rollers make contact) then I replace it with the new one. If the sprocket looks fantastic then it stays on the bike. That decision can be made on the rear before you pull the chain, much easier to see what is going on.

Yeah with all new surfaces on a new bike that is certainly a different scene than a vintage bike that has also seen some periods of storage. I started using vacuum bleeder but for many years just did the "squeeze the lever" method, which is what you see on most instructions. Even the video I posted on page 1 of this thread, Aaron uses vacuum bleed but also shows how to do it manually. It is something to be aware of if you are working on an older bike. Corollary with new bike... you should be fine.

In normal operation, the brake lever doesn't easily move all the way to the handlebar. At some point the fluid pushes the brake pads against the rotor, and the movement within master cylinder halts right there. On an old engine that needs to be bored out due to wear, you can see where the piston rings hit top dead center, and the bottom of the stroke. Above and below the area traveled by the piston and it's rings, the cylinder will be normal. It can be difficult to remove the old piston out of the worn engine because the rings hang up at the ridge formed at the location where normal travel ends. You get that old piston out, take the engine block to the machine shop where they bore out the cylinder a small amount. You purchase oversize piston and rings. Good as new. Same concept for brake system. During normal use the piston in the brake master cylinder only goes back and forth in a specific range of movement. You crack open the bleeder nipple in the caliper and start pulling the lever all the way to China, and the piston is now moving beyond it's normal area and depending on the age of the system could be hitting things stuck on the walls of the bore that interfere with the rubber seal. Could cause damage to the seal.

This SIL-Glyde is the proper grease for moving parts in a brake system, but really you can use anything to just seal around the threads. I have used wheel bearing grease then wiped it off when done. You have to put it where the tube connects to the bleeder nipple as well. Smear it around the end of bleeder nipple, push the clear hose over that, and it should be sealed. Wipe it 360 degrees around the bleeder nipple threads on the caliper before loosening the bleeder nipple. At that point there is no place for air to be introduced. The difference is night and day if you are using a vacuum bleeder but also makes a difference with old school tube in a bottle. Not my idea, I got it from watching a bunch of youtube videos including for car brakes.

I own a lot of tools. 3 different torque wrenches so there is a "sweet spot" in the middle of the range for big, medium, and small fasteners. I have a digital caliper. The Motion Pro chain breaker, and recently got the No Mar tire changer so I don't have to use tire irons anymore. I have a Fluke digital multimeter. I have the Morgan carb tune and sync my own bikes. I am kind of a tool freak. In your line of work you may have access to moisture testing equipment, and a background to understand it, which is awesome. I don't. And although I do buy tools that I may only use once (just changed steering bearings on older bike) I really don't feel the urge to get a moisture meter. For my background, I once restored a 50 Chevy truck and had to bore out the slave cylinders due to corrosion. The brakes were fantastic. Then I let it sit too long and some of the parts rusted up again. Maybe the metals are better now and less prone to corrosion, but that was my lesson that brake fluid (that I had put into a bone dry system) can absorb water. Master cylinders tend to have a rubber membrane under the lid. It will essentially seal the brake fluid from atmosphere - yet after time moisture does get in the fluid. I suppose from the small area of atmosphere below the membrane. Eventually there are bubbles in the system. I am not an expert, but would imagine that H20 subjected to repeated heat of braking may release some oxygen. I don't know where else those bubbles or sponge feeling would come from if there was no air leaking into a closed system. It's really not my battle, and certainly no battle with you, but I don't have a problem with fresh brake fluid. Motor oil is different, as they mention in the NAPA article I posted. I just don't take any chances with brakes - I even face east every time I pour fluid in the master cylinder.

Personally I will put that money toward a new bottle of brake fluid, fairly cheap. Brake Fluid Shelf Life and Other Important Auto Essentials Understanding brake fluid shelf life can make a big difference in your...

Once a container of brake fluid is open, the clock starts ticking on shelf life. Dave Moss says if you don't use it within 3 months to toss it (due to absorb moisture from atmosphere).

It doesn't matter. All DOT 4 is compatible. Mixing is unimportant, compared to bleeding the system dry. Bleeding the reservoir dry is an "oops". As others have said, if you want to pull some of the fluid out of the master cylinder before commencing the bleed you can pull a lot of it out with a syringe or "turkey baster". Then fill with new fluid and start to bleed it out.

If you look at that video with Aaron bleeding brakes, he shows putting teflon tape around the bleeder nipple threads to keep air from coming in, and from my experience a lot of the bubbles that you see cruising through the tube may not have been in your brake system - they get introduced from the gap in the threads when you open the bleed nipple screw. I have seen that with the old "tube in a bottle" method as well as vacuum bleeders. the problem with the teflon tape is you have to pull the bleeder screw all the way out and wrap it (or have a spare ready to put in as soon as you remove the old one). Personally I wipe a small ring of grease around the brake nipple and zero air can get in, it dramatically reduces the bubbles you see - and the ones you see are from the brake system not outside atmosphere. This is a legit issue. Speed bleeder nipples come with a pre-applied sealant around the threads to combat this problem, and they sell a bottle of liquid to re apply because it wears off the threads. I just use the grease. Did he change your brake fluid to silicone? Do you have the container that was used? If he changed to non-OEM fluid you would of course be aware of that for future brake work. Any DOT 4 could have been used for your bleed, there is no need to get rid of existing fluid when going back with DOT 4 from any manufacturer. BLEEDER AT THE MASTER CYLINDER I recently pulled the banjo bolt on another bikes master cylinder and replaced it with one of these from Spiegler. You bleed it right there (in addition to the caliper bleed screw). These are also helpful for some rear master cylinders where you can't get to the high point where the bubbles rise up to. I got mine through Revzilla, did not come with crush washers so you may want to order crush washer as well.

They had problems with K2 units as well, then fixed a firmware issue about a year ago and they have been OK. The bad reviews seemed to stop after a while, and there was a Gold Wing forum noting lots of issues then it calmed down. It almost put me off, but then I figured that maybe they evolved and learned and fixed it - and it seems that they did.

Member Clegg78 did, but some of the images aren't showing up now 3D Printed Dashcam mount and Motorcycle parts – Interwebs of Joe So last fall I sold my trusty 2005 Triumph Sprint ST motorcycle and picked... from this thread I have the Innovv K2 installed on a different bike and although expensive, you can rely on it. It has been rock solid for me, starts recording every time I start the bike with front and rear cameras. No issues in the 6 months I have had it. Very nice software, which is a complaint with the cheaper MC dashcams.

The main culprit I see is the glazing, and that is fairly common on brake pads that have been in use. I have taken pads like that, sanded the glazing off with 120 grit sandpaper on a flat surface, and had functioning brakes again. the HH pads will be even better because of more aggressive friction. Your backing plates have the normal dusty residue one would expect. When my pads were contaminated from leaking seals on an older bike, the contamination was more obvious in terms of not looking just dusty but kind of muddy scum layer. You would need to rub a rag on the pads to see if anything other than dust comes off - it is really had to tell from a photo because pads have a lot of fibers and binders that goes into the "mix" and you add wear and heat cycles to that and it is just a confetti of particles. In the FZ-07 world there is a video by "Jake" where his brakes just seemed to stop working. Fairly low miles, and the pads just seemed to stop grabbing. He changed to the same EBC HH’s you did in a video and all issues were fixed. He had no known contamination, no leaking fork seals, no mention of wrong cleaning substance. The stock pads just stopped grabbing. I suppose the good news is to be aware of it and do something rather than live with bad brakes.

1) A good non-spongy brake that is "not transferred to the rotor" is obviously due to lack of friction, such as the speculation about pads being contaminated, or glazed, or crappy. 2) the reason to do the hard braking (but not complete stop) multiple times is to generate HEAT and allow transfer of brake pad material to the rotors. If you do research on this and go down the rabbit hole, you will find that race car brake suppliers even have a service where they sell new parts that have been "bed in" at the factory. They spin the rotors and in a controlled environment, get them up to the heat needed and the transfer of pad material is done before the parts are even put on the race car. Otherwise the guy is driving in circles, brake, go, brake, go, brake, go. 3) If you never do a controlled bed-in of the brakes, it is supposed to occur gradually over time during normal driving. When new parts are installed, the brakes may feel terrible - you bed them in - and within a few minutes you have fantastic brakes. That is especially noticeable with pads designed to give good initial bite like HH pads. 4) I have had bikes with leaking fork seals, and once the pads get contaminated with oil they will never get the friction needed to work properly. I once tried to save money by spraying the oil-soaked brake pads with harsh brake cleaners, soak in acetone, etc. but they only got slightly better. I had to change the pads (and fix the source of oil). I have never experienced a loss in braking due to "product to make the bike shiny" but I would imagine that would be much more temporary than oil-soaked. If it were my bike, and bedding in didn't help, I would pull the pads and see if they were glazed. Sand them with 120 grit until matte looking or just replace them while they are out.

Yep, you are correct. It is a great habit to bleed brakes regularly, don't give the fluid a chance to get old and absorb water. So there is zero harm in just bleeding the brakes - now. That is just odd. I find the stock brakes to be at least "good". Just for giggles, you may want to find an empty road and do a series of maybe 4 controlled slow-downs from @ 45-60 Mph down to almost stopped (don't completely stop). Then get it up to speed again, do a controlled (not panic) fairly hard but even slow to about 5 Mph again, and just do that 4 times. A bike with 5,000 miles shouldn't need to have the brakes "bed in" like that, but I did once "heal" a bike that was starting to feel like wooden brakes by doing that maneuver. It is free, just look behind you before slowing down. The reason you don't completely stop in doing this is because theoretically you are getting the pads and rotor hot enough to transfer some material from the pad to rotor (bed in). If you keep holding the brakes and come to an absolute stop, you may have more material transfer there and get pulsating brakes afterwards.

Not required. Nice to have, but you can get the job done 100% with simply a tube that goes into a jar. Follow the videos. Without a speed bleeder It just means you have to close the caliper bleed nipple after you squeeze the brake lever (if you are doing it manually). Once a bottle of brake fluid has been opened most sources say to discard after about 3 months because some moisture will be absorbed from exposure to atmosphere. You will discard a bottle before it is empty, so you can just pour an inch or so of brake fluid in the jar before you start, and that eliminates the risk of air coming back into the caliper, the end of the hose is submerged in liquid.

Watch Aaron do a stoppie on a stock FZ-07 with no radial master cylinder and calipers worse than Tracer. Set to start at 3:27

I noticed a huge improvement with EBC HH sintered pads after bedding them in (several gradual stops from @ 45 mph in a row, to heat up and evenly transfer material to rotors in a smooth controlled manner.) BUT after a year or so they became glazed. Just like your issue, no bite, took gorilla grip to stop quickly. I bled the brakes twice, no improvement for my particular situation. Stoltec Moto did a post somewhere about EBC pads having problem with glazing, and all they sell are Galfer HH pads. He thinks they are less prone to glazing when used for hard braking on the track. Stock pads can also become glazed. My EBC's had lots of pad remaining, so I took them out, inspected for any brake fluid or fork oil (rub with rag or paper towel, normal pads will have dust but not anything that will stain the rag with petroleum looking smear). I got some 120 grit sandpaper and a very flat block of wood and removed the glaze from my pads. I quickly saw the glazed areas start to appear Matte finish within a few strokes against the sandpaper. If you cut one sheet of sandpaper into 4 pieces, you will use one piece for each pad then use clean sandpaper on the next one. If your pads are not contaminated, only dry dust will come off, nothing oily. Avoid breathing the dust, clean off the pads and reinstall. The rotors should still have some pad residue (even after cleaning) so they will essentially already be bedded in and you should notice a change right away if the pads were glazed. And, like Betony said, bleed the brakes. Your bike may still have the original fluid as you bought a low miles used bike. There are some great tips on this next video re: how to prevent your master cylinder from running out of fluid when you bleed the brakes. BTW Aaron is an amazing stunt rider. I have seen him do a stoppie that went forever. He knows brakes.

This was not the member with burnt exhaust valve, not the OP Rusty

The great thing about that path is the ocean is to your right as you go down Pacific Coast Highway. You can pull over whenever you want, and it is easier to go in and out of some really nice places along the way such as Nepenthe for coffee in Big Sur. I just did that ride and there is also a great pull off at Julia Pheiffer Burns park, amazing views of rocky coast. Keep going for coffee and gas at Ragged Point Inn. Google Maps Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps. I totally agree with "CA-58 over to McKittrick, then go south on CA-33 all the way into Ojai" and the place to get off Pacific Coast Highway is on Hwy 46 heading inland just south of Cambria. That is a beautiful road that gets you to the 101 freeway where you can easily connect with CA-58.

Awesome bike, awesome Corvette, you could enjoy this stage of life much more with an awesome trailer. Maybe the Vette isn't set up to pull a heavier enclosed trailer, but some money well spent will give you piece of mind. Those tires are "may-pops" if only rated for 55 mph

You can order chain with the length you want (to avoid having to cut it yourself) This is from sprocketcenter.com " If the number is an odd number, then it must have a half link in it." http://www.sprocketsunlimited.com/Chainspecifications.html Don't use a half link - the axle adjustment will take care of small differences.

They seem to be playing around with different concepts. These pipes are more tolerable. https://www.webbikeworld.com/the-bmw-motorrad-concept-r18-is-absolutely-stunning/

Well, it's the exhaust on that new BMW - the word "hideous" comes to mind. So that was the initial shock factor, like wow, someone bought one of those. The bike is not butt ugly, if you changed the pipes it would be tolerable. Not my thing. Yeah the profile pic is my 1980 Yamaha 850 Triple that I kept through 1996. That was a great bike, tons of torque, shaft drive. I have been riding an XSR900 and my old Honda 750, will be getting a Tracer or used FJ-09 when an opportunity arises.