| Author | Message | ||
     Portero72 |
Howdy gents. My rear pedal, after a few winter weeks of sitting idle, has lost interest in the braking process. I can bleed the bejeezus out of it, but a few blocks down the road and it’s back to being useless. MC rebuild time? Shortcuts or secrets? Any advice appreciated. | ||
| Johnshore |
The Uly has a rear brake? My rear brake pedal is more of an extra foot peg. | ||
| Tempest766 |
It's been my experience that the rear brake on the uly is more for show than for function. I've managed to coax some function out of it by adjusting the bergeezers out of the piston adjustment, but it has always been very weak...and the pads barely wear. Probably doesn't help that it's behind the leaky engine and breather vent tube. | ||
| Whisperstealth |
I got use out of the rear brake on my 09XT. Not a ton mind you, but enough that I'm glad it was there. | ||
| Ourdee |
Main use of rear brake on the XT is holding it in position at stop lights. I did use mine quite a bit. | ||
| Falloutnl |
I used the rear brake on my Ulysses - a lot - in faster corners. | ||
| Roconroad |
Always use my rear brake on my 08 uly to brush off some speed going into corners gravel,moister | ||
| Hughlysses |
When you say it's "useless", you mean the pedal goes down with no resistance and no brake application, or is there pedal resistance but no brake application? If fluid isn't leaking out, it seems unlikely a rebuild is necessary, but disassembling the caliper and master cylinder, cleaning, and reassembling may be necessary. Have you changed the brake fluid periodically? If not, sludge can build up in the master cylinder, blocking the relief hole, which will make weird things happen. If you've changed the pads without cleaning the brake dust off the rear caliper piston, that can also cause weird issues. And just to chime in, yes, I use my rear brake on every ride. In addition to using it for trail braking in some curves (especially downhill) I follow a recommendation I read years ago: When approaching a normal stop, start braking with front, add rear, and as the bike comes to a stop ease off on the front and use ONLY the rear as you come to a stop. Places you have to stop, like traffic lights, stop signs, etc. are most likely to have a contaminated road surface with oil, sand, trash, smashed beer cans, etc. If you're on the front brake and run over one of those the front wheel can lock up and you WILL go down. A sliding rear wheel isn't nearly as big of a deal. | ||
| Ratbuell |
There's 2 brakes for a reason, folks... I use the hell out of the rear, to trail-brake before turns without standing up the bike (that front brake snaps the bars center in a HURRY), to hold at lights...and in combination with my front brake under normal stopping conditions, to keep from burning through the front brake too fast. Noticed today (first day of the season, riding) I do need to replace the rear pads again....36k miles, it's earned another set. | ||
| Ceejay |
Pull the MC. Fully Disassemble - it’s easy. There will be a bunch of rust and gunk as brake fluid is hygroscopic. I didn’t need any extra parts as some light sanding and cleaning did the trick but you may need to buy a pr of circlip pliers. | ||
| Portero72 |
Hughlysses, Correct. Pedal goes to the stop with no noticeable impact on braking. I bled it till it came back close to normal, but that only lasted a few blocks. | ||
| Pushr0d |
+1 - they're easy to clean. I doubt the soft parts are bad. But, be careful handling them. Seems like I rebuilt mine - but I might be confused with my rebuild projects. I've heard the rear brake is useful on hills. What exactly is this 'hill' you speak of? (Written on the Redneck Riviera) | ||
| Mark_weiss |
Because the rear brake line goes uphill from the master cylinder, then downhill toward the caliper, it is possible for a pretty fair amount of air to be trapped in the arch. Remove the brake caliper, push the piston fully home (might need to remove some fluid from the reservoir, and block the pads. Raise the caliper above the master cylinder so that the brake line slopes only uphill, then bleed. If that does not solve the problem you need to rebuild the master cylinder. | ||
| Portero72 |
Ceejay, What did you use to clean and sand with? Brake cleaner and a fine grit paper? | ||
| Ceejay |
Yup - just disassemble and sand with 80g or whatever you have laying around, I think I stole a scotch brite pad from the kitchen. Clean with rag and spray with WD, wipe down. I think I put some wheel grease on the external parts to help mitigate future issues. | ||
| Ceejay |
The orientation of the MC - upside down, doesn’t allow for condensation to escape very well so they bind up giving the symptoms exactly as you described. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Yup - just disassemble and sand with 80g 80g is VERY coarse. Use maybe 320 at the coarsest or a Scotchbrite pad. | ||
| Etennuly |
Do not get brake cleaner on your powder coated parts. Swing arm, wheels etc. It will melt into the surface. Have you taken the pads out and sanded the braking surface. Degrease and scuff the rotor. Sounds like you are getting one part cleaned but not the other. Oils just rub right back in. |
