Setup: In preparing my Daytona 955i for RAA West, the one thing I absolutely couldn’t get to work right was the front brakes. I was forced to ride RAA with some seriously horrid front brakes. I tried everything except throwing money at it, here is the final resolution.
SKIP TO TLDR if it’s too long.
Deciding I wanted to isolate where the problem was I mentally separated it into two systems: hydraulic pumping, eg mastercylinder and fluid, and mechanical force eg calipers, pistons, pads, rotors.
Yes I know technically that’s wrong thanks.
That mental separation led to: swap the Rocket 3 front calipers in to remove the older but identical Daytona Calipers as a possibility since I was confident I had no air in the system. Saved the HH pads that were already bedded in and kept them in the same spots as originally located on the Daytona.
Sure enough a quick bleed later, brakes are BEASTLY. Sharper than on the R3, which is weird, because the R3 has a 5/8 MC and the Daytona has a 14mm.
TLDR: if your lever travels more than 1/2 range before engagement, you have good pads, good fluid, good rotors, and no reason to suspect the MC: rebuild your calipers!!