front brakes..

albertaduke

former airline pilot without the big bucks
Joined
Feb 16, 2010
Messages
4,284
Location
kaleden
Ride
2021 rocket3 GT
no matter what i do I am not getting the braking power I should feel from the front. I followed religiously all the advices on how to bleed the lines and
I had the shop bleed the ABS last week and I bled the lines again got some bubbles out but the lever still travel all the way to the stop tried braking hard while riding to see if I could lock up the front wheel and get the abs to release but to no avail I thought maybe the pads i installed may be the culprit like not grabbing hard enough (ceramic/carbon) I will change them for double HH sintered who knows I also ordered and received from JPcycles 4 sets of speedbleeders valves,... somehow all different sizes although none will fit
ANYBODY KNOW THE SIZES BY CHANCE?? what else can I do ?? frustrated yes giving up no but peeved sure..
 
Have you tried tying your brake lever to the bar? If not, pull the lever back as if you were normally applying your brakes and then tie it off in that position and leave it there overnight. Do not go crazy on tying it down...just tie it off at the same tension you apply the pressure with your hand. When you check on it the next day, untie it and let the lever release and you should have a firm lever at this point. This is a good trick to know because what you are doing with this is allowing any remaining tiny air bubbles throughout the line to rise up and release into the housing cylinder. I do this step each and every time I bleed the brakes on both my bikes.
 
I will try tonight thanks
 
I had the same issue for a while, tied the lever back overnight which fixed it for an hour or so - decided to try stripping the calipers and fitting new seals - cured instantly, lever is now much firmer, best £50 I ever spent on brakes. Not a difficult job as long as you're careful, took about 2 hours total for both calipers most of which was cleaning them up before fitting the new seals.
 
Brake bleeder recommendation

 
my 07 is not abs
however had at one time my lever was almost touching the bar triumph dealer changed my tire and said they bleed it three times and it was still the same. it has been like this for over 10,000 miles.
i got a hole in the front and while changing it i forced the brake shoes/caliper all the way in and when i worked the brakes a few times i barely move the lever and i have good brakes.
now i am assuming that it forced an air bubble out of the cylinder because of the fluid returning.
 
Everyone:

The brakes we have on the front of the R3 have had these issues for at least 16 years, lever going spongy, not enough bite. Bleed, replace, bleed, replace nothing seems to fix it except:

955i Brake Fix - Triumph Forum: Triumph Rat Motorcycle Forums

That is the permanent fix.

If you have a 2004-2006 R3, there was an issue with the treatment on the caliper on the fluid side which didn't quite seal right. A rebuild using new pistons will fix that similar, but distinctly different problem.


I replaced my levers at like 1 month into ownership, have never, ever, had an issue with front brakes. The below picture was shortly after a panic stop from 170+mph trailing deeeeep into a corner I'd miss-judged, was able to activate and keep activated ABS without any undue lever pressure, then kept hammering them from 120 to 50/60 back up and down for about 15 minutes, they never faded one bit, this is how your brakes SHOULD perform:

 

To address specifics of your post:

I can force my lever all the way to the bar while the bikes sitting still, that's normal. Trying to do so while riding will result in ABS going berserk. The slightly spongy lever is because of the ABS system, it's unfortunately a side effect of having them. No matter how flawless the maintenance they'll never have that sharp, bitey feel of a non-abs equipped sportbike. If your lever comes all the way to bar without activating ABS while moving, that's a serious issue and is definitely hydraulic system related.

If you've bled them twice, they're bled, the problem lies elsewhere.

If you can't activate ABS while cranking on the lever, but it's not yet to the bar, your pads are the culprit. HH will fix you right up, no issues getting max possible braking pressure using HH pads.

If your condition is, you can reach the bar with the lever while moving without activating the ABS, try the fix I linked. If that doesn't fix it, my next step would be HH pads, as you're doing, then if still problematic, I'd do a caliper rebuild. The kit isn't expensive.
 
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