Brake Failure????

Ho Troops,

I parked my scoot in the garage the other day, and then had to move it 10 seconds later. I had to move it as I thought the front caliper etc. was resting against the wing of my trike.

I pulled the bike upright and started to back it up, the drive way has a slight incline and to stop the bike getting away from me I applied the front brake, or rather I tried to apply the front brake..... All I got was a lever right back to the grip and no brake. A few swift pumps and braking was restored!!!!

The brakes worked fine when I pulled into the garage (I was riding the bike), so has anybody got and ideas why I might have encountered this problem??? I may have been holding the brake when I kicked the stand down, there by cutting the engine... It could also be that the brake line its self was squashed when the machine was lent against the trike...

Its a bit of a worry as I don't want it to happen again while I riding..

Anybody got any ideas?? The ABS system seems fine and I've been out and about around town yesterday and it hasn't happend again.

Hi Skippy,
Sounds like your brake caliper was in contact with your trike.

This has caused the brake pad and piston to be pushed into the caliper,so you would need to pump the brake to push the piston and pad onto the disc,for the brake to work.

Good to hear the brakes are working ok,any malfunction of the braking system can be scary,even brown trouiser moments.

Wal.

That sounds very plausible Wal, it never occured to me that the whole caliper would move, but I suppose with that much weight against it, it would only be a matter of time.

Will keep an eye on it for now. Cheers.

Skippy wrote:

That sounds very plausible Wal, it never occured to me that the whole caliper would move, but I suppose with that much weight against it, it would only be a matter of time.

Will keep an eye on it for now. Cheers.

I found it quite strange when I checked out the pads. The manual told me to depress the caliper to force the pads away from the disc. Weird. (Easy maintenance though.)

So leaning your steed against something solid would make the 'floating' caliper move and necessitate the squeezing the brake levers to take up the slack in the system.

Skippy wrote:

That sounds very plausible Wal, it never occured to me that the whole caliper would move, but I suppose with that much weight against it, it would only be a matter of time.

Will keep an eye on it for now. Cheers.

Think about it folks -- either the caliper floats or the rotor floats. Something has to move laterally for the brakes to be able to work.

:flower:

The Silverwing floats my boat!

Couldn't resist it - sorry!

Thanks Mike.

I just re-read what I wrote.

After thinking a bit, I remember that the very early disc brakes had both fixed calipers and fixed rotors, but had pistons on both sides of the rotor.

I think it was Dunlop that developed the single sided caliper, could be wrong on who it was, though. :flower: