My front brake on my 2010 softail is free and rolling when first ridden until approx 6 - 10 kms then the engine starts to labour and you can feel quite a lot of resistance on the front brake so then i hammer the lever a bit with my fist which sometimes allows free up enough to ride home it gets that much friction the entire rotor is now quite discoloured and blue  / brown in colour, other times i carry a 7/16 th spanner with me and relieve the pressure that way!!

Any idea's will be appreciated.

Sounds like a seized pison in the caliper. You have not had new pads put in recently. If it is a pison seized it is a relevently easy job to fix.
 

Cheers ! it only has just over 9,000kms on it i bearly have time to ride it but no it hasn't had any pads fitted. might get a set of pads and caliper kit then

 

everything as far as the master cylinder and front brake goes is all O.E spec and hasn't been touched since purchased new in may 2010, brake fliud is unchanged and still has its dot 5 viscousity at least so it feels i am a bit hesitant to fit a new rotor yet until i can rectify the original problem which started the issue, but definitely going to replace it yes ! the only thing i might say that has been touched around the master cyl is the brake light switch failed and i fitted a new switch but the issue has been ongoing since way before that. Thanks for all the advice though guys i do appreciate it heaps!!!!!!

 

everything as far as the master cylinder and front brake goes is all O.E spec and hasn't been touched since purchased new in may 2010, brake fliud is unchanged and still has its dot 5 viscousity at least so it feels i am a bit hesitant to fit a new rotor yet until i can rectify the original problem which started the issue, but definitely going to replace it yes ! the only thing i might say that has been touched around the master cyl is the brake light switch failed and i fitted a new switch but the issue has been ongoing since way before that. Thanks for all the advice though guys i do appreciate it heaps!!!!!!

 

i've seen this a few times with master cylinders failing due to old brake fluid, The fluid should be changed every 2 years at least regardless of k's. If its at this point i'd be atleast pulling the master cylinder and caliper down and inspecting, new pads and rotor.....dont take any short cuts dude, your on 2 wheels. Do it right and do it once.

T1

Cheers guys I reckon you are all on the money ! so I will just go the whole hog and give her the works, new rotor, caliper kit, master cyl kit and fresh fluid !

Thanks for all the advise Regards Downo.

I changed levers once n that caused exactly these symptoms.
Turned out to be too much powder coating n lever was holding the brakes on.
I know u said it's all original,but maybe there's a bit of foreign matter caught in the pivot area for the lever.

hi,
have you had bike on lift to see if wheel spins when off ground? i see you have custom wheels so does everything line up okay?

you talking about front or rear brake master cyclinder?

thanks
robots

had that same thing happen to me but back when riding for 20 mins or more in traffic brake would not release antill cooled down
I had done every thing pads/rotor rebuild kit/master rebuild flush you name it . and problem was still there so ditched caliper
put a new one on ,problem gone so I put it down to pistion or housing deforming when it got hot ,there where no signs
of anything wrong when I striped the caliper down

and as it got hotter more drag to the point it almost locked on could hardly push bike on the side of the rd

and as it got hotter more drag to the point it almost locked on could hardly push bike on the side of the rd

I know the problem very well had it on my 06 softail my problem was caused by the rubbers in the calliper not allowing the piston to retract they were dry .
My fix worked and is still working I just lifted calliper off disc pumped brake till piston moved passed its stuck position
( used a screw driver blade as a spacer between brake pads so pistons don't pop out ) then cleaned pistons with thin strip wet & dry
then lightly squeezed the pistons back replaced disc pumped up pressure haven't had a problem since hope this helps
 

Hi there. Sorry to hear about your issue. Its a worry. It may be the brake lever actually not seated properly into the handebar fitting. I had the same issue when I tried to fit OEM chrome levers from overseas. They looked axactly like the originals but for some reason weren't releasing the brake cylinder and the bike would grind to a halt. Brakes got hot. I popped the pin in the lever, did a little bit of machining with a dremel on the back side of the lever (which touches the brake switch) and this allowed the cylinder to free up. Your new switch could be a little prouder in the bar clamps and this is pushing the lever in.

I can post a pic if you like.

Regards.

Have you had the caliper off and had a look? I was having some rear brake drag, pulled the caliper off and found a small rock jammed between the outer pad and caliper. Could be something simple like that, you never know?