Hi all,

I have just had some new rear pads put in my 07 Street Bob.  It has a good solid pedal when cold but as soon as I get about 2k's down the road it looses the rear brake and the pedal goes all the way down?

There is a small amount of 'drag' on the wheel when spinning it but not much.  I think the friction of the pads on the disc is boiling the fluid, is that possible?  When it cools down the pedal returns.

Any thoughts gratefully recieved please.

Has the fluid been changed to the wrong stuff.

No, I had two new tyres fitted this morning and the rear pads were almost worn out so I asked them to replace them. they didn't replace the fluid buy I'm thinking of changing it to some high boiling point type of fluid?

Your disc would be blue if it was dragging that much. Sounds like they have changed/done something wrong. Pull off the caliper and check everything is in the right order. If you have new pads then the piston should be right back in the bore. Maybe it has crap on it through age causing the constant rubbing. Remove and inspect/clean out the piston and bore and seal and boot, and new fluid and bleed should fix most of the time.

LOL, yeah, a new bike is always good. just gunna go n pull the calliper off now for a looksee.

Any Updates on what you found/fixed Raff?

Hi all, Yep, there is an update on what went on here. I took the pads back out (they were after market pads from somewhere that they put in), i ground about 1 mm off each of them, refitted them and flushed the brake fluid and replaced it with some dot 5. Vola, problem fixed. I guess the moral of the story is, I should have used genuine parts instead of whatever the hell the tire place had lol.

You should make sure you are using the correct brake fluid. Don't know much about it, but I know that my '94 uses dot 5 (or dot 5.1 these days) but I think later models might use dot 4..........

why did you grind the pads Raff? you said they weren't dragging. was it the pads that were the problem or the fluid? if you grinded the pads with a 4" grinder they will look like a ploughed paddock. Might take a while to bed in. How does the back brake perform now?

Yep, the problem was the pads, they were just that tiny bit to thick with the pistons pushed right back the were tight to slide over the disc (the wheel would turn with some drag however when fitted) so with the 1 mm shaved off it all went together and felt much more like it should have. I changed the fluid for the sake of it may have boiled (hence no pedal) and was told dot 5 would be the best choice. The pads did take a little bit to bed in (a trip from Adelaide to Melbourne and back and they are fine.

Good stuff Raff.

Thanks,I didn't know that, and didn't mean to infer I mixed them, although I might have done if things had gone that way.

It's just that I haven't been able to get dot 5.0 for years now, and last time I changed my brake line I had to use 5.1, but by chance, I guess, I flushed the whole lot when I fitted and bled the line...