I decided to get the old rat 1150 out from hibernation today in readiness for its MOT.
A quick once over and she appeared fine, pressed the go button and she fired up into life. The Optimate runs through a 6 hour charge once a week to keep the battery all good and seemed to have done its job.
After checking the brakes I noticed the front was sticking on seriously, it appeared to be the o/s caliper so out came the tools and the caliper was removed.
I eventually managed to remove the caliper from the disk and then removed the pads. Cleaned everything up but when trying to push the pistons back in it was a right pain, as one piston went back another popped out, held two pushed one, the 4th popped out.... this went on for some time before I managed to get them far enough back to refit back with the pads in place.
With a sense of achievement I checked the wheel span before applying the brakes, success.... but after pulling the once again the wheel locked and wouldn't release.
By now I knew the caliper was all fine so suspected a sticking master cylinder, so I removed the cover and had a look inside, all seemed to be working fine but the fluid had clearly not been changed for sometime. Using a glass syringe I drew out all the dark looking brake fluid and topped it up with fresh DOT4 and set about bleeding it through the o/s caliper.
With bleed nipple cracked open I gently pumped but very little was coming out of the bleed nipple. After many slow pumps there was a pissshhhttt sound followed by a very wet front end..... the main hose had blown just below the union that bolts to the lower yolk, my 1150 is a 2001 none ABS. This is a single hose that runs from the o/s caliper right up to the handlebar mounted master cylinder.
After removing the hose is was now clear to see this hose was well and truly fubbared. The mess inside the blown area was completely degraded, I suspected it was the culprit for not letting the fluid back from the sticking brake before it decided to let go altogether.
New Goodridge replacements ordered as I decided to replace the other 2 lines while doing the job.
In 44 years of biking I have never seen a hose cause this problem or let go like this.... every day's a school day.
A quick once over and she appeared fine, pressed the go button and she fired up into life. The Optimate runs through a 6 hour charge once a week to keep the battery all good and seemed to have done its job.
After checking the brakes I noticed the front was sticking on seriously, it appeared to be the o/s caliper so out came the tools and the caliper was removed.
I eventually managed to remove the caliper from the disk and then removed the pads. Cleaned everything up but when trying to push the pistons back in it was a right pain, as one piston went back another popped out, held two pushed one, the 4th popped out.... this went on for some time before I managed to get them far enough back to refit back with the pads in place.
With a sense of achievement I checked the wheel span before applying the brakes, success.... but after pulling the once again the wheel locked and wouldn't release.
By now I knew the caliper was all fine so suspected a sticking master cylinder, so I removed the cover and had a look inside, all seemed to be working fine but the fluid had clearly not been changed for sometime. Using a glass syringe I drew out all the dark looking brake fluid and topped it up with fresh DOT4 and set about bleeding it through the o/s caliper.
With bleed nipple cracked open I gently pumped but very little was coming out of the bleed nipple. After many slow pumps there was a pissshhhttt sound followed by a very wet front end..... the main hose had blown just below the union that bolts to the lower yolk, my 1150 is a 2001 none ABS. This is a single hose that runs from the o/s caliper right up to the handlebar mounted master cylinder.
After removing the hose is was now clear to see this hose was well and truly fubbared. The mess inside the blown area was completely degraded, I suspected it was the culprit for not letting the fluid back from the sticking brake before it decided to let go altogether.
New Goodridge replacements ordered as I decided to replace the other 2 lines while doing the job.
In 44 years of biking I have never seen a hose cause this problem or let go like this.... every day's a school day.
