1. Take the caliper off.
2. Take the pads out.
3. Squeeze brake pedal.
4. Spay caliper with brake cleaner.
5. Take one piece of Brick Banding and wrap round exposed brass pistons.
6. Clean all the gunk off brass piston.
7. Apply pink brake grease.
8. Squeeze pistons back in with finger pressure.
9. Put new pads in.
10. Put calipers back on bike.

Do this every few thousand miles, brakes will work.

I use a mityvac for brake and clutch,works well.

Me too. Once a rear brake has gone really soggy you'd be there forever bleeding it conventionally.

As for keeping it firm (oooh errr missus etc) I've said it before and I'll say it again: wedge a socket/conveniently shaped piece of wood/whatever between the brake pedal and the frame boss above it and leave it overnight. In fact do that every night.

It does work, really! :)


I'm sure antonye's right about the 748 brake v. the SS brake: the rear on my 750SS was fine. OK. the disc's 10% bigger but there's a lot more than 10% performance difference!




[Edited on 20-7-2005 by moto748]

don't get DOT5 and DOT5.1 mixed up. They are different animals and the seals in Brembo's don't like the DOT5.
The SS, M, ST's use a different caliper to the SBK's. The pads are certainly different. Smaller in the SBK.
I think the pistons are smaller, also hence the decrease in performance.

Thanks for your replies, I am now confused about which brake fluid to use and whether its worth changing from DOT4 at all.

Will 5,1 make a differrence to the brake going soft?

Are the others who are using DOT 5 aware that it messes the caliper seals up?

Interesting on my s4r the caliper is undeslung like my 748s i had, so guess i have the same caliper as the 748. The s4r works better than the 748 but not much more. This may be due to the master cylinder being at 45 degrees.

I also found my 748 and s4r brakes from new worked once u bed them in slowly and use them regularly. The disc on the s4r looks to be bigger to hhhhmmm:o

Doesn't the S4R use exactly the same rear end as the (old) superbikes, as in a single-sided swingarm?

Not sure if its all the same as the swingarm is tubular, the disc certainly seems bigger:D:D

Do NOT use Dot 5 - you need to use DOT 5.1. Big difference and if you mix them you will probably just pool moisture in your caliper which will lead it to rusitin on the inside where you cannot see.

My suggestion is , to take teflon tape and wrap the bleeder (plumbers tape). The bleeders are known to allow air in, but not enough space to spring a bad leak. Not saying that is your issue 100%, but have cured quite a few Duc's this way.

:o

I have taken a look at the rear master cylinder when the pedal is pressed. You can see that the master cylinder moves by a heck of a lot.

It appears that the bracket that holds the master cylinder is not up to the job. I intend to make a new one from decent ally plate and add a method of fixing a small heat shield for the exhaust pipes.

I think that with the master cylinder being held firmly and correctly with no flex when the brake pedal is pressed and a heat shield could do the trick.

And yes, my brake works ok but I reckon it could be better.
:bouncy:

DC:burn: