Poor brake lever feel? Bitch of a job.

[jjdugen]

Contrary to my last post on the subject of maintenance, I made the mistake of taking on another repair.

Lad turned up with a ZZR 600 and as these are one of my all time favourite bikes, I agreed to take a look. Problem was the front brakes were very poor and sticking. General condition of the bike was very good and he had tried bleeding and cleaning the calipers but no joy.
Just with a cursory look it was evident that the R/H disc was warped, but in a dinner plate shape, bowed outwards towards the outer rim(!). Sourced a replacement disc, fitted new pads (the shape of the old ones was, as you can imagine, a wonder to behold).
Gave it a quick bleed through just to be sure, expected all would now be hunky dory...... Not a bit of it. The lever was squishy, although braking efficiency was good once the 'free play' was taken up.
A close inspection of the discs showed that the R/H one was flexing very noticably, this coincided with the free play at the lever. Once the disc was properly clamped by the pads, the lever had a good solid feel.
Turns out that the caliper was mounting at a slight angle to the disc when all was clamped up tight. No obvious distortion of fork leg, slider or yokes. Had a spare wheel spindle lying around so tried that in case the original was bent, no joy.
In the end, I had to carefully dremel the caliper mounting lugs to offset the angle they were originally mounting to. I know, I know, a bodge rather than a fix, but.... To eliminate the slight misalignment would mean swapping forks, wheel, yokes etc. until the culprit was found. As the bike tracks true and the brakes are now back to full working operation I've called the job done... but what a bitch!!!!
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The CBR900RR has been sold. Aprilia Falco worms its way into my heart.
Try Soi 23 on Amazon for a good read.... Self promotion? Moi?

[Stonefly]

Yesterday, it took me nearly 12 hours to bleed the front brakes on my ZZR. They really didnt want to let go the air bubbles. Its still not perfect, but at least i am now confident it will perform an emergency stop should i need to. And i used a litre of brake fluid during the bleed.........a fucking litre!!!!!!!
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Current......Kawasaki ZZR1200 C2H and Kawasaki ZZR600 E7
Previous....Yamaha FS1E, Honda SS50, Suzuki AP50, BSA Bantam D14, Honda CD175, Honda CB250N, Kawasaki Z250A3, Yamaha RD250E, Kawasaki Z400, Kawasaki Z500, Kawasaki GPz550, Honda NTV600, Kawasaki GT750, Kawasaki Z1000R, Kawasaki GPX250

[Walloper]

Get a Gunson Pressure Bleeder. You canny go wrong and the money spent on the kit will be time saved for doon the pub.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-GUNSONS-EEZI-BLEED-BRAKE-AND-CLUTCH-BLEEDER-KIT-/350134651318?pt=UK_Hand_Tools_Equipment&hash=item5185a6c9b6#ht_628wt_1037

You might have to phaph about to get a reservoir cap though. I got one from a bike breakers for a Triumph I had.

It stops that wingin' from folk who bleat about the difficulty in bleeding front brakes on a bike.
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W-ireless A-rtificial L-ifeform L-imited to O-bservation P-eacekeeping and E-fficient R-epair