Rear brake -- Does yours seem like it's not working ?

[Ian (GPX)]

Rear brake -- Does yours seem like it's not working ?

Over the last week or so I've noticed that my rear brake was not doing it's job at stopping the bike (GPX600R). I had a look at the pads and they seemed fine, plenty of meat left on them and no sign of the caliper being seized up and no sign of oil or grease on the disc, anyway, today was the last straw, the bike would not stop with rear brake, had to use the front

Got home and washed the bike down, while I was doing this I found specs of white powder all over the bike, I took a closer look at this powder and found it to be salt based, had a think, and yes, thats it, the roads round here have been salted in the last week or so. Anyway, gave the bike a good wash and now the rear brake works when applied just as it did 8 - 9 days ago.

[stinkwheel]

In my experience, those kawasaki rear calipers are pretty ropy at the best of times. Wouldn't take much to send it over the edge from ineffective to useless.
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[Retro-Man]

this is an issue which some makers have on cars as well, ford experienced this effect and it was attributed to new style european road salt (no bullshit). the salt allows a film to build up between the disc and the pad and the frictional heat energy displacement between pad and disc is reduced, causing a reduced braking effect.

Cheers
Retro
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[Fortuna]

I heard that too, creates like a hardened sheen across the disc

[iCraig]