Hot breaks!
 

Hey chaps,

Two weeks ago I was riding down a monster mountain, bike fully loaded with girlfriend on the back. I was using my back brake... a lot.
As i neared the bottom the brake pedal became flimsy and there was absolutely no bite whatsoever and no resistance in the pedal - felt like the spring had been removed. Rather scary, but luckily the front saved the day.
Once they've cooled (30 minutes) they're fine and back to working order

I assumed the pads/ disc overheated and maybe lost its bite because of dirt. I took the calliper off, pads out, inspected, thorough clean and reassembled.

Two weeks on and i'm riding down an even steeper mountain, back brake does it again. 20 minutes to cool off and they work.

I've never experienced this before, complete loss of the brakes due to overheating - if that's what it is.

Can anyone shed any light on this for me please, would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Andy

Basically,as you have said your brake is over heating..

Might be an idea to consider feathering your brakes..using front too.

I would consider changing the fluid too.

Curious as to where your riding?.

Severe use of small disc , small caliper and small fluid reservoir generally results in the fluid being boiled for want of a better description.
Not much you can do about it. I'd definitely change the fluid if I'd had the brakes reach that stage.
Used to tear round on an XR650R SM with the standard front brake which usually ended with an excursion into the boonies, changed to a 320mm rotor, larger caliper and suitable master cylinder and was able to stop when I wanted to.

Thanks
 

Thanks chaps!

Okay, so nothing serious, but a brake fluid change is due then.

Was riding in Turkey. Although, just crossed the border into Georgia yesterday!

Appreciate the advice.

Andy

I was thinking 'where the feck are there mountains in Slough'?

Multi storey car parks are pretty steep in Slough.

Hahaha! Sorry, should have explained earlier...

Although, there's a rather steep hill in the Trading Estate... kind off.
Well, it's more of a slope but whatever :p

Andy

Andy is your email address still valid? Only the software that runs this forum reported in the admin panel that this address is no longer valid.

can you please send me a current valid address in a private message so I can edit it in your profile.

do not, repeat do not write it here in the open public

Thanks

the best brake fluid I have experienced is motul rb600 (660 has got an even better spec) it has excellent longetivity (low moisture absorbtion) and boiling point.

On my R, the OEM pads are carbon ceramic which I find good but they will loose their performance a lot in the situation you described.

You can improve the hot performance by upgrading to sintered but you will increase the wear on the disc.

try using the engine braking & the front brake to reduced the load on the rear brake

Got rear brake
 

Hi all. I�m not sure if this is the right way to post , I�m useless with computers so apologies before hand. I have a 2010 xt660z tenere. And love the thing. But noticed the other day the rear brake was getting excessively hot. Jacked the back end up and didn�t notice any excessive drag at all. Plus brake felt fine. So I started to investigate and replace things. New fluid, didn�t fix problem. New Master internals, didn�t fix problem. New stainless braided hose, didn�t fix problem. New pads, didn�t fix problem, new caliper repair kit which is new seals and slide boots, didn�t fix problem! As you can see I have exhausted a lot of options. Everything was stripped and cleaned and re greased or copper slipper correctly too. I have checked the disc and it seems not to be warped but I have ordered a replacement anyway but I�m not confident this will fix it. I�d greatly appreciate any help or experiences anybody has had with similar problems to try and sort this problem out. Thanks all.

You have replaced the whole brake system and still you feel it drags...

Are you 100% sure that the piston itself isnt corroded or dragging in the bore?.

The slide pin's themselves are 100% smooth and clean?..

Hi nikroc, thanks for the reply. It�s not dragging. The wheel spins freely. It�s just getting excessively hot. I�m starting to think it is what it is and there is nothing I can do about it and was just wondering if anybody else had noticed the temp of the rear disc after ride. Piston is in Tip Top shape. I fully inspected it when I replaced the seals in the caliper.

Fair play. Tbh it could be as simple as your heavy on the rear brake.

Does your front brake get as hot?

I gotta admit that I tend to use my fronts more and engine braking..It's just style I have adopted over 30 years of riding.

I�m starting to think I will have to adopt a similar style myself. I haven�t had the xt long. It�s the first adventure/dual sport style bike I�ve had. And I must admit I really enjoy riding it. My other bikes are Ducati�s. Big twins with heavy engine braking so maybe I�m replacing this with a load of rear brake without even realising it.

It is a bit of an adjustment process riding two different styles of bike.

I ride an R which initially dived under front braking..the solution was to install Kev's fork spacer mod.
My Brother turned some up outta crash bung material on a lathe.Other's use various materials,including sockets.

The suspension on the tenere was something I noticed that I thought let it down. So I�m in the process of fitting some WP USD�s, a 690 enduro R shock and some gold excels rims. Going with 18� on the rear to give a wider choice of off road tyres. I�ll post some pics once done and let u know if it was worth the hassle. Ha.

Might sound a bit simplistic but check you're not riding with your foot on the brake pedal all the time, this would soon warm up your brakes without you realising it is self inflicted.
If your brake is well adjusted it would take very little pressure to activate the brake.
Might be worth adjusting the pedal to need a bit more lever movement before the brake becomes active.
Just a thought from a codger.

Pete.

Hi skimmer. Yea first thing I did was back the pedal right off to make sure it wasn�t too tightly adjusted. And I tend to ride on my toes, all the years of sports bike riding, so definitely not catching the pedal.