I boiled my brakes!!! :)

Hello all,

I recently moved to Eastern Tennessee, and while I love the curvy roads and the variety of places to ride, today made me mad.

I went up English mountain today, and as expected, the bike performed flawlessly on the way up. On the way down however, I tried to use a combination of the front and rear brakes, as well the compression of the motor to slow the bike, as the Smokies can get pretty steep. My front brake got ULTRA hot, and I think I boiled my brake fluid, as the front brake almost locked up. I sat along the road and let it cool, but it took forever, and I ended up hosing down the whole front end at a service station at which point it returned to normal operation.

I rebuilt the entire system last year, rebuilt caliper, rebuilt master,new pads, stainless lines, and synthetic Dot 4 brake fluid. Is this system just not up to riding in this area?

I guess what I am asking is...how do I make my KZ550A1 never do this again. I hate sitting along the road after all the work ive put into it.

Speed

So that's where you went

Bleed the brakes again, you probably still have air in there. I had a similar experience with a KZ1000 a long time ago, I converted it to dual disk and synthetic fluid, rode it to work one day and left it sitting outside in the hot sun. I started it and tried to do my normal take off and just sat there with the rear tire smoking, the sun had heated up the lines causing the air to expand and locked the brakes. When I cracked the bleeder screw to relieve the pressure I swear the fluid shot 20 feet

Post edited by: steell, at: 2006/07/03 00:56

Well....I'm gonna replace the pads anyway after today, so I'll bleed them out again too. I think I just put a lot of heat into the front rotor coming down that mountain...It's not flat like up there in Kokomo

I may have to go with the dual front brake setup I've been planning.

(I dont want to tell you what I used to cool the caliper/rotor down to get it to the service station )

Post edited by: Speedbump, at: 2006/07/03 01:05

Post edited by: Speedbump, at: 2006/07/03 01:06

(I dont want to tell you what I used to cool the caliper/rotor down to get it to the service station )

I can guess

Speedbump wrote:

(I dont want to tell you what I used to cool the caliper/rotor down to get it to the service station )

Post edited by: Speedbump, at: 2006/07/03 01:05<br><br>Post edited by: Speedbump, at: 2006/07/03 01:06

creative engineering???

HAHAHAHAHAHA

Great pic :laugh:

That WAS a funny pic!!
That must have been a nice odor!:laugh:

I have a preference for DOT 5.

funky double post deleted

Post edited by: Speedbump, at: 2006/07/03 13:49

Not related to the braking, but a welcome to the area: depending on where you are at in East Tenn, I could be very close in West NC.

Just don't tell anyone about the roads that are just as good as the Dragon, I enjoy them not being as stupidly populated.

Again, welcome.