Bleeding brakes

pretty same as a car.

On the front, tie the lever tight and leave it over night. I used rope. Simple. ON the rear, no clue, havent done em yet, but I hear you can hang a 5lb weight on the pedal overnight and it will work as well.

Joe said:

On the front, tie the lever tight and leave it over night. I used rope. Simple. ON the rear, no clue, havent done em yet, but I hear you can hang a 5lb weight on the pedal overnight and it will work as well.

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what is that supposed to do? just bleed them correctly and you don't need to mess around with that stuff. by keeping the brake lever pressed, all you are doing is driving the air bubbles into the fluid so you think you have a firmer feel, until you are driving down the road and realize the air will separate from the fluid.

it is pretty much the same as a car, get the air out and keep the master cyclinder filled so you don't draw air back into the system.

Brakes are easy. Flush it all out, and fill it back up. Pump, crack, close, repeat. After the fluid is flowing out the bleeder screw on both calipers, make sure you squeeze out all the air that gets trapped in the little rubber tube betweer the resivoir and the master cylinder. Air likes to sit in there.

You shouldnt need to tie the lever over night. I have heard of people doing it and maybe getting one very small air bubble out, which I guess is good, but if they are blead well, you wont change anything.

The rear is just like the front, but easier. At least you dont have to contort your body so you can press the lever and crack open the bleeder screw, like on the front calipers.

get a mityvac ~$30, it'll save you loads of time, and you can use it on all your vehicles.

RACER X said:

get a mityvac ~$30, it'll save you loads of time, and you can use it on all your vehicles.

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Yep I used to do that pump, crack, curse, bleed, curse some more way of bleeding my brakes, now I use the mityvac and it saves lot of time. I use it for my car too.

+1 - any power bleeding system will pay for itself in short order.

if you do decide to bleed the old fashioned way make sure when squeezing the lever you do it slowly and smoothly other wise you'l cause whaterver air is in the lines to break up into smaller bubbles.

i see good input.. um thx for the info on the mity vac? is this something that has to be bought offline or can it be purchased at discount auto? and i just tried bleading the friggin thing.. i was out there for about an hour.. pumping and cracking nothing. it dosnt want to get hard at all... im really at a loss for words.. cuz i know how to bleed car brakes but these just dont seem to want to work.. any problems it might be?

i've heard some local stores may carry them......give it a shot.

wow its just not fricken working... im at wits end with this crap i should be able to do it with out that vac crap i just dont understand this... ive done it on cars before.. what is going on with this crap

if its not getting harder, you might have air in your master.


get a rag, and place it over the banjo fitting near the lever. While squeezing the lever, also very slowly loosen the banjo fitting. You will hear some air escaping, then some fluid. Right after the air is removed, close the fitting. And repeat until theres no air.

after that, do the bleeder valve at the caliper. make sure you got fluid topped off at all times.

Make sure one of the caliper pistons isn't frozen. If you compress them to far to change the pads they can stick.

Do you have the cover off the resivoir?

http://www.xs11.com/tips/maintenance/maint6.shtml
http://www.webbikeworld.com/Motorcy...orcycle-brakes/bleeding-motorcycle-brakes.htm

between those two lionk and a mity-vac type tool you should have no problem. i picked up the craftsman version just so it yould match the rest of my tools! less than an hour to bleed front and back and to clean out the master cylinder. first time i ever bled brakes on anything - cakewalk

btw, you can bleed them without any tubing at all. you can squirt brake fluid all over the place.

The principles of bleeding hydraulic system is very easy. And you dont need a mity vac. As in, it isn't required to bleed brakes.

oh, and don't get brakefluid on the rotor or pads