MacLean

Yeh if your brakes are spongy dont take anyone pillion... Thats when I decided it had to be done. For just casual normal braking with pillion I was having to squeeze way too hard, a few white knuckle heart stopping moments for what should have been casual braking... Not safe

Thanks for you're help guys. However think I've made a slight mistake thats gonna make it slightly more difficult... The haynes manual said if you wanna get the pistons out and dont have com air then keep the lines attached and pump the lever to force em out. It also was going on about using a piece of wood to hold pistons in... didnt really get it.... Long story short, the pistons are pushed in so that their edges are flush with the caliper body... Meaning theres nothing to grab for mole grips. Guess Im down to either compressed air, or special tool. Might just take the pair to the shop and see if they'll get the pistons out for me. (its all good, lessons learned for the future anyway)

Hey, I've dismantaled the whole braking setup and got all my new bits ready to go on.... Only prob is, I want to take all the pistons out and give em a clean, aswell as replace the seals which I have a new set of. I tried to get the pistons out by keeping the lines attached to the caliper reomoving the pads and calipers and pumping them out with the brake lever... Unfortunitly I was only able to get 1 out of 8 pistons out the caliper (maybe this explains my poor brake performance?), then all the brake fluid pissed out behind it and I was fooked. My mum theifed the air compressor so is there any other way I can get the pistons out? (I have now disconnected the lines) Or do I pretty much need compressed air now? One other thing, because one piston is out, wont all the air pressure escape out here if I do use compressed air?

I can't say I remember feeling any pulsing but will give it a shot later when home from work. One of the things I had to replace was the fron wheel, and the guys in the shop fitting a new tire said the discs where okay when I asked, but I guess thats not definite. Will give that a shot, but I THINK they're okay.

Okay you gota good point I guess, start with new lines and pads and see how it goes from there, no point on spending loads if its not needed. Too be honest mate I don't know what pads are in it, they came in the bike and seemed to do a decent job until after the crash.

Hi, I've never been happy with my front brakes since my crash about 1.5 years ago, the lever felt spongy and you had to really pull it to get half decent brake power... (and my bike comes with R1 brakes which are ment to be top dog). I bled them which improved things slightly, but now I can pull the lever enough that it touches the handlebar and im not happy and want to overhaul the whole front braking system (I don't wanna skimp on brakes, Id rather be 100% certain) I want to get braided lines, new seals for brake pistons, new pads and im semi tempted to get a replacement master cylinder. Anything else I should think about? Is it possible that my master cyclinder could be damaged? Is there any way to tell, or would I be best just getting another one for peace of mind? Also will I need to buy washers or any other nick nacks or will all these little bits come with whatever kits I end up buying in the end? My bike has a three line setup at the moment but I see some kits are two line 'race setup', does this make any difference or would I be best looking for a 3 line setup which is my bikes default setup?

I know where you're comming from, but (for me) when doing rights, the bike naturally stays in the center and I have to make a concious effort to move the bike to the left while leaning and it just aint quite as comfy... On lefts I find that I just lean and it all feels fine, its just that little bit of extra work for me on rights... Do you mean you're placing yourself to the left of the lane on approach to the corner and you end up drifting to the middle? Yeh kind of, Ill go for the turn, then the bike will start sort of comming in to the middle and then ill have to actually stand it up a bit to move back out.... But I dont ever get it with lefts. Now that i've typed it out and read it, its pretty much me being a bit dodgy at cornering aint it.

I know where you're comming from, but (for me) when doing rights, the bike naturally stays in the center and I have to make a concious effort to move the bike to the left while leaning and it just aint quite as comfy... On lefts I find that I just lean and it all feels fine, its just that little bit of extra work for me on rights...

Sounds like your cbt guy needs to learn a bit of markiting... Your suppose to tell you're customers the thing you're selling is great, not that it will cut you're head off!

Can't say im worried about my head donking a car, more worried of it completley taking my head off!

I definetly feel more comfy doing lefters, I think for two reasons. 1. It feels like my top half is never going to be in oncoming traffic as I am leaning away from the center. On right handers theres this annoying tendancy to start moving right in the lane which I conciously have to overwrite. 2. My one and only crash was being too enthusiastic on a right hander so I think there is phycological stuff in my head from that crash that says 'right hander uh oh, be careful this hurt last time'.

In an ideal world it would be a bike all the way, but given its not an ideal world and we live in a usually unpleasant weather country where you have to work, get shopping etc the car is the most practical and confortable machine. Im sad to say I simply dont enjoy a bike when it rains bad and it rains bad alot here.

I have checked it and it seeeems okay but its deffo due a service.

Thanks guys, new oil spark p and filter came last night so gonna try this first when I got a spare night to do so. Forgive my stupidity but could I ask what the cam chain tensioner actually does? Is this to do with the timing belt or something?

naa it was doing it a bit towards the end of the warm days close to when I put it away for winter so isn't specifically related to the outside temperature.

Its only got around 18'000 ish, although it has been thrown down a road at about 30mph Sounds silly but have you checked to make sure all the fairing screws and similar are tightened up? Or even taken the fairing off to make sure everything underneath is tightened, could even be something like a wire trapped somewhere. Just a thought... I don't know how to explain other than it definetly sounds like mechanical as if it's comming from within the engine, u know? I completely replaced the fairing, mounting bracket, forks, wheel etc etc so had to get underneath and tighten everything anyway. Fair enough stu, mind you only about 4000 of those miles are me but I suppose it'd be bad to presume it was done by previous owner. I got oil, filter and plugs on the way so I guess if these dont sort it then I can get my hands dirty doin this (never done it before). Not riding it in this weather at the moment anyway so in no rush . Cheers guys

Its only got around 18'000 ish, although it has been thrown down a road at about 30mph

Thanks guys, when I put what yous have said with my problem its kinda 'Ahaaa, ovcourse!'. Gonna get myself new oil and spark plugs as you're right its due a servicing. And pete if that don't fix it then I shall look into CCT, Thanks!

Hey folks, Something thats been happening for a while, but now is the only time I've thought about it while being at a computer at the same time My fzs600 has a bit of a rattling sound to it when I first start her up from cold. It sounds very much like its comming from the top of the engine (cams and valves?) but after a few minutes warm up it starts sounding healthy again and rev-able. Can't think of how to describe it other than sounding just a very slight tad unhealthy for the first few mins. Might be something to not really get to bothered about but thought id see what u guys think anyway. Cheers

well the pistons are all moving it appears, I took it for a test ride last night and they work and can stop me but it was pissing with rain so wasn't best conditions for testing my brakes out. Cant help but feel that they arn't working 100% as firmly as they should. I shall try garys tip and hopefully take it out in the dry.. I suppose the only explanation is that there must still be air in there.... or the pads.

Ta for the speedy response. Will have a check when I get home tonight... may be a case of me failing to check the obvious

Hi folks, I have recently got my bike up and running from a spill last year. And I've taken it for a few test rides and the front brake felt spongy, so I bled them yesterday. Unfortunitly the lever still feels spongy.... I can quite easily pull the lever over half of its full travel with the bike sitting still (this qualifies as spongy right?). The bike did fall to the right so the lever may have taken a clouting however during the repairs I never had to brake the seal between the master cylinder/tubes/calipers so am not sure what the problem is... any ideas anyone? BTW its a 02 fzs600

caberg for me. Its got a nice foldy down visor on the inside and is comfy up untill the three hour barrier. I can only hope that it does a good job of absorbing impact