Anyone dealing with a spongy brake feel at the lever? Tried bleeding your brakes and it does nothing! Upgraded to S/S braided lines, race brake pads and still pulling your lever half way before it starts to slow you down? Yes i know this sounds like an info commercial...but i actually got a tech tip! lol What the problem might be is that the seals for the pistons in your calipers are flexing too much instead of letting the piston slide. So when you are off the brakes the seal retracts the piston too much back and you have to waste 1/2 your lever pull to bring the pads up against the rotors. Now i went to kawasaki update seminar and they told me a tip. What you do is unbolt your calipers, one at a time or both it doesn't matter, one at a time is easier to do it yourself. You unbole caliper and slide it back like you are going to remove it completely. When the brake pads are barely still in contact with the rotor, the edge of the pads. And the majority of the pad is off the rotor, squeeze your brake lever several times. Then reinstall your caliper, it might be alittle tough, but try to avoid wiggling it and spreading the brake pads. Doing this should help the brake feel at the lever. I did it on a Harley i was working on and it made the world of difference....also the Kawi ZX-10R was notorious for this too!

wow, neat-o. might have to try this when i put the new pads on.

Neat-O????

hey man, iv been coupedup atmy app. for about the last 5 days with my g/f and her sister, the wierdassfemale language rubs off a little-

So what does it do exactly?

You're basically re-seating the pistons tighter against the rotor, I would imagine?

I have stock, old lines and fairly worn brake pads (OTOH, I have another set of calipers I could switch to...wait, that doesn't help), and even at maximum adjust with the stock lever, it still hits my knuckle when I squeeze it hard with one or two fingers (and not all of them)...

Although I imagine the problem would be fixed if I had the $240 I need for new lines and HH pads.

check ebay- ss lines 60.00, hh pads 40-50.00

Stuff that cheap usually means they're made by a small (or crappy) company, which means you won't get any money when you have to sue them for making brakes that put you in the hospital.

SpecR, yeah what it does is push the pistons closer to the rotor, because the seal that it slides on flexes. It does that on purpose, so that when you are done using the brakes it retracts the piston back and allowing wheel to move. But sometimes those seals flew more than others and it pulls back the piston too much which means you have to pull the lever more to make pads contact the rotor. This happens because the pads are wearing but not worn enough for the piston to slide closer. You are just making the piston slide closer to regain that great lever feel. But this is last option, once you've ruled out that everything else is good. No leaks, good components, no master cylinder bypassing, or air in the lines. It was a tech tip the my regional service manual told me during a kawi update seminar. I've used it on several brands and for cruisers and sportbikes. It works, but it is usually the last thing i try after seeing if any air is in the line and rotors are straight and not knocking the pads away.

My lever seemed fairly stiff when I first bled the brakes, but I noticed the lever was hitting my knuckles after the bike was actually running.

i can tell the difference between name brand and knockoff- i should of specified. i found ss lines and hh pads on ebay from a guy that bought them brand new, never used, half the equip. still in packaging, but for some reason, he bought them for a different model bike, thinking they would work, well they didnt. the pads and lines were model specific for my bike, i bought them. so im saying you might find things like this on ebay (my loss your gain) kinda thing-

Specr you might have a slightly warped rotor? have a way to jack up front end and spin wheel?

I'm only going by prices you can normally expect to pay.

Also, the water isn't warped, since I'm talking about how the lever acts while standing still.

Thanks for posting this tip. I hadn't heard of it before, sounds pretty good. I replaced the old brake lines on my FZR a few months back with new Spiegler SS/Teflon lines, put in Motul RF600 DOT4 fluid and new HH+ pads. Did this for both front and rear. HUGE difference.

Definitely worth all the work, but remember, if you're going to do this, be sure to take your calipers apart all the way and clean them up really good and also get all the gunk off the pistons with "000" steel wool. Make sure you get new seals also, they're usually not cheap but if you're going to do it, and spend all the money on SS lines and HH+ pads, spend the money and time to do it right.

The outside of my calipers might be slightly dirty, but the insides look brand new. [sm=signs007.gif]

Surfn- Be aware that race pads need heat to work properly. Street speeds usually don't provide the heat range. They also tend to wear rotors faster. But thanks for the tip. I never before considered or heard of piston seal flex.