I'm new to sport bike riding so I'm not familiar with the braking on this style of bike. I just bought a used 2007 with only 4000 miles on it. The rear brakes barely stop the bike. It takes a lot of pressure to even lock the rear tire up. Is this typical for this bike or should I be looking to fix something? I checked the pads and they are is good condition.

 

The rear brake is not for stopping the bike alone. Locking up the rear tire is bad....

If it were, the rotor would be a lot larger and the caliper would look more like the front.

 

I understand that for sure. I am not new to riding motorcycles just new to sport bikes. I have a 2015 Yamaha VMAX and the rear brake on that bike can stop the bike with no problem and that bike is 650lbs!. I normally brake 70/30, front/rear, under normal conditions when I brake and almost entirely front when braking hard. I guess I just want to know if its just normal and to be expected that the rear barely feels like its stopping the bike. If I should be braking differently please help!

 

Sounds normal to me. If it holds the bike from rolling with moderate pressure, that's about right.

Maybe change and bleed some new fluid in there. See if that gives you a better feel.

 

Moderate? no. I need to really push the brake pretty hard before it starts to stop the bike. I'll flush the fluid this weekend. Thank you!

 

Moderate pressure to keep the bike from rolling from standing still....

 

Its pretty much normal. Assume you had different brake pedals on your car, One lever for the front and one lever for the rear. If you only activated the rear there would be no way the car would stop.

 

I'd recommend that you also give this some strong consideration

Keith Code says Rear Brake Only - ducati.org forum | the home for ducati owners and enthusiasts

 

interesting, but it seems like he is referring to being on the track racing which would rule me out.

 

The same principles apply on the street. Sportbikes have the ability to do things like this: