I allways do it the normal way but i have vacuum pump that i use. I never bled any brakes more then few minutes and it has allways worked fine. The Brembo master i have is very easy to bleed. It has it's own bleeder and when the master is bleeded the calipers take minute per side more. But if i ever have a problem i'll try it the other way

 

The last bike I did the conventional way was a 600rr. No vacuum pump, but to get a good lever, and doing it solely by myself - it probably took a couple of hours over 2 days or so before I was satisfied with the lever. Not to mention the amount of brake fluid it took, I'm glad I wasn't using the expensive stuff. Between the amount of time, fluid, and the amount of Advil I needed for my sore back - I figured trying it the other way wouldn't be a bad bet.

Since then, I've done a KZ1000 (zx11 master), Bandit, and Buell M/C with the reverse bleeder, and it was a piece of cake.

I'm using a brembo unit off of a 1098 (I'm pretty sure it's the same spec master as the RC8, just a different color), so I'm excited to see how it works with the bleeder on the master - it'll be the first time I've ever used one. Glad to hear it was easy

 

I remember reading the same thing that 1098,1198 and the newer KTM:s that have the LC8 engine has the same 18mm Brembo unit whit same monoblock calipers and discs. They have different pads from factory but even they are interchangeable. And Ktm:s allso have at least 2 colors of this master.

I always liked the front brakes of the 954 but the setup i know have is "noticeably"
better. The 18mm Brembo unit is the best stock master i have tested so far. Haven't tried Panigale etc. that have top of the line Brembo masters but compared to japanese bikes stock masters.

I think you will really like it

 

After reverse bleeding etc., and no improvement. I decided to pull a caliper off and go through them one more time. I held the caliper in my hand and slowly squeezed the brake lever. Lo and behold only one piston moved at first. After it was halfway out the second piston on that side of the caliper started to move. It came out partway and then popped back into the caliper!. I haven't seen that happen before.

So I methodically pressured each piston out one at a time and cleaned them and lubed the piston with fresh brake fluid until they moved freely. Pretty much all of the pistons were sticking to the seals to a degree. This is what caused the lever travel issue. After the clean and lube my front brake was as good as any of the other bikes. As a side note they had been cleaned and rebuilt only some months ago and the pistons lubed with a silicon based grease designed for pistons/calipers along with the new seals. I think I will stick with using brake fluid on pistons/seals going forward at least on the Honda. On my ZRX 1200R the grease worked great. Perhaps I didn't use enough or it was an anomaly.

Anyway I thought I would update you guys in case anyone else has a similar issue.

 

I have used PBR brake and o-ring grease with about 7 bikes including stock 954 brakes and 1000RR brakes and they have always worked perfectly. You probably didn't get the pistons or bores clean enough or the piston would have needed little polishing.