Squishy Brakes

[simanio872]

Hi guys,
Feel like kind of an idiot but im completely drawing a blank lol. Replaced my front pads and brake lever and on my test ride i noticed the brakes are very squishy feeling. It feels very similar to having air in the lines and i cant figure out why. The pads i threw on are ebc road race pads i believe. Also havent ridden the bike in ~2 months and lever was put on at same time as pads. Im gonna mess with it a little tomorrow but any ideas? Thanks!

 

[WuzzaCBXRider]

All I can think of is ‘road race’ pads need to be hot to work properly, hot, not just warm.

 

[Berlin Germany]

and the brand new 100% flat pads have to fit to the "waves" at the (used) disc´s surfaces first.
even if these "waves" are only very small the pads touch their "hills" only.
no wonder that you got a worse brake for the moment
drive a bit with braking and releasing and braking and releasing again and so on.
but pay attention not to overheat the pads and discs by that.
I suppose after 10-12 brakings the "wave" effect is gone and your brakes will work fine.

and no matter what kind of pads you use - mineralic / sintered / race(?) - the wave effect "works" everywhere.

but please keep an eye on thickness of the disks.
the original older one, like those from 1999-2007 busa, get very quick very thin when using sintered / race(?)
so i personally only use the (EBC) organics at my ´00 busa. good braking and longer lasting discs (up to 60-70,000 km)

and if the brake still feels squishy,
take the calipers completely off and apart .
remove all pistons, and clean the grooves in the saddles as well as the pistons and their rubber sealing rings meticulously.
the "old" Tokico - calipers definitely need this deep cleaning every 30-35000 km - my experience with dozens of gen1 calipers.

how to disassemble the calipers is very well described in the manual.

but :
sometimes the pistons are so tight in the calipers that you can only push them out with hydraulic support.

after that deep cleaning and with never more the wave effect (pads/disk) you will have again brakes
even you "only" use the organics.

other reason for squishyness:
steel braided hoses mounted already? no? do it. the rubber hoses "pump" after some 10 years and you loose a bit of pressure ==> squishy brakes.

but pls never forgett - even at my fabulous working brakes i can pull the lever with big hand power completely to the throttle grip - when the bike STANDS - never when rolling !
this is usual / normal - i had a 30 minute phone call to brembo germany engineer and he fully confirmed this way of working.
the lever´s way to throttle grip increases the pressure inside system and by that the force to the pads.
so you must still have a kind of a seemingly bit squishy feeling,
even after deep cleaning, steel braides hoses and perfect bleeding.

 

[Dopey]

Hi guys,
Feel like kind of an idiot but im completely drawing a blank lol. Replaced my front pads and brake lever and on my test ride i noticed the brakes are very squishy feeling. It feels very similar to having air in the lines and i cant figure out why. The pads i threw on are ebc road race pads i believe. Also havent ridden the bike in ~2 months and lever was put on at same time as pads. Im gonna mess with it a little tomorrow but any ideas? Thanks!

Did u flush and bleed the system while u were replacing the pads?? May have some air in the system. Also make sure to read EBC's break in procedure for the pads on their website if u haven't yet. I just but some ebc hh pads on mine and lever feels about the same but definitely can feel the difference in stopping. Just hoping once I finish the break in that it'll get rid of some ofthat noise they make against the rotors when they're new.

 

[simanio872]

Turns out i am an idiot lol, there was air in the lines.

and the brand new 100% flat pads have to fit to the "waves" at the (used) disc´s surfaces first.
even if these "waves" are only very small the pads touch their "hills" only.
no wonder that you got a worse brake for the moment
drive a bit with braking and releasing and braking and releasing again and so on.
but pay attention not to overheat the pads and discs by that.
I suppose after 10-12 brakings the "wave" effect is gone and your brakes will work fine.

and no matter what kind of pads you use - mineralic / sintered / race(?) - the wave effect "works" everywhere.

but please keep an eye on thickness of the disks.
the original older one, like those from 1999-2007 busa, get very quick very thin when using sintered / race(?)
so i personally only use the (EBC) organics at my ´00 busa. good braking and longer lasting discs (up to 60-70,000 km)

and if the brake still feels squishy,
take the calipers completely off and apart .
remove all pistons, and clean the grooves in the saddles as well as the pistons and their rubber sealing rings meticulously.
the "old" Tokico - calipers definitely need this deep cleaning every 30-35000 km - my experience with dozens of gen1 calipers.

how to disassemble the calipers is very well described in the manual.

but :
sometimes the pistons are so tight in the calipers that you can only push them out with hydraulic support.

after that deep cleaning and with never more the wave effect (pads/disk) you will have again brakes
even you "only" use the organics.

other reason for squishyness:
steel braided hoses mounted already? no? do it. the rubber hoses "pump" after some 10 years and you loose a bit of pressure ==> squishy brakes.

but pls never forgett - even at my fabulous working brakes i can pull the lever with big hand power completely to the throttle grip - when the bike STANDS - never when rolling !
this is usual / normal - i had a 30 minute phone call to brembo germany engineer and he fully confirmed this way of working.
the lever´s way to throttle grip increases the pressure inside system and by that the force to the pads.
so you must still have a kind of a seemingly bit squishy feeling,
even after deep cleaning, steel braides hoses and perfect bleeding.

Ill give that a shot today, thank you man!

 

[simanio872]

Did u flush and bleed the system while u were replacing the pads?? May have some air in the system. Also make sure to read EBC's break in procedure for the pads on their website if u haven't yet. I just but some ebc hh pads on mine and lever feels about the same but definitely can feel the difference in stopping. Just hoping once I finish the break in that it'll get rid of some ofthat noise they make against the rotors when they're new.

I did not bleed it, but i’m going to today. I wanted to be lazy but there probably is some air in the system lol. Ill look that break in procedure up, thank you!

 

[Dopey]

I did not bleed it, but i’m going to today. I wanted to be lazy but there probably is some air in the system lol. Ill look that break in procedure up, thank you!

Always a good idea to flush the brake fluid when doing pads since your already working on em.

 

[simanio872]

Always a good idea to flush the brake fluid when doing pads since your already working on em.

On the money, feels way better now. Plus gave me a reason to throw some speed bleeders on lol. Thanks man!

 

[Dopey]

On the money, feels way better now. Plus gave me a reason to throw some speed bleeders on lol. Thanks man!

No problem that's what we're here for...I need to put some speed bleeders on mine, do you remember the thread size they were off the top of your head?

 

[simanio872]

No problem that's what we're here for...I need to put some speed bleeders on mine, do you remember the thread size they were off the top of your head?

I believe the fronts were M8x1.25 (part #SB8125L) and the rear was M7x1.0 (part #SB7100S). I think the slave cylinder was also M8x1.25, gonna try throwing one on there next time too