Soft Brakes?

[SteveX]

Hi Chaps
Recently bought an 07 k1200gt... great bike, can't think why it took me so long to get one. My first trip on it was to ride it home, 200 miles more comfy than a car!

My question though; my brakes seem to have gone soft. I'm often having to pull the handbrake so far that the lever almost touches the handle. The first 1,000 or so miles it was fine, just recently it seems to have started doing this. The footbrake seems to have more stopping power than the handbrake? I took it for it's 18,000 service and it seems no better. I asked the chaps at BMW how the dual braking worked but the sales chap didn't really seem to know and mentioned that the bike needs to be moving for the dual braking to work?. Any experts able to offer some advice?

Cheers! Great Forum!
Steve

[sundog]

my advice: get to a mechanic asap and get it checked. that doesnt sounds safe at all.
sorry i cant be more specific.

[SteveX]

Hi, thanks for the advice. I did take it to a main dealer, and they said it was fine but the pads were 60% worn. Perhaps I should just replace the pads?

[badger]

Wow - that is bad bad bad.

If you can pull the lever to the bar it usually means:
- water in your brake fluid
- oil or something on your brake discs and pads
- not enough brake fluid
- leak of brake fluid (I've had this - only happened on warm days, and leaked out over time)
- brake lines are distorting and spongy
- Is your bike a servo model? - then it could mean the servo is on its way out

The thickness of the pads don't really effect the pull/throw of the brake lever - the system is hydraulic so is "self levelling".

Get it sorted out, and slap anyone that says it is due to "worn brake pads" (unless they are worn to the backing plate!! )

[badger]

Just noticed you are in London.

Who do you take your bike to?

If you are around West London we could meet up and I could take a look (if that would help).

Rick

[SteveX]

Hi Rick, that's an incredibly friendly offer!
I'm in Ruislip, west London-ish.
I had the bike serviced by a BMW mail dealer... not sure if we are allowed to name dealers in the forum, but they are big, and they're south of the river. One of the things that was done in the last service was to replace the brake fluid...
I'll send a pm to you
Steve

[badger]

Hi Rick, that's an incredibly friendly offer!
I'm in Ruislip, west London-ish.
I had the bike serviced by a BMW mail dealer... not sure if we are allowed to name dealers in the forum, but they are big, and they're south of the river. One of the things that was done in the last service was to replace the brake fluid...
I'll send a pm to you
Steve

Hi Steve,
Got your PM - I'll write to you later with some ideas to meet up. I'm in Fulham btw.
It's more than okay to mention dealers in this forum - part of the great thing about the place - name and shame, rave and praise sort of thing. Vines currently more the former IMHO, but there are many people on the board that have had a great time with them....

Rick

[jverbsky]

I havet he same problem with a 05 K1200s. Did you ever figure out what is going on?

[SteveX]

Hi, I had ridden the bike through the winter, and i think thast the calipers had stiffened up a bit with crap/salt/crap.
I used a very strong cleaning agent (S DOC SDOC 100 MOTORCYCLE MOTORBIKE GEL TOTAL CLEANER) and a jet wash wash and it's been fine ever since.