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Rear brake hard no feel

2K views 17 replies 13 participants last post by  MacBandit 
#1 ·
My rear brake has no feel, it's either on or off and I've locked up the back a few times due to no knowing if I'm pressing it hard enough. The fluid is new, piston moves freely and pads are fine although I've just order a new set all round. Any ideas why it's like this or is it normal for the bike?
 
#5 ·
Rear brake is a joke on pretty much all supersports. Only useful if you're trying to come to stop asap in an emergency situation and need the extra braking force, or for giving your right hand a break while you're waiting at a light on a steep incline, or if you drive to a deserted lot, shut the abs off, and want to work on sliding for fun.
 
#6 ·
2 things. Lots of practice and a lightened rotor. The lightened rotor reduces rear brake power. This makes it harder to lock it up. But practice is most important and understanding that the more front brake you apply the less rear you can apply. If you dirt bike a lot you get a feel for using the rear brake.
 
#7 ·
If you don't have ABS, it will likely be worse with new pads. Still, if you bed the pads in carefully, you might improve the feel. I suspect most people glaze the rear pads because they only use them with the front brake on. And, if you don't have ABS, the rear brake pedal can be the most dangerous control on the bike. It's there for two situations -- low traction on the front wheel and "We're all going to die!" events.
 
#8 ·
on heavy braking with the rear, I always lock it up. Usually just use the rear brake to flash the brake light when I'm stopped or when I'm doing slow speed maneuvers.
 
#10 ·
For me personally, it has been about practicing using the rear to get a feel for it. I've been able to use it once or twice in hard stops to help the front brakes with bringing the bike to a stop, otherwise I just use it on a hill, etc.

I need to replace the rear fluid and rubber line with a stainless steel line, just haven't gotten around to buying the line yet.
 
#11 ·
Agreed. Practice practice practice. I've always used mine even at the track and only on a couple instances have I locked it up by accident.

I've ridden dirt bikes my entire life however and to try to teach me not to use it would be nearly impossible. It should be used but it takes practice like anything and knowing when you can use it and when you can't. End of the straight with the rear wheel nearly in the air is not a place it's usable. Stabilizing or even tightening up your line on a long corner entry then absolutely. Riding on the street it can be used almost anywhere with care.
 
#13 ·
You can alter the feel of the brake by simply lowering (or raising) the position of the lever. It's amazing what a difference it makes (only recently did I experiment with it after a suggestion by someone here in the forum and I realized he was right). As I see it, the reason is that altering the height plays a big role in how much the weight of the foot/boot alone is used to apply force on the pedal. The lower the lever is the less the weight is used and the more effort is required on part of the rider, thus improving "linearity".

So try to lower its position and see what effect it has on feel.
 
#16 · (Edited)
Yeah... rear brake is useful... actually the more slippery a surface is the more crucial the rear brake is. Not only does it add to the overall deceleration but it also puts more weight on the front, thus improving front braking as well.

For some bikes, there are other reasons to use it as well: with the stock conventional fork, my SV650 would be unstable under hard braking unless I also applied a bit of rear brake which helped "straighten" the bike out. After the 43mm USD GSXR750 fork modification was done the bike lost a great deal of feel but it also moved a lot less under braking so rear brake became less useful (but I still used it).

The only occasion that I would perhaps not use it would be on a surface that I would be 100% sure would provide enough traction to brake to the point of lifting the rear wheel and it would be an emergency brake where concentration and focus on the front brake would be crucial. The mind can only do so much in a given amount of time - removing the rear brake from the equation also removes the need for clutch use and allows some brain cycles for the use of the horn which sometimes proves useful. Again, only if the surface is excellent which in Greece 90% of the cases is far from.

There is a mistake in the article though: The writer claims that application of the rear brake "slows weight transfer". This is inaccurate: To begin with, application of rear brake does, by itself cause some front-biased weight transfer so it can not possibly "slow it down". What he - with an inaccurate choice of words- brobably tries to explain is that since there is a significant rotational force that is created on the bike around the rear wheel axle when the rear brake is applied, the front of the bike slightly compresses the moment of the application and thus helps remove the sensation of "dive" when the front brake is applied. It's still a good thing though so no harm done.
 
#18 ·
Same reason a lot of people use GP shift. You can't get your toe that low when leaned over that hard without it catching the pavement. That's not always the case however it's all about bike lean angle and knowing how much clearance you have. Remember not even al MotoGP riders use GP shift. In fact Rossi uses standard shift.
 
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