• Welcome, Guest! We hope you enjoy the excellent technical knowledge, event information and discussions that the BMW MOA forum provides. Some forum content will be hidden from you if you remain logged out. If you want to view all content, please click the 'Log in' button above and enter your BMW MOA username and password.

    If you are not an MOA member, why not take the time to join the club, so you can enjoy posting on the forum, the BMW Owners News magazine, and all of the discounts and benefits the BMW MOA offers?

Front brake lever too loose

plexiform

New member
Front brake works fine in the sense that it stops the bike but I like the lever to be tighter and no require so much movement to stop the bike. Right now it's so loose the lever is touching the grip in order to stop the bike. Anyway to just make it stiffer?

Bike is a 1988 R100rs mono shock

A second question I had is about the ridiculous stock side stand....any solutions for a 1988 r100rs mono shock. I would like a robust side stand.
 
Could be a few things, but the lever should firm up before it hits the grip.

  • You could have a stuck piston, which adds some elasticity to the system. Easy enough to check; remove the calipers and try to fully spread the pads. Then reinstall and see if all four of them pump back out.
  • Pads could be old. Especially if they have sat for a while without use; they absorb moisture and become spongey. Usually they will drag a lot when that happens, but they could get soft.
  • And of course you could have some air in the hydraulic lines.

If all of that is OK, you might just have some lever wear or something that is causing the system to pump up later in the lever travel. When you squeeze the lever, pressure does not try to build until the piston crosses the equalization port in the MC bore. Then the pads start to move until they are against the rotor, then the stretch is taken out of the hoses and other parts, THEN you get real braking pressure. If you have too much lever travel before the braking pressure builds, it would be coming from one of these. The three items I started off with are all 'stretch' items.
 
Could also be the brake line(s) allowing you to put enough pressure to "force" the brake to work, but it doesn't have enough "return" pressure. My brake line was almost totally clogged when I purchased the bike, and allowed some braking, but eventually didn't. So I replaced and then also rebuilt the master cylinder under the tank.

Did the trick and stopped a slight leak I had from the cylinder.
 
Could also be the brake line(s) allowing you to put enough pressure to "force" the brake to work, but it doesn't have enough "return" pressure. My brake line was almost totally clogged when I purchased the bike, and allowed some braking, but eventually didn't. So I replaced and then also rebuilt the master cylinder under the tank.

Did the trick and stopped a slight leak I had from the cylinder.

You must have replaced the lines with some "high performance" brake lines.....where did you get these???:D:D
 
I own the same year/model bike. With regard to the side-stand, you could retrain yourself to use it as is. I have adapted to the practice of using my heel to deploy the stand while seated on the bike and then lean the bike over onto the stand while holding it out. Before doing this, I shut down the motor and leave the bike in first gear, clutched out, to prevent a roll away.
 
You must have replaced the lines with some "high performance" brake lines.....where did you get these???:D:D

I can't divulge my friend's name or he would be swamped with people imposing on him.

I think he is a little "screwy," but he does have good parts!
 
I had that, or a similar problem. The nylon bushing for the brake lever pivot was worn through allowing too much slop in the stop. Changed the bushing and all parts tightened up.
 
Sidestand Options

I think that the two most popular replacement side stands are the Brown and Farley models. I don't know anything about fitting the Brown to a monoshock bike, but I do have a Farley on my 85 monoshock and am happy with it.

There was a recent thread about these sidestands and the phone number for the Farley stands was listed. I think he charges $135 or so for the stand and will send you the stand before you've even paid for it. You also get a new, long motor mount bolt. People have posted about Brown/Farley style stands breaking off the motor mount bolt (stud?) and having problems with the stock bolt being too short. I presume that that is why you get a new bolt (stud?) with the Farley stand. Also, there have been threads about changing the Brown's forward attachment point from the exhaust pipe to the frame. The Farley stand comes set up to attach to the frame instead of the exhaust pipe.

When the Farley stand is folded up, it wants to tangle up with the foot pad on the center stand. I used a big rat-tail file to cut a half-circle relief in the centerstand foot pad to take care of the interference.

You can also alter the spring attachments on the stock side stand to get it to stay extended even when the bike is not leaning on it - for some people, the fact that the stock stand tries to retract as soon as weight is removed or reduced is the deal breaker. BMW made the stand retract like that as a cheap safety measure - you don't have to wire an engine cut-off switch into the sidestand that way, but that "feature" almost dumped my bike several times. On that note, the Brown and Farley stands do not include a kill switch so you HAVE to remember to retract the sidestand before you ride off.
 
I had that, or a similar problem. The nylon bushing for the brake lever pivot was worn through allowing too much slop in the stop. Changed the bushing and all parts tightened up.

I did this on the clutch lever...but as far as I can tell, there doesn't appear to be a bushing on the brake lever...at least not on this year model. I just checked for the /7 and there does appear to be a bushing on the brake side...but I think they may have done away with that confirguration over time.
 
I can't divulge my friend's name or he would be swamped with people imposing on him.

I think he is a little "screwy," but he does have good parts!

I know a guy like this. They are a pita, but you have to put up with them. Never know if you need them down the road.....
 
Back
Top