R1150GSA Front Brake

Recently purchased a wrecked 2004 R1150GSA, minor front end damage otherwise the bike is in pretty good shape. Among the repairs I've done so far was replacing the OEM front brake lines with Speigler braided lines, new ABS sensor, and speedometer cable. Bleeding the new lines went smoothly however the front brake doesn't work unless the ignition is on. No braking response whatsoever, the brake handle bottoms out as if there is no brake fluid in the line. Puzzling because when I bleed the system I get plenty of flow through the bleed valves on the calipers. With the bike running everything works fine, ABS system appears to be working (warning light cancels as it should once underway), front brake grabs just fine, and I can clearly feel the ABS pulse when I brake hard to test. I suspect that something is preventing brake fluid flow through the ABS unit when the ignition is off?

There is a specific procedure to bleed the "Whizzy" brakes

Did you bleed the correctly? You need a special funnel and the brakes are bleed a lot different than non "Whizzy" brakes.

Front Brake

Judging from your response, no I did not bleed correctly. Any idea where I can lay my hands on the correct procedure? Thanks

Haynes Manual has it.

Whizzy brakes work great when the bike is running. They don't work worth a hoot when the bike isn't running. At the same time, the brake lever should have resistance when the bike is off and should not bottom out at the grip. Check a manual for the proper bleeding procedure and go from there. You'll need a special funnel available from Beemer Boneyard in order to properly perform this work.

The bike doesn't need to be running however the key needs to be in the on position.

You don't need the special funnel, just keep topping up the reservoir while bleeding. The Funnel does make it easier but not necessary to do the job. Done it many times without and most dealers don't use them anymore as the break easy. Just use a small regular funnel to keep the reservoirs full, be careful filling them not to overfill, but don't let it run dry. If you figure you can't do without and feel you need to spend extra money- https://www.beemerboneyard.com/abs3funnel.html

Where does the funnel go?

Where does the funnel go?

This covers the procedure very well.
https://advrider.com/f/resources/abs-3-service-v2-0.7/
You just need to purchase the funnel, makes the job much easier.

ancientmariner1975 said:

Where does the funnel go?

Click to expand...

You might want to take the bike to the dealer.