Brakes and Fort William

I have managed to get all the air out the brake system on the ZX-9R by having the lever pulled back overnight. The brakes are now fine, but now as I am used to the superb brakes on the K1300S it is difficult to tell if they are any better than before I overhauled them.

Due to the predicted bad weather we never went to Fort William on the bikes in the end. Although the weather had been forecast to be awful, we would probably have gotten away with just the odd soaking on the way back home. But the journey on the Jacobite was the main reason for going to Fort William for my 40^th and it didn’t disappoint.

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Hawes and Back

I went out on an early run to Hawes and back yesterday on the ZX-9R to test the brakes after I had overhauled them.

I had a good run on the usual roads to Hawes and back and stopped at the Penny Garth Café for a Coffee and Muffin in Hawes. The brakes felt OK but where a little spongy, the ZX-9R is a real pain for getting all the air bled out. So over the next week I will keep the brake lever pulled back over night. This usually manages to force any air left in the system to the bleed valves over time.

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ZX-9R Brakes and Oil

We are soon going on a short trip to Fort William for my delayed 40th birthday trip. I have chosen to use the ZX-9R due to it having not done many miles recently. I noticed that the inside brake pads on both sides of the front wheel had worn more than the outsides. I presume this is because the fluid goes into this side of the caliper first. Due to the pads being quite worn on the insides I decided that they would need  replaced before the trip. I also decided while I was changing the pads to overhaul the brake calipers as well. I doubt they have ever been done before and I have previously noticed that some of the dust seal were trying to escape. So I order a new full set of seals for the brake calipers. Due to them being 6 pot calipers that is a lot of seals, 24 pistons seals and 4 caliper joining seals. I got all the seals from Wemoto as I have used them before when I did the VFR’s seals. and had no issues with them.

I loosened all the bolts on the calipers and ejected the pistons out a bit before I drained out all the brake fluid and removed the calipers. Once removed I separated the calipers and then fully ejected the pistons with the aid of a compressor. I also mark the individual pistons and only do one caliper half at a time to avoid putting the wrong piston back into a caliper bore. Once stripped down I cleaned up the calipers and removed the old seals. Due to their age the calipers were in very good condition and showed no signs of corrosion. The only issue was crud that had collected under the dust seals which had caused some of them to be slightly ejected out by the pistons. They were easy to clean out with brake cleaner and a small right angled pick. Once they were clean I blew them dry with compressed air and then put in the new seals. I refitted the calipers with a new set of EBC pads and then put in new brake fluid. I dragged the fluid through with a brake fluid hand pump and then bleed the air out with a one way valve attached at the bleed nipples. Everything seems fine and no leaks were detect from the caliper, but I will need to take the bike on a short run before we go up to Fort William. While I was ordering the brake parts I also ordered some oil and an oil filter. So I replaced the oil and fitted the new filter while I had the bike up on the stands.

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BMW Repair & MOTs

This morning I took the K1300s over to Williams BMW to have the final drive seal replaced. I arrived just before my 08:30 slot and while I was waiting I had a cappuccino and some chocolate chip cookies. The repair took around 30 mins to complete, they replaced the seal and the oil as there is no way of measuring how much oil is actually in there. All the work was completed under warranty. They do know how to look after you though, but really I shouldn’t have had the problem in the first place.

Later on this morning we had booked the bikes in for there MOTs. The ZX-9R’s MOT had expire quite a few months ago, Helen’s MOT was still valid. We decided to take them to Summit Service Centre because of a recommendation. It is a car garage but he also does bike MOTs as well. We arrived at 11:30 and the MOTs were completed fairly quickly and both bikes passed. Once we arrived home I had a look at the certificate and noticed that the ZX-9R had only done 500 miles since last year. I couldn’t believe it had only done that little. But due to the weather, Helen’s ankle and the Goats we haven’t been out that much really. When we have been out I have used the BMW to get used to it before our recent tour.

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