Brakes binding on

[biker74]

Hello All, brakes keep randomly binding on. Had them looked at; stripped down and the seals replaced. All seemed fine but then it did it again doing 40. My confidence has gone for the bike. I've assumed the calipers were ruined and needing replaced. I have been told that I am jumping the gun a bit and it could be a few other issues.

Can anyone suggest what else it could be before I spend a fortune on BMW parts?

Haven't been on the bike for so long. Any suggestions would be much appreciated

[riceburner]

Does your bike have ABS?

How old is your bike?

Could you tell us which callipers you have (Brembo or Tokico)?

This will all help.

[biker74]

Hi

No ABS

The bike is 2004

The brakes aren't Brembo so assuming they're Tokico; it would be whatever BMW use as standard.

Cheer

[riceburner]

Hi

No ABS

The bike is 2004

The brakes aren't Brembo so assuming they're Tokico; it would be whatever BMW use as standard.

Cheer

What's the mileage on the bike?
If you've done the seals - have you changed the master-cylinder piston as well? Could be that in re-bleeding when the seals were changed the action of pumping the new fluid through dislodged a bit of internal corrosion and the master-cylinder piston is catching on it?

Without ABS there's nothing electrical to go wrong, so the problem must be either hydraulic, or mechanical.

Does the Lever act freely when the brakes lock up? (ie as if the piston in the m/c is stuck). Or does it happen when you've not touched the brakes at all? If the latter then I'd suspect something catching - maybe the disc is very worn and the pistons are sticking out a bit too far?

[MIXR]

I had binding brakes on my R. Took a week of searching to find the issue. And I lost all the wave washers on the RHS disk rotor while they were binding. The answer was as simple as the local 'specialist' over-torquing the axle bolt after removing the front wheel for some work. It twists the down-tubes and loads the brakes in one direction (to the left). The front end physically 'sprang' when I released the axle bolt and pinch bolts. Loosen it all off and do the torques on the brake caliper, axle and pinch bolts correctly, and in the correct order. You may find the problem goes away. Or it's something else like an overful reservoir after a new pad change where the reservoir was filled with worn pads in place. Good luck.

[borderbiker]

I had a similar thing happen on the 850 r i had before the rockster. The cause was too much free play taken up on the lever by me turning the screw on the reservoir , causing me to actually hit the deck. Lesson learned.