Here’s a little technical quiz for you. John’s rear brake suddenly failed on the way up to London on Sunday. Can you spot what might have caused it?!
Luckily John didn’t have to stop too fast. Still, one can’t help but wonder what happened to the missing section of brake line. He had ridden over 50 miles from Portsmouth without incident. Then, suddenly ….!
I see the missing brake line — or rather where it should be. No clue as to how it came off. Why is there not brake fluid everywhere?? (I trust John is okay.)
— john
There is brake fluid marks on the tyre and over the calliper, it just didn’t come out in the photo. Fortunately when the pressure went I was just about coming to a stop at a traffic light, so I managed to stop, without any problem, on the front brake.
I rang my local dealer yesterday.The bike is out of warranty, but the dealer said that Triumph would not want that sort of thing happening to their bikes and would want to examine the old pipe. As a result they may replace the pipe as a good will gesture so now he is now waiting to hear if Triumph will do that. I will let you know what they say.
Ah, light dawns!
I checked the photo above with a picture from the Haynes manual. It would appear that the problem arose because the whole calliper slipped around the disc. Feck … FECK!!
John, I think it’s more likely that the calliper slipped around the disc because the pipe came loose — which still begs the question: why did the pipe come loose?? I’ll be interested in hearing the dealer’s response.
— john
Ah Feck. I took the bike to the dealership already knowing the what, it was the how that I was interested in.
To start at the beginning in May we (Mrs R and me) went to evening classes to learn about motorcycle maintenance. I have done a fair amount on cars, but never on bikes. One evening we replaced the chain and sprockets and, in order to do so, had to take off the rear wheel – and the brake caliper. Our mistake was that we decided that one of us should take off the wheel and the other replace it. The mechanics amongst the readers will immediately realise that this was not the brightest of decisions, and now so do we! You will see in the photo above a raised edge on the right side of the caliper. This edge should have been set into a groove at the rear of the swinging arm to stop it rotating. Needless to say we left it below it.
Had we been able to attend the last week of the course I think my report would have read “poor communication skills, must try harder”. Sounds like the story of my life really. As it is, does anyone know where I put the oil in? 😎
Ah Feck!