2004 R1150RT Brake Question

[bewareboy]

Since it seems that brakes are the hot topic recently, let me throw my question in the ring.

 

I bought a 1 owner/solely BMW serviced, 2004 R1150RT about 3 years ago with ~40K on the meter. Been a great experience, both riding and working on. I'm a gearhead, so enjoy turning the wrenches.

 

I have replaced the all the original brake hoses with Speigler in 2015. Went well, little issue to report. At that time I also installed new brake pads all around (Carbone Lorraine - Sintered).

 

Once ready to road test, the rear brake ended up dragging heavily and the caliper was extremely hot after the short test ride. Knew this was a problem and went ahead and rebuilt the rear caliper. Maybe got dirt or gunk pushed back into the seals when pushing the puck/pistons back in to make room for the new pads? The complete rebuild and NEW SEALS seems to have fixed the issue and no recurring issue on the rear.

 

Now for the real question... the front brakes. I did not notice when I first acquired the bike if the front brakes dragged lightly or not. After the brake pad replacement (2015) though it did start to lightly drag, noticeable when front wheel is off the ground or pushing the bike around without the engine running. I finally decided to do something and pulled the calipers, removed the puck/pistons and cleaned everything up late last fall (2016). I DID NOT REPLACE THE SEALS. After re-installation and bleeding, the brakes seems to behave better with little dragging while the front wheel was off the ground. I would say this was more evident from the lack of noise (sintered pads on rotor) as opposed to the physical feel.

 

Now here were are in 2017 and the front brakes seem to be dragging lightly again. When I say lightly, again you can hear the sintered pads rubbing on the disk continuously, but not enough that it is hard or noticeably difficult to push around. Also the calipers are not hot after riding, but that may be to normal due to the abundance of cooling air they get.

 

Soooo the question is, is this normal and just stop worrying or should there not be any hint of rubbing. Might it be that after the final brake application in the driveway at the end of the ride, the pads more or less stay in contact with the rotor and until the next ride once under way and the rotor loading and contact pushed the pads back off and then do not constantly rub?

 

In comparison, the front pads have more contact/rubbing noise then than the rear does.

 

Thanks for your thoughts.

[greiffster]

Soooo the question is, is this normal and just stop worrying or should there not be any hint of rubbing. Might it be that after the final brake application in the driveway at the end of the ride, the pads more or less stay in contact with the rotor and until the next ride once under way and the rotor loading and contact pushed the pads back off and then do not constantly rub?

 

 

FWIW, I always remember light contact with the pads on the rotors when I spun the front wheel (03' 1150RT). Logically more noise on the front than rear wheel as there are two sets versus one. I think you should stop worrying.

[dirtrider]

Morning bewareboy

 

A very light drag is pretty normal as the brake pads have no real return springs. The caliper piston seals are the only return springs to keep the pads from dragging on the brake rotors.

 

If you can, try riding the bike without using the brakes (at all). If the brake rotors get hot then you have too much pad-to-rotor drag.