In short: Rear suspension bottoms out, I lose a rear cylinder screw, REAR BRAKE STOPS WORKING. Must reinstall screw, and increase preload due to license plate damage from fender eliminator kit hitting rear tire. Will report back. See image.
Yesterday as I was leaving home I stopped briefly curbside to adjust my gloves, and since I live on a hillside I stepped on the rear brake to keep the bike in place. To my surprise, the bike started rolling backwards, no matter how hard I stepped on the brake. I (stupidly) thought it was some sort of fluke so I went about my errands. Testing the rear brake by itself at low speeds as I was coming to several stops, I found it completely unresponsive. The front brake, thankfully, had as good a bite as usual.
Once I got back home, I noticed that pushing the rear brake lever met with zero resistance and caused the little Brembo cylinder to tilt upwards, pivoting on its upper bolt rather than actuating. Then I figured out what was wrong:
I lost the lower brake cylinder bolt. Holding the cylinder in its proper place by hand and actuating the brake lever, I could actually see the piston going into the cylinder and feel it generating pressure as it's meant to do.
My hypothesis: I bought the bike used from a good chap who had laid it down on its right side. He replaced all the (cosmetically) damaged parts, including the rear brake lever. My guess is he didn't use thread locker on the bolts, and somehow that bolt jiggled loose over time. Earlier yesterday, I had to cross an intersection that has very unusual dips on both sides. I wasn't even going that fast... but the suspension bottomed out. I stood up a bit on the pegs beforehand as I was taught to do by the good MSF folk, and I literally heard it hit. My license plate hit the rear tire and nearly folded in half. I have a fender eliminator kit... Good thing I don't have a frame on the license plate, because it would have shattered. I'll be increasing the preload from 3 (which I like, since I'm a small guy) to 4 or 5, just to try to prevent that.
I don't think the rear brake has been damaged per se, I'll update you guys once I reinstall the bolt and test it. I noticed on a factory-new FZ6R that a number of the bolts around the bike have a blue mark on them (including the one I lost)—I'm assuming that means they've been tightened with threadlock. Does anyone know if this is the case?
Be safe out there, and check your bolts regularly!
Yesterday as I was leaving home I stopped briefly curbside to adjust my gloves, and since I live on a hillside I stepped on the rear brake to keep the bike in place. To my surprise, the bike started rolling backwards, no matter how hard I stepped on the brake. I (stupidly) thought it was some sort of fluke so I went about my errands. Testing the rear brake by itself at low speeds as I was coming to several stops, I found it completely unresponsive. The front brake, thankfully, had as good a bite as usual.
Once I got back home, I noticed that pushing the rear brake lever met with zero resistance and caused the little Brembo cylinder to tilt upwards, pivoting on its upper bolt rather than actuating. Then I figured out what was wrong:
I lost the lower brake cylinder bolt. Holding the cylinder in its proper place by hand and actuating the brake lever, I could actually see the piston going into the cylinder and feel it generating pressure as it's meant to do.
My hypothesis: I bought the bike used from a good chap who had laid it down on its right side. He replaced all the (cosmetically) damaged parts, including the rear brake lever. My guess is he didn't use thread locker on the bolts, and somehow that bolt jiggled loose over time. Earlier yesterday, I had to cross an intersection that has very unusual dips on both sides. I wasn't even going that fast... but the suspension bottomed out. I stood up a bit on the pegs beforehand as I was taught to do by the good MSF folk, and I literally heard it hit. My license plate hit the rear tire and nearly folded in half. I have a fender eliminator kit... Good thing I don't have a frame on the license plate, because it would have shattered. I'll be increasing the preload from 3 (which I like, since I'm a small guy) to 4 or 5, just to try to prevent that.
I don't think the rear brake has been damaged per se, I'll update you guys once I reinstall the bolt and test it. I noticed on a factory-new FZ6R that a number of the bolts around the bike have a blue mark on them (including the one I lost)—I'm assuming that means they've been tightened with threadlock. Does anyone know if this is the case?
Be safe out there, and check your bolts regularly!
