after spending all winter and most of the so-called summer rebuilding my 749s and very excited for the first track day of the year at snetterton summer was finally apon us! soaking up the sun giving the 749 a thrashing, diving in and out of corners and just very happy to be back on the bike after a year long wait. so i come hacking down the back straight probley doing around the 140-150 mark spot my braking point grab a hand full of front brake which wasnt there!! the lever just pulls all the way back to bar as if theres no fluid in the system! OH MY GOD! I sh*t my pants! had to bang down the gears and give plenty of back brake too. luckily for me its the only place on the track with a huge concrete run off, i massive over shot the corner and manage to stop. after a good 3 or 4 pumps it comes back and returns to normal, hasnt done that before and didnt do it again. any one had that before? gunna change my fluid just didnt know if there may be another culpret? fingers crossed that never happens again!
Did you have a tank slapper before then Hugh ? It sounds like th epads have been knocked back in the calipers.....thats what caused Binny's crash in BSB at Oulton......
Well, if they returned to normal use, and you had brakes BEFORE then......they MUST have been knocked back in the calipers...no other explanation...so something did happen, whether you were aware or not......
once i was was back in the pits had a good old chuckle about it with the boys. sure the guy i was out braking on the inside took a double look
I've had a similar but not quite as terrifying incident on my 999. Not the same sort of speeds but it was on the road rather than the track, with less run-off :smile: Brakes were good, then absent, then returned soon after. Puzzling. The brakes on my 999 have previously been so brilliant, so awesome, that the experience left me a bit shaken. I have that niggle of doubt now, at the back of my mind, but it was a one-off.
I had an R6 a few years ago and the clutch cable popped out while I was going flat out down the back straight. I too had an OMG moment in the split second you try and down shift. Not as scary as no brakes, but pleased the large run off is there.
if this had happen at any other part of snetterton i'd have been toast! all that hard work rebiulding , painting, bearings , belts, blah blah blah would have been for nothin. reckon that would have made me cry, not like a baby , just like a man-ly shed a tear cry.... who am i kidding boo hoo! there is a god after all!
Have you tried/tested the span adjuster on the lever? I had this at Assen a few years ago pulled the lever to the bar new tyres too so couldn't even lean too hard to try and make the corner luckily got away with it, but upon inspection the span adjuster had somehow spun the lever to a point where it barely applied any braking pressure. Otherwise I'd go with the pads being pushed back after a tank slapper.
could be pad knock back as suggested but you'd get symptoms with that - main one being a regular pulsing through the lever when you brake lightly plus are discs fully floating and a little 'over floppy'?
i think its old brake fluid and some how got a huge air pocket or something. gunna pull it all apart and clean the pistons and stuff. im just happy im alive
I've got to admit that when someone called Hugh Jaynus has a brown trouser moment .... well, you've got to laugh, haven't you?
I don't want to know that. If my brakes fail on a mountain pass it will also be a one off. One off the road and a steep drop down to the valley. Nope, I am convinced that this will never happen to me. (Fingers in ears, make loud humming noise to block out the awful truth).
My 996 run off the straight at Aragon last year (lever to the bar). I half expected it, as the brakes faded ever so slightly before the straight. After I eventually came to a stop, the lever pressure came back. I changed the oil in the pits and it was fine after that.
