Wind the winder IN which should iirc wind the lever OUT. You want as far as possible form the bar to test if it makes much of a difference, then wind in until comfortably usable.
The lever span adjustment screw can sometimes seize up and can't be moved with your fingers. What Bradders is saying is correct in that increasing the span is desirable for when you want more initial bite, but to be honest it's not a cure for the brakes which are clearly not operating efficiently. If you're unsure about what you're doing just get it into the dealer and get them to look at it and insist that they ride it themselves. It's your brakes so don't muck about.
Agree, just that if the OP has them wound quite close, the chances are it’s easy to hit the bar. But if in doubt, bleed, check pads, check fluid etc and make sure it working properly before use
@BigAlan does the brake improve if you pump the lever ? p.s. by pumping I mean pulling the lever in several times in quick succession.
Will ride it this weekend and see about pumping them, I have booked it into OYB on the 17th for them to look at it but my daughter is due to give birth on the 15th so I might have to cancel. Why a major manufacturer who give you heaps of power can’t make brakes both ends work ALL the time is beyond me.
This isn't a manufacturer thing, its a user or failure in the product thing. Ducati have better brakes ion the multi than most do on their hyper sport models
No such thing exists. All brakes systems from all manufacturers require regular and on-going maintenance and monitoring to ensure they work optimally when you need them. All brake systems degrade to some extent over time due to a number of factors, not least due tohow they are used (ie, road or track use) and the environment they are used in (ie, summer or winter). Ducati don't make the brake system, Brembo do and are widely considered to be the apex brand. Ducati merely select the appropriate products from the Brembo product line and integrate them into their models. The same brakes are installed across a number of different manufacturers and models. It is incumbent on all of us to continually monitor brake performance and when we notice a degradation (either via day-to-day use or an MOT failure) we have to act on it, and that can often be outside of scheduled maintenance. Parts of the brake system are consumable and subject to wear and tear, just like your tyres, and are not covered by warranty apart when their might be a defect - ie, pads and disks. New disks can sometimes be claimed under warranty if they've warped for some inexplicable reason, but if the surface of the disk can be shown to be excessively worn and grooved then that is more likely to be down to wear and tear or running the pads too low - in which case you're going to be paying for them to be replaced. Brake lines can also degrade over time although generally not within the warranty period and can be covered, although I can't recall hearing of someone getting new brake lines under warranty. If there are problems of that nature then they tend to get dealt with via a recall as a manufacturing defect in that area can be hard to track down and identified as an isolated issue, therefore manufacturers err on the side of caution and just issue a recall. Just like they've done with the plastic piston issue in the Brembo master cyclinder - a good example of a brake issue impacting a number of different manufacturers and models. I don't wish to get all preachy, but ultimately it is the responsibility of the rider to ensure they work as part of your pre-ride checks.
What your saying regards maintenance Rainman I agree with, but that doesn't explain why on the Multi shit rear brakes are the norm from new, and why does it appear air seems to get into the front brake, which I repeat, are awesome when they are working correctly. There must be a design issue there somewhere. I have never had such problems, other than pad wear, with any of my other bikes regards air ingress or shit rear brake as standard.
Not going to get into a discussion on rear brake performance in this thread as it's not helpful to the OP and has absolutely nothing to do with maintenance or why the OP is experiencing an issue with his front brake. Happy to have that debate elsewhere though. With a combined 20,000 miles of Multistrada use over 2 years and 3 months in all weather I've never experienced air in my brakes, front or rear. Air can get into the system for a number of reasons - master cylinder seal, slave seals - all of which can perish. Defective hoses, defective fittings, to name a just a few. Use of contaminated, old or poor quality fluid can cause air to enter the system and is a classic symptom of an issue caused by maintenance by a less than diligent owner. Topping up fluid from a bottle of fluid which has had the seal broken and sat on the shelf in your garage for the last year will no doubt have moisture contamination and when under pressure will alter state and become air in the system. I could go on. I've only ever had to replace pads and they have otherwise performed faultlessly. I cannot find any fault with the brake system on either of the Multistrada's I've owned so far, and if I did I'd still struggle to point a finger at Ducati (since the solution isn't manufactured by them) or find another bike of similar mass and brake system that performs any different.
One of the OP's posts I was agreeing with @Rainman. I asked the OP if his brakes improved with pumping, this as you know could establish if he has air in his system or not, thus eliminating one possible source of the problem. Now if there is any other mechanical problem with his brakes, other than as you suggest as a possibility, contaminated fluid. I would say that on a bike that's just 2yrs old is definatly a Ducati problem, whether or not that part is outsourced. If Ducati use a part, made by them or not which fails to perform surely it's their problem.
OP here, going out on the bike Sunday so will try the pumping idea then, wound the toggle out a bit and it’s free enough to move with my fingers now so can try on the fly so to speak but disappointed there not better as standard. Had a GTR before for six years and apart from pads and changing the fluid twice myself I never had a brake issue, it weighed 15st more than the Multly and stopped heaps quicker. Got a DUC-EE they can fit while it’s in next thursday.
The need to pump the brakes doesn't only signify air in the system, it can also mean that the brake lines themselves have an issue. Pumping the brakes will either compress a contaminant in the fluid, be it air or anything else that is compressible, or take up any slack in the brake lines themselves if they've expanded over time - or both. Some manufacturers include the replacement of brake lines as part of the service schedule, although not for at least 4 years, but if you're going to replace them you're hardly going to put the OE stuff back on, but get a decent quality braided hose instead (where the OE hose isn't already steel braided). Where a two year old bike with a previous owner is concerned (don't know if the OP is the owner from new) there exists a high probability that they topped up the brake fluid at some point and you've no idea what they topped it up with. You've got no guarantees and the only way to ensure that the fluid in the system is good is to drain and refill with new, but even that doesn't guaranteed that the system is completely purged and you just have to bleed some more and hope. If you combine that with the possibility that a bike might have done a track day or two then the OE brake lines might have already had a hard life at just a couple of years old. Since the effort in completely purging the system is time consuming and also quite wasteful, then you might as well replace the brake lines too and be done with it. You can then just dump all the old fluid in just one go without wasting time on bleeding in the hope you've purged something and where it could equally turn out to be a hose issue instead. You'd then just be filling new hoses with new fluid, plus it would also be a good time to inspect seals on the master and slave cylinder, refresh some copper-slip where it's needed, etc. You quickly get to the point where a complete overhaul is the only thing you can be totally sure of solving all your issues, as the costs of parts isn't prohibitive, and the time to diagnose and cure is roughly the same as the time to replace and renew. I suppose it's the reason why so many motorcycle owners seem to routinely replace OE brake lines with higher quality aftermarket parts.
Don't be so sure of that. I've got an on going issue with OYB, Ducati UK, and getting the faulty valve sorted out on my 1800 mile 1260S. Admittedly it's arisen out of my insistence that Ducati are going to bare the cost of the DUC-EE, but what that has done has crystallised the situation around acceptable remedies for the issue where the bike has a warranty.
One of the most impressive things on my 2016 is the front brake, I expected the rear brake to be next to useless so have an ABM replacement on stand by from previous Ducati ownership but to be honest the front brake is so good I haven't bothered so you definitely have a problem, as someone else mentioned, if it improves by pumping the lever it's a bleeding issue, check on the Ducati website for the recall
An update on this thread, late I agree but an update. I did wind the brake adjuster thingy out and it made a great difference, so much so when I pull hard as I had to last Sunday the bike stops when you ask it to, now confidence is restored. Thanks.
