I would be interested to know if anyone else out there is not happy with the feel of the front brake lever or have had any issue with the front brakes, I picked up my new V4S in August & within the first couple miles I wasn't happy with the amount of travel & feel of the front brake lever bordering on spongey, the pads felt a bit wooden for the first few hundred miles & when bedded in had plenty of bite, having now done 700 miles & the bike has had its first service I can still pull the lever back to the bars without much effort, I tried the front brake lever on a few V4's in the dealers & they all felt better than mine, the dealership has looked at it & told me everything is ok, yet i can pump mine to get a solid lever. Having owned several multi's previous to the V4 they have all had a solid feel to the lever.
Try adjusting the lever. I adjusted mine to closest to the bars last night and it doesn’t feel anything like the same. Much softer etc.
1,300 miles on my V4S so far and no problems. IMO the brakes on the V4 feel better than those on the 1260. The lever is set at mid point and two finger braking is excellent, maybe due to my hand size?
Some modern abs systems are fairly tricky to bleed. Get a pressure bleeder on it and give it a good going over
BTW, I wouldn't go for the "use a cable tie to hold the brake lever in over night" technique. I believe it can give the impression of having improved the feel, but I think that is down to the extra pressure having resulted in trapped air bubbles dissolving, or partially dissolving. The trouble is that it's a short term fix because the air can come back out of the fluid when the pressure is back to normal, and it isn't all going to reappear conveniently at the top of the master cylinder reservoir. That's my take on it anyway.
If you can pull the brake lever back to the grip then there is a problem. If you pump a few times and the lever comes up tighter then that is a master cylinder problem. Both are unacceptable and would not pass a safety inspection
It would have passed it's PDI, I'm assuming it has gotten worse over time or you would have returned this earlier? Have Ducati sorted the rear brake on the V4? A long time ago when I had a 1200 multi I was bleeding the rear brake every 1000 miles, that was a PITA having to remove the rear caliper and raise it up to bleed due to the routing of the brake pipe.
I rode it away from the dealer with it feeling spongey, when it went in for its first service still feels the same, the dealer has finally conceded it isn't right but can't look at it for a couple of weeks, deep joy.
My Rear brake was sorted between 1200 & 1260. Admittedly I also have a decat on the 1260 so less heat build up, but no braking issues.
Most bikes, in fact all I think, I have had I can pull to the bar in a normal span reach lever position. Multi, BMW’s, Panigale, Monster, GSXR all with radial brakes. Only time I couldn’t was on an old race bike with non-radial calipers and fireblade (coffin type reservoir) and that was done for power over feel
