Interesting because the later bikes have a return spring on the lever that’s missing on the earlier bikes. I guess Ducati knew there was an issue and that was how they attempted to fix it. Just thinking aloud - I’ve not seen on any other bike forums these issues that seem to plague the 916 style rear brake. I wonder if there’s a knowledge base or yt video somewhere with a definitive problem solving flow to follow.
its 100% overheating, fluid expanding and bringing brake on, lot to do with the fact that hose/master etc needs a heatshield because its too close to the pipe, add a bit of brake drag/sticky pad or piston and hey presto.
The 916 is overall a great bike design however, the rear brake pedal setup is definitely not of the same calibre as the rest of it: using the same mount for the master cylinder bracket and the exhaust means the system already runs hot but it is a common problem when the rearsets have been swapped or someone has 'adjusted' the rear brake, leaving insufficient play in the pedal before it contacts the cylinder. Brake drags, pads get hot, fluid gets hotter and expands causing the brake to lock up after a few minutes. It happened to mine on the ride home from it's first service after the tech had 'adjusted' the freeplay on the brake pedal. Bike got gradually more sluggish until I ended up stuck, at a roundabout with the rear wheel locked up and the brake pads on fire. If it happens on a ride, you can fix (or at least get round) it by letting it cool and then removing the clip that connects the pedal to the master cylinder to stop it re-occurring, of course you'll have no rear brake if you do this but you can then ride it home or to a place of repair. What is amazing is that a rear brake that, is widely acknowledged to be (at best) poor and that under normal use can barely slow the bike is capable of fully locking the wheel...
Yep spring there on mine and functioning as designed. Rear caliper stripped and cleaned. When I was googling the issue it did come up as an issue on other Ducati models as well so I don't think it's limited to the 9xx series. All the years I've owned the bike this never happened before though so this may be different circumstances. It was sitting around for 8 years with limited us so that may be the cause for me. During the 14 years of regular use no issues with this. It's back to regular use again so hopefully wont happen again.
I didn’t have an issue after putting rearsets on, it was only after doing a trackday and I got home that I did make the mistake of adjusting the free play which started my issues. Since then I’ve put back all the free play, new caliper, different master cylinder, new pads, still binding. Even after putting the og rearsets back on. The disc wasn’t in great shape after all that so I’ve got a new disc and new sbs pads to go on this weekend. Hoping that will solve it once and for all.
New disc and pads are on. After 10 mins the disc was hot when I stopped for petrol, but not too hot to touch. I legged it home (another 5-10 mins), and touched it again, barely registered. The laser thermometer I took out with me said 35c on the disc and 44 on the caliper body. So it might be fixed but after a brew I'm going out again. One thing I did differently (thanks to @P1mao) was filled the fluid to the min line, instead of halfway. Though I completely forgot how bloody uncomfortable this bike is to ride. Before I got my Triumph Scrambler I think I was in complete denial (both about race bikes, and my age )
