brembo brakes

[Mezmo]

Anyone have some service info on these brakes installed on Gilroy Indians? Mine are acting up and I haven't worked on these before. Probelm comes and goes, most recently I had a front brake hang up on the expressway. Need some advice on working on these guys.

Mez

[adrian]

I don't know about your bike in particular, but Brembos are coveted in racing... they are top notch brakes. But that doesn't mean that they didn't bake up a stinker for your bike. Perhaps another member will have some better testimony for you. :o

[Mezmo]

I got working on those brakes yesterday, and found what I think was the problem. It seems i cannot pump any fluid out of master cylinder on handlebar. After draining reservoir and lines, refilled and then couldn't get to move fluid to bleed front brakes.
Anyone have experience working on Indian brake master cylinder, or know where to get rebuild kits for?

Mez

[V-Plus]

I got working on those brakes yesterday, and found what I think was the problem. It seems i cannot pump any fluid out of master cylinder on handlebar. After draining reservoir and lines, refilled and then couldn't get to move fluid to bleed front brakes.
Anyone have experience working on Indian brake master cylinder, or know where to get rebuild kits for?

Mez

The easiest solution to to open the bleeder (with the master full of fluid) and let gravity do it's job. Sometimes you need to get the master cylinder in a more level position...either loosen the riser clamp and rotate the bars, or pull the master off and try to hold it level while bleeding.

Here's a link to where you can download the shop manuals for free:
ww w . rollingthunderllc . com/?page=manuals (remove the spaces)

Another thing to check, the Brembo calipers on these bikes need to be centered over the rotor, this is accomplished using HARDENED washers (shims), you add or subtract as needed. This is VERY important and not to be overlooked (although that's quite easy to do if you don't know about it!)

The shop manual goes into detail on this procedure. Good luck

[Mezmo]

thanks for the info link. By the way I found a seal kit for master cylinder at Motorcycle Leslie. I plan on installing after going through some things on link you gave me.
Mez

[uplander]

Mezmo.....rebuild for now but replace! I had to rebuild mine twice before I gave up on it. Last time they were having problems down in Missouri and Arkansas and I said no way I going to have issues down here on these twisty turny roads and ordered a replacement from Drag specialties!

[Mezmo]

I'm not super thrilled with the brakes(master cylinder), maybe you could share what you did to yours?

Mez

[uplander]

Ordered a new master cylinder as I said from drag specialties. And when I replaced the pads I replaced them with lydall gold lplus pads.
they seem to grab a lot better. What they really need is a dual disc like the new '09s have! www.lyndallracingbrakes.com

[1953roadmaster]

Unfortunately, in our shop, we found that the Brembo brakes supplied on the Indians were for name only. They were much lower quality than most any Brembo product, and I believe that Brembo was importing them for Indian. We usually tried to retrofit PM brakes where we could.

[mjdart]

I've got the dual Brembos up front on my '09 so far they perform well, we'll se how they hold up.