[RammerJammer]

My front brakes on my 06 Speed Triple feel mushy and don't fully engage until the leaver is almost touching the throttle. First I flushed the fluid with 5.1. Then when that didn't change anything I replaced the pads with really good EBC sintered and still no change. Finally I rebuilt the master cylinder today with a factory rebuild kit and once again, nothing changed, it's still mushy and not fully engaging until the leaver is almost touching the throttle.

Does anyone have any ideas? I know I installed everything properly so that's not an option unfortunately.

Thanks

 

[Speedy-Glez]

you might need to change the pistons inside the brake calipers themselves. it was an issue with the early 1050 speed triple ... I acquired mine is 2014 and its an 05 ...the original owner mentioned a recall on this part back when he got it ... therefore I never felt the mushy brake feel. but it is a know issue with this early 1050. I am sure someone will chime in as well on how they solved their issue... But from my understanding the pistons need to be changed to the teflon coated ones that make the brake feel solid.

 

[Chewie.]

Speedy Glez is correct. The 05 and early 06 bikes had this issue. The pistons would get dirty and not slip freely through the seals, and after the brakes had been applied, the seals would pull the pistons back, away from the pads and then on the next application, most of the brake lever travel would be taken up moving the pistons forward toward the disk. I hope this makes some sense. Two temporary fixes can help. Pull out the pistons and clean them. This will help until they get dirty again. Another temporary fix that I used to do was to force the pistons right back into the calipers, pump up the brake lever and they would stay good for a week or two, but the problem would slowly return.

I know a couple of other riders who replaced their master cylinders with a Kawasaki ZX9 MC which had a larger piston diameter. This seemed to help also. I have an 04 speedy with a similar issue and I fixed it by fitting a radial MC off an 09 Speedy. Now the 04 brakes are almost as good as the Brembos on my 2010 model. The other benefit of fitting the radial MC is that it has a bleeding screw on the MC, which helps to ensure there is no air trapped in the system.

Triumph released a good will fix for those affected. Strangley it did not affect every bike but most owners had the issue. Triumph supplied a kit with ceramic coated pistons (same as used in the 675) and new seals, to be fitted by your dealer, free of charge. This fixed the problem and during the 06 model run switched to these pistons as OEM.

Firstly I would try pushing the pistons back into the calipers and then pumping them up to see if that gives some temporary relief. If it does then it will confirm that you have this issue.

 

[dr_gallup]

The problem is the pistons stick to the seals so you pull the lever and they move the pads out against the disk but when you release the lever the seals pull the pistons back in. The seals are supposed to retract the pistons just enough to keep the pads from dragging but let the pistons move out to compensate for pad wear. When they stick you get a long lever. It's not helped by the fact that Triumph used a relatively small master cylinder that does not pump a lot of fluid. Just cleaning the pistons and seals can get them working better. Pull the calipers off the bike, remove the pads and pump the pistons out a ways and clean them up and put everything back together and bleed them.

Many people replace the master cylinder with one with a bigger diameter piston to pump more fluid and / or replace the calipers with various ones off popular Japanese models but it's not really necessary. These brakes when working properly are very powerful and road tests in the day reported very short stopping distances.

 

[sprinklerhead]

Yup, sticky seals in the calipers. I fought with my local dealership to get them to even acknowledge that it was a problem on my 05, but they kept telling me that the lever hitting the bar was normal. Swapped out the front brakes with a Brembo RC19 master cylinder and Honda 1000RR monoblock calipers and haven’t had a problem since.

 

[RammerJammer]

Thank you!

 

[limeex2]

The bike is 13 years old and MUST have the calipers rebuilt. Disassemble, remove pistons and clean up by gently removing brake dust and corrosion with a red scotch bright pad on a hard surface. Do not rub in one area, move piston around. Remove seals. Area behind seals will be full of corrosion and corrosion must be removed. The corrosion behind and on the seal is what is causing the pistons to stick. I use a Dremmel tool with a stainless steel wheel/brush. Once again, be gentle, you are using a s/s brush on aluminum. When caliper is meticulously clean, using only OEM seals VERY sparingly coat entire seal and pistons with PTFE silicon brake grease (I got mine from a Volvo dealer)

This is the method I learned on the ZRX1200 Forum. I have 3 old GS Suzuki's(with modern calipers), 2 Triumph's and a ZRX all with steel lines and EBC HH pads. All bikes are 2 finger braking and are as good as you can get without going radial. I dont know who makes the calipers for the new Triumph's but my Speed Triple and Sprint are Nissin and OEM quality seals can be obtained from Suzuki for less $$$. The ZRX guys use 1/2 m/c's vs 5/8 for a better feel. Its been argued as much as a oil thread but there is written proof by minds better than most of us to prove the point (Pascals Law). When you are done bleeding brakes and they feel nice and firm, pump them up and tape or zip-tie the brake lever as tight as you can and leave like this overnight.

 

[AA]

The bike is 13 years old and MUST have the calipers rebuilt. Disassemble, remove pistons and clean up by gently removing brake dust and corrosion with a red scotch bright pad on a hard surface. Do not rub in one area, move piston around. Remove seals. Area behind seals will be full of corrosion and corrosion must be removed. The corrosion behind and on the seal is what is causing the pistons to stick. I use a Dremmel tool with a stainless steel wheel/brush. Once again, be gentle, you are using a s/s brush on aluminum. When caliper is meticulously clean, using only OEM seals VERY sparingly coat entire seal and pistons with PTFE silicon brake grease (I got mine from a Volvo dealer)

This is the method I learned on the ZRX1200 Forum. I have 3 old GS Suzuki's(with modern calipers), 2 Triumph's and a ZRX all with steel lines and EBC HH pads. All bikes are 2 finger braking and are as good as you can get without going radial. I dont know who makes the calipers for the new Triumph's but my Speed Triple and Sprint are Nissin and OEM quality seals can be obtained from Suzuki for less $$$. The ZRX guys use 1/2 m/c's vs 5/8 for a better feel. Its been argued as much as a oil thread but there is written proof by minds better than most of us to prove the point (Pascals Law). When you are done bleeding brakes and they feel nice and firm, pump them up and tape or zip-tie the brake lever as tight as you can and leave like this overnight.

What wheel/rotor/calliper combo on what GS models?
I’m getting ready to put my GS1000st back on the road and she needs a full brake rebuild but I’m not sure whether to change the wheels.
I’ll be sports touring her again not racing.

 

[Scottdog]

My front brakes on my 06 Speed Triple feel mushy and don't fully engage until the leaver is almost touching the throttle. First I flushed the fluid with 5.1. Then when that didn't change anything I replaced the pads with really good EBC sintered and still no change. Finally I rebuilt the master cylinder today with a factory rebuild kit and once again, nothing changed, it's still mushy and not fully engaging until the leaver is almost touching the throttle.

Does anyone have any ideas? I know I installed everything properly so that's not an option unfortunately.

Thanks

Had the same issue with my 05 speedy, after searching this site opted to go with the R1/R6 caliper, there are other option but I found some on ebay at the right money. I also changed the master cylinder for the yam R1/R6 brembo. Not had any further problems.

 

[RammerJammer]

I ended up replacing the calipers with a used pair off of a 2010 Triumph Tiger. Those, coupled with the 600 fluid make these brakes amazing now.