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Rear brake service bulletin

dickie said:
I've an 09 Mille R & spent most of the afternoon trying to bleed my rear brake with the caliper suspended high, & the result after passing near a full litre bottle of fluid through is the brake has no pressue at all.
I can pump the pistons out but as soon as any bite pressure is needed there's no pressure to be felt - the lever just bottoms out.

Been an 09 should I assume it has the correct parts or do I need to bore out the 45 degree elbow on top of the master cylinder & reservoir outlet to 4.5mm & increase the hose? Must admit, it does look like the hole in the bottom of the reservoir is only 3mm.
Click to expand...

try bleeding with it up high with 2 different angles like this http://www.apriliaforum.com/forums/showthread.php?15500-Recurring-Clutch-and-Rear-Brake-Issues
 
Well I'm blown away!!!!!

Removed the MC to confirm reservoir & MC inlet are all 4.5mm & they are. Reassembled everything & with the rear caliper in place pushed a large syringe full of fluid through from the caliper nipple.
Removed the caliper, put in position one & pumped, 3 times nothing & then on the fourth came the fluid (first 3 must have been air), pumped some more & no air. Turned to position 2 & pumped fluid through with no air visible.
With a spanner between the pads I pumped the pedal to feel a nice solid pedal - and I' d only used 1.5 reservoirs of fluid!!
So I did it again to check it wasn't just luck - no air visible.
Quick test ride & rear wheel can be locked up if necessary.

THANKS!!!!!
 
HI, I've been having the usual rear brake problems on 2002 RSV, thought about changing the angle of the master cyl slightly so it wasn't so flat, but never got round to it, as it seemed to be a heat related problem, thought I'd try this brake fluid I spotted on the shelf of my mates workshop, its called Castrol SRF synthetic racing brake fluid and I've got to say its gone past the usual 100 mile no rear brake anymore point!
Its now about 600 miles and still no change in the rear brake, hope this helps someone, cheers Jon

(have a picture of bottle but how do you show pictures on here?)
 
I took my RSVR Factory to the Aprilia dealership in my area... I told them that my back brakes were terrible (non-working and soft) and needed to be bled. I told them about the TSB and to use DOT4. Of course they didn't listen haha.. I went to pick up the bike about 2 hrs later and the guy wasn't done. I dropped in the shop and saw an open DOT 5.1 brake fluid container. I said, "DOT 5.1?". The mechanic said... "Oh it's the same stuff." Then I said, well how did the brakes turn out. He said, "I used the Mighty Vac on them and I can't seem to get it to bleed." I said, "Did you see the TSB." He replied, "What TSB?" and then he said, "You need a new master cylinder." I immediately told him I'll try it on my own, paid, and took the bike home where I bled them manually like in the TSB procedure but without any special tools (other than a small metal plate I had lying around for between the pads). In 10 minutes the brakes were golden.

THANKS ALSO!!! but not the Aprilia Certified Mechanic lol.... I think I live too far from Italy or something... -Mike
 
f14tomcat said:
I took my RSVR Factory to the Aprilia dealership in my area... I told them that my back brakes were terrible (non-working and soft) and needed to be bled. I told them about the TSB and to use DOT4. Of course they didn't listen haha.. I went to pick up the bike about 2 hrs later and the guy wasn't done. I dropped in the shop and saw an open DOT 5.1 brake fluid container. I said, "DOT 5.1?". The mechanic said... "Oh it's the same stuff." Then I said, well how did the brakes turn out. He said, "I used the Mighty Vac on them and I can't seem to get it to bleed." I said, "Did you see the TSB." He replied, "What TSB?" and then he said, "You need a new master cylinder." I immediately told him I'll try it on my own, paid, and took the bike home where I bled them manually like in the TSB procedure but without any special tools (other than a small metal plate I had lying around for between the pads). In 10 minutes the brakes were golden.

THANKS ALSO!!! but not the Aprilia Certified Mechanic lol.... I think I live too far from Italy or something... -Mike
Click to expand...


He's right about DOT 5.1 being the same as DOT 4. The chemical make-up is the same, but 5.1 meets a higher specification in terms of performance. DOT 5.1 is actually DOT 4 fluid that exceeds the DOT 5 standards.

Rob :)
 
hi now done 1500 miles and no sign of change in rear brake since changing to that Castrol high temp fluid I was talking about, although I did find out it cost my mate 50 quid for a bottle, he kindly gave me a bikes worth! No other mods to rear brake either
 
I've had the rear brake bled, a brand new Brembo 13mm master cylinder put in and 300degree race brake fluid put in, and the brakes have still turned to ***** after about 100kms of riding. Just set up a weight to hang off the lever overnight, will report back if that helps things any. If that doesn't work, what are the thoughts on remounting the master cylinder vertically on some rearsets? I read in an article by Griff that that's all you need to do to fix it. Wondering if that or the Shiver M/C is the way to go... Any advice?
 
Rearsets.
Every time.
When you sell the bike you can ebay them and get 75% of your money back.
It's a no brainer.
 
I have been hanging a weight from the rear brake overnight and that fixes the problem, but I don't want to be doing that for the rest of my life if I Can avoid it. I want to fix the problem, not have a temporary solution. Does mounting the M/C vertically solve the issues for sure?
 
Ah awesome. Thankyou! I will post back how things go with the rearsets when the wife relents... Just got a bill for the carbon fiber I had made up, so may be a week or two hahaha
 
The only thing I did to fix mine apart from changing to the Castrol SRF is set the pedal free play greater than it should be at about 15mm up and down free play measured at the foot pedal. I'm sure this problem must be something to do with the cylinder being mounted flat, I was just about to remount the cylinder with a slight angle change to tip it, so it would self bled a bit better, but then discovered the admitted expensive fluid, so didn't have to. But its still got a perfect back brake after 1000+ miles.
 

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