When braking really goes bad
This bodge was a potential death-trap
When a Piaggio X10 maxi scooter came into Zenith’s workshops in east London with a
‘rear brake problem’ technician Bernie Roe thought it would be a straightforward fix. He was wrong.
The bike had braided brake lines, but all was not as it should have been. Bernie told us: “The rear master cylinder was dry, so
I decided to bleed it through. I was pumping it through manually, topping up the master cylinder, but all I was getting was cramp as no fluid was coming out of the back end. Then a colleague spotted an ocean of brake fluid dripping out from under the bike. “I started pulling the plastics off then and quickly found the problem. The replacement blingy brake line from the ABS motor to the rear brake wasn’t long enough, so someone had taken two lines, cut the banjos off one end of each of them and rejoined them with a short length of plastic that looked like a quill pen before bandaging it together with some gaffer tape.”
The owner denied responsibility when Bernie showed him the bodge, but said he’d got the OE line at home so he’d ‘sort it himself’. An hour later and he was back, complaining that he’d got no brakes at all. “I went through the system again and he’d had a go at all the banjo bolts on the ABS motor and front caliper. But he left them all finger tight and oozing fluid. I torqued the lot down to the correct measurement and it was all fine and dandy. “Luckily he dodged that bullet and all it cost him was two hours labour and a set of brake pads. Oh, and a couple of gallons of brake fluid!”