MR BRIDGES
THE BRAKES’RE SEIZED – CONJURES UP IMAGES OF VEHICLES THAT’RE COMPLETELY IMMOBILE, AND HAVE TO BE DRAGGED ABOUT THE PLACE…
THE GURU IMPARTS MORE OF HIS KNOWLEDGE OF MECHANICS
ITalso explains the presence of the ‘Brake Hammer’ in my workshop. This’s a big rubber mallet that’ll normally temporarily free off reluctant brakes if they’re not locking the wheel completely, but are making the motorcycle hard to push. I’m long past the point in life where I have any appreciation for an honest day’s toil, and generally favour keeping said toil to a minimum, but if the brakes’re dragging then they’re at least partially seized, and the benefits (?!) of this include, but’re not limited to, accelerated pad wear, accelerated disc wear, increased fuel consumption, and being slow. When I was building the black GSX600 the rear caliper was so corroded that I couldn’t get the original one apart. The second one came off of a parts bike (with seized brakes), and that one had heavily corroded pistons. The third one came off eBay and, believe it or not, was seized. Luckily, it came apart without much trouble, the pistons were reusable, and a caliper rebuild kit made everything lovely again. You can imagine my amusement, then, when I was hitting Matty’s GS500 with a spanner in an attempt to knock what appears to be the best part of a decade’s neglect off it, and discovered that the rear brake was dragging. The GS500 uses the same