Due to the lack of a garage I am parking my 2012 Superglide in a 5'X8' enclosed motorcycle trailer. The trailer has a forward vent on one side of the trailer and a rear mounted vent on the other side. At this point no vent in the roof, but I plan on adding one in the very near future. What I have noticed the past couple of days, when the temps have been hovering around 90, is that the front brake lever will go all the way to the handgrip the first few times I squeeze it. It does build up the proper pressure after a few strokes, but I'm wondering if anyone else has ever experienced anything like this. The bike has just over 1000 miles, and the braking is fine when riding. Does anyone think there may be air in the brake line and it needs bleeding, or is it just due to the high temps in the trailer somehow affecting the brake fluid?

 

hows the fluid level? if its ok, then bleed brake....HTH

 

Fluid level is good. I'm thinking it needs bleeding too, but never had a problem until it got hot here.

 

I cant remember if HD uses DOT 4 or 5 but the Silicone-based DOT 5 brake fluids boiling point is as high as 700° or more, which is about 200° higher than glycol ether-based DOT 3 fluid. The heat in the trailer wouldnt be a factor.

 

That trailer would have to be melting in order to affect the brake fluid. I would suggest do a really good bleed on it. If that doesn't fix it then look at things like brake lines that are bubbled/bulging under pressure.

If you're going to put a roof vent in the trailer, consider adding a solar powered fan in the roof vent. They're not expensive. I'd be more concerned with build up of humidity inside the trailer than the heat. As the inside of the trailer heats up and cools it creates humidity, and sometimes actual condensation. That's not good.

This is just an example, not necessarily at recommendation for the company.
http://www.roofvents.com/products.php?cat=38

 

sure you dont have a bent rotor, maybe from loading..that would push the fluid out of the caliper, then you would have to pump the lever up to fill it back up.. any problems with the rear brake?

 

Front rotor looks ok, and no pulsing etc. when using the front brake. Except for the initial lack of pressure when unloading from the trailer, brakes work fine. I'm going to get some DOT 4 and bleed the front using my MityVac bleeder. It makes short work of bleeding the brakes. Didn't expect to have to do this on a new bike with just over 1000 miles on it.

 

Um...you did say its a 2012 right.....have you thought about bringing it into the dealer and have them figure it out...something certainly doesnt sound right there.

 

So, I checked that both the banjo bolts were tight (they were), and I bled the front brake with the Mityvac. I ran about 1/2 a quart of Dot 4 through the system to flush it really well. The old fluid (1000 miles) was grey and had grey particles floating around in it. At one point, I ran the fluid really low in the resevoir and cleaned out the grey particles the best I could. I've seen old fluid look brown before, but never anything like this. After bleeding the system, I now have very good pressure at the front brake lever, and the front brake is working fine. I'll see how it is after it sets in the trailer for a day or two. Thanks for all of the advice

 

The bike is going to the dealer next Tuesday for the 1000 mile checkup. I'll mention to them that I had an issue with the lever pressure so there will be a record of it in case it happens again, but I think bleeding out the crappy fluid probably cured the problem