How many miles on the bike? The maintenance schedule calls for rebuilding the brake system at 25,000 miles. However, I believe and several others I have discussed this with concur, that is just because HD only prints maintenance schedule up to 25,000 miles, and then says......repeat.

I've never rebuilt my brakes, at 80,000 miles they are working just fine.

First check the little vacuum type top on the brake fluid reservoir. Also check the gasket there for any leaks.

I would replace the brake fluid, but that's not likely your problem here.

 

there is 10,000 on the bike..
I will check that out,,

 

yessir , if you are a incompetent mechanic, and have a loose wheel (or bearings) the rotor can knock the pads back in ..wheel/rotor flex due to sorry setup, or cheap parts

however if you have every thing correct , will not happen.
sorry for the crashes...were you the setup man ???..
yeah I am just a noob....
dont ask me to tune up my offroad vehicles

 

heybaylor, you should not make posts like this, people may think you are retarded or smoking wrong stuff.
So Casey Stoner had cheap parts on his prototype Honda when he went off track in Japan. Sure.

 

I think it would be more helpful...like this forum used to be, if we focused on helping solve this guy's brake problem.

 

On that topic, the only thing I can think of that would cause excessive lever play in the brake is air in the system or a malfunctioning piston like I said earlier.

If it is air, it will feel mushy or spongy. Just a little air might cause some play, but it would be progressive. Like, you would start to squeeze and it would be easy with it eventually tightening up except closer to the bars than it should be.

If it is just no brake power at all, and all the sudden it connects, as if someone just adjusted the lever to actuate closer to the bars, then it's most likely the piston assembly.

 

Ok. 10,000 miles on a 10 year old bike. So, that means a lot of sitting with no riding. Humm....which are the most likely areas in the Sporty brake system are most prone to sticking up due to lack of use?

It's possible that the sliding pins are just dirty. Really need to know about the brake fluid level dude!!

If it's just the sliding pins...that is a pretty easy fix.

 

I bought my 2002 with 7200miles on it. The brake pads were **** at 10000miles. Turns out that the brake pistons (the part that pushes the pad against the disc) were so dirty and corroded that they were stuck out and wore out the brake pad slowly but surely.

Ended up doing full rebuilds on both front and rear calipers. Took them apart and cleaned/polished the pistons and flushed the whole system. The brake fluid was yellow/cream (supposed to be a clear purple) and it was dirty as hell.

How much you wanna bet the same thing is going on here?

 

Scuba, that could be the case. Bikes don't do well when they just sit around in a garage...or worse, outside.

 

I would bet with you ..MY Fatboy sat about 5 years , with 600 miles on it .
the front brake was spongey, would go to grip and not lock up.

the pistons in the caliper were stuck/binding ..
popped the caliper pistons out , cleaned re-filled the dot 5 , and viola !!
hard brake lever, can skid the front wheel (if I want to)..
and have yet to have a "hard bump" knock the pads away from the disc