Yeah, if he pushed the pads apart to clear the rotors from the calipers, it will take a 'pump up' to put the pads back in place. But you should only have to do it once.

 

Yeah, the brakes came back a little but its not like it was before the tire change.

 

can you see this bend he speaks of? Jack the bike up, and spin the tire, and give
it a good look. If it's that bent, you should be able to see it.

 

i think he bent the rotor changing the tire, its pretty easy to do ask me how i know, if you pump it up sitting still and it gets tight then roll the bike forward or backward a revolution of the tires and you loose pressure then its surely a bent rotor

 

same thing happened to me a ways back. my front brake lever would go all the way down. i had just bled the brakes and thought i got air in the lines. finally took the tire wheel off, put it on a run out machine and could see the rotor was bent. He's right - you do have a bad rotor. He's the one who made it a bad rotor on his machine. he aint paying for it so you might as well start shopping.

 

I bent mine, while "helping" a friend change my tires. Trust me - it's not that hard to do. IMHO, if it's bent, you're not straightening it.

I used it as an excuse, to go get some polished rotors. They weren't that much more cash, on top of the high price that HD charges for stock rotors.

 

FYI - the bent rotor is probably pushing the caliper in too far. That's why the brakes seem to require more pumping - the calipers are trying to catch up.

 

I straightened two bent rotors on the bike with a dead blow hammer and a wood 2X2 about ten years ago and never had any problems with them in 45K miles and two sets of pads. I eyeballed them and could not tell but put a dial indicator on them anyway and they were fine. It was so easy it surprised me. It's worth a try.

 

Atleast someone was listining. Done this on my bike and quiet a few dirt bikes. What have you got to loose.

 

Exactly. I bent mine while changing my tire. I know what I did wrong. He did something wrong.

The bent rotor keeps pushing the pistons back in the caliper. If you pump the lever a couple of times, the pads will come out but not stay. Changed my rotor and all was good.