The Essentials of Effective Braking

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From Mal a past director of the club

An aspect I would like to share with other club members is about a problem I had recently with my 2008 Softail Custom.

I started out on a club ride however I had only got a block or two down the road from the BP when I noticed my back brake feeling a bit funny. I gave the pedal a couple of pumps only to find to my amazement that the pedal went all the way.
Now I have no rear brakes at all. I peeled off from the ride and gingerly rode straight home where I got on the ground to investigate what the problem was. I pumped the pedal a couple of times before I noticed a stream of fluid coming from the brake light pressure switch.
It turns out that the pressure switch had failed completely.
This came as a surprise but in my limited experience I have never seen them fall apart so I got straight onto the net where I discovered that this problem is not new. There is a recall announcement for some model bikes manufactured from 2009 onwards. You would need to check this out for yourself to see if any of this applies to your own bike.

However the point I am trying to make here is that you need to check your rear brake light more frequently. In my case I knew that the rear brake light was not working and thought it could wait until my next service. That was the wrong thing to do. When the switch first fails get it replaced.

The brake light not working is the first sign of bigger problems ahead.

The end result was that I bought a new up-graded pressure switch for under $30. Fixed it on the bike bled up the brakes and all is well now.

I just thought this story may be of interest to all as I was lucky that it happened where it did and not down some range somewhere while being a little aggressive on the road. I might have ended up scratching the paint work or worse scratching the wife on the back.

Hope to see you all on the road soon.
Mal