Front Braking Unevenness And Judder

I'm getting uneven braking, as in one side is doing nothing.

As far as the judder goes, I noticed that it only seems to happen when the brakes have been used a bit, mostly in traffic, today I thought I'd check to see what temperature the brake disks were after a ride from town, the right side was stone cold and the other nearly burnt my hand.

As to the judder, I'm guessing that would be from the slight warping of the over worked left disc but I'm not sure what the cause of the dead right brake is.

There doesn't appear to be any binding on the left as the wheel spins freely, so the heat is purely from braking. No leaks at the right side caliper either, pipes seem straight.

I've sent an email to my dealer so I can get it to them sooner rather than later but for now, I have to use it for work.

It's been like this for over a month now and I only just thought to check the disc temps. :rolleyes:  For that, I'll accept I may need to cough for a new disc and pads for the left before time.

I've not had many twin disc bikes so I'm not familiar with this problem.

Any ideas?

Cheers.

First thing I would suggest is to check your brake pistons, especially if you've been riding through winter, as both me and another UK all-weather rider have had chipping/pitting in the pistons (detailed here). It might be that there's pitting preventing the pistons from moving properly?

Possibly air in one caliper? 

Fair enough, was used every day throughout winter, will look at that. Thanks for the replies.

Just read the linked post, looks like I may have a challenge on my hands with my dealer. See how it goes.

If you have a completely non-usable caliper due to a broken piston and you've used the bike normally during one year, I think Honda have a problem. IMHO it acctually sounds a bit unlikely.

I would take the caliper off on the non-working side and squeeze the brake lever gently, to see if the pistons move. (Careful! Not too much. You don't want them to pop out.) Give the whole thing an inspection, clean the pistons and maybe put some silicone grease on them before pushing them back.

If they move as they should and look ok it is possible that you have got oil or grease on the brake disc for some reason. That would explain the low friction (no heat when breaking) as well as the judder. If so, throw away all brake pads (ie. both sides), Clean both discs thoroughly with alcohol and put new pads in.

In the end the dealer sorted mine although was a bit grumpy. Interestingly I spitted the damage as one day the brake felt like it was binding briefly and had the hot/cold thing (though no warping). I took the calipers off to clean them. One pad was stuck in the caliper (the cold side) and not moving. The pistons were knbackered all round

Unfortunately I don't have anywhere suitable to work on the bike to that level, I also am constantly tight for time, today for instance I'm doing 0500 to 2345 in the city. I have however booked the bike in for next Saturday. See what they make of it. Thanks for the help, I'll report back in a couple of weeks.

Bike's gone in, front brake pistons are pitted, they'll be replaced under warranty. Good old 1st line :)

Why are all these pitting problems showing up in the UK? The UK bikes must have had an earlier batch of bad calipers. Checked mine after 5K miles when I changed tire, no problems.