Rear Brakes

[jwkhd1]

The rear brakes on my 2015 TriGlide are terrible! They have not been satisfactory since day one . I can put all 280 lbs on the rear pedal and the best I get is a weak slowing. Never been able to lock them. I thought the pads might have been glazed from a couple of times taking off with parking brake on. Changed front and rear to EBC semi sintered pads. No real improvement. Rotors were very shiny so I took them off and used a disc hone on them. Not much better. Before I honed them I took it to the dealer. They told me the rear master cylinder recall was performed before I bought the Trike in June of 2015 . They said the master cylinder was fine and I should replace the rotors (at a cost of 194 ea.) I have not changed the brake fluid yet . I only have about 4500 miles on it. Any ideas?

Wayne

 

[rhino 2]

The rear brakes on my 2015 TriGlide are terrible! They have not been satisfactory since day one . I can put all 280 lbs on the rear pedal and the best I get is a weak slowing. Never been able to lock them. I thought the pads might have been glazed from a couple of times taking off with parking brake on. Changed front and rear to EBC semi sintered pads. No real improvement. Rotors were very shiny so I took them off and used a disc hone on them. Not much better. Before I honed them I took it to the dealer. They told me the rear master cylinder recall was performed before I bought the Trike in June of 2015 . They said the master cylinder was fine and I should replace the rotors (at a cost of 194 ea.) I have not changed the brake fluid yet . I only have about 4500 miles on it. Any ideas?

Wayne

I always used both the front and rear brakes simultaneously if l have to stop 'Like NOW!! and then I can and have locked all 3 wheels in a panic stop' 70% of your stopping power is in the front brakes '. The rears will just scrub off speed.I agree with you that it isn't right but that's way Harley designed it .

 

[mirider]

Found out by accident when I first got my TG that my rear brakes will lock up with a forceful effort on the pedal. :shok: Not sure if there's an adjustment.

 

[1dn5up]

Tri's come stock with piss-poor rear brakes. You can try all sorts of pad compounds ,rotors, etc. Like Bob said; gota use both front and rear, then no problem.

 

[DK Custom Products]

I think it is the luck of the draw....I had an '11 and had no problem locking up the rear tires. On my '14 it's even easier.

I did a test on my '14 a few months back...posted the results in the thread below-

http://www.triketalk.com/forum/threads/38790-How-well-do-your-rear-brakes-work?highlight=Rear+Brakes

That said, I primarily use my front brakes.

Kevin

 

[graygoat]

I hit the rear brakes first and then apply the front with as much pressure as needed. So far, this as worked for me.

 

[mirider]

I think it is the luck of the draw....I had an '11 and had no problem locking up the rear tires. On my '14 it's even easier.

I did a test on my '14 a few months back...posted the results in the thread below-

http://www.triketalk.com/forum/threads/38790-How-well-do-your-rear-brakes-work?highlight=Rear+Brakes

That said, I primarily use my front brakes.

Kevin

Must be the year, mine's a 14 too and as I said earlier......I can lock up the rear brakes. ThumbUp

 

[arnie]

I had an 11,14 & now a 16 tri glide & the brakes front & rear were very good.

 

[rhino 2]

Least some newbie to the wild and wacky world of Bikes/Trikes Reading about locking up brakes the truth is...........

Locking up the rear brakes is never a good idea...

Just saying....:Shrug:

 

[hddocfl]

My 2017 suck also,

 

[Jack Klarich]

Found out by accident when I first got my TG that my rear brakes will lock up with a forceful effort on the pedal. :shok: Not sure if there's an adjustment.

Kind of sort of:

Piss poor set up, U have to [ ACCORDING TO THE Moco] KEEP THE PARKING BRAKE ADJUSTED to 3 -4 clicks. This moves the actuator screw to move the pads closer, poor @ best, Better set up on cars with rear disc brakes JMO { I taught brake class} for over 25 years, it was part of my job

 

[Jack Klarich]

		View image in actual size.
Open image in own window.​	View image in 100% of available space.​

BRAKE - PARKING

Look @ number 29, this is ur adjustment point

 

[GARYD]

I very rarely use the rear brake. 95% of the time I use the front brakes. It took a while to train myself to do that and now it's second nature. The same as using the heel shifter 95% on that too.

Don't want to mess up my "spit shined" boots. LOL

 

[ScottUSN]

I have 35K+ on my '15 Triglide and still have the original set of brake shoes, front and rear. The brakes are a big improvement on the '09 I had. By the time I reached 20K on the '09, I was on 3rd set of rear brake pads and second set of rear rotors.

LWKHD1, I would push hard for the dealership to find out what the real problem is; or lemon law the thing. It's not the design; the Rushmore Triglides have decent brakes. On the '15, I can lock up the rears with a hard push of the pedal. And with proper use of the front/rear combination, the ride comes to a halt really well.

Scott Smith

 

[Firewrench22]

If you keep the parking brake adjustment up tight so it works, the pads don't really back off from the discs all that much. Wear suffers. I don't really use the parking brake and have let the adjustment go. The rear pads seem to last much longer now. And my rears work pretty good.

I wonder if you have the parking brake adjusted so it works, maybe the pads get hot from "incidental contact" and that's why they don't work so good. Never felt them when I hopped off the trike, or measured the temp.

I tried the Lyndall Gold pads on the rear, pretty quiet and like I said, stop good, and not too much dust. I'll get them for the front when it's time for pads again.

I use both brakes pretty much all the time, so that way, I'm in the habit of using both if I really need to stop in a hurry, I won't have to think about it.

 

[Mykneesbehurtin]

The rear brakes on my 17 work great,I can haul it down very quickly.

 

[Jack Klarich]

The part about the pads wearing faster and not enough running clearance when the adjustment is made NEEDS to be addressed by Harley, IMO the manufacturer of the calipers BOO BOOED big time. The calipers do need to run the pads with very little clearance { older drum brakes had residual pressure} built in to the hydraulic system via a metering valve, my guess is HD got this wrong and the DOT should step in, JMO

The Lyndall pads are WAY better than any pads I have used, BUT IMO they will suffer also if the parking brake issue is NOT addressed, JMO and I cannot find any listing for different brakes being used on Tri Glides or Freewheelers, only older TC early first generation trikes. If any one has a link can y'all post it. Thanks

 

[Sidecarbill]

I wonder why harley just doen't go to an electric e-brake. New cars have them they're right in the caliper and work well. Nice part all it needs is a switch.

 

[mirider]

I wonder why harley just doen't go to an electric e-brake. New cars have them they're right in the caliper and work well. Nice part all it needs is a switch.

Please don't give them a reason to raise the price further......

 

[HDB0B]

Please remember that 2014+ have linked brakes .... braking with the rears also does 2 pistons on each side of the front calipers. Front brake does the other 4 on each side. Locking up the rears is also applying front braking at the same time. Pre 2014 do have a poorly designed parking brake. 2014+ is pretty easy to keep the parking brake adjusted. The cable does get a lot of stretch in it as well when new.

Thanks for the info .... I will now pay more attention to keeping the parking brake adjusted to hold on the 4th click down.

Bob orag:

 

[Jack Klarich]

I wonder why harley just doen't go to an electric e-brake. New cars have them they're right in the caliper and work well. Nice part all it needs is a switch.

IMO more electrical issues and problems too riders in rain, snow and salt

Ford and GM plus some foreign builders decided to use a small internal{ under the hat area of the rear rotors} drum brake shoe set for parking brakes. This IMO was a cheap FAILED design. It almost always led to crumbled shoes and broken hardware in side the rotor. My best guess is from the internal heat and corrosion, What I hated was changing the shoes, pretty hard job even with the right tools { there were NO right tools, we winged it with LOS of foul words} JMO bad JU JU They may never get this 1 right, too much R and D involved, someone will lose their life, Lets hope not

I cant help the doom and gloom, sorry

 

[DK Custom Products]

Least some newbie to the wild and wacky world of Bikes/Trikes Reading about locking up brakes the truth is...........

Locking up the rear brakes is never a good idea...

Just saying....:Shrug:

True that....I was just doing a test on a road that had no traffic. I would not recommend ever locking up the rear tires. You get the most stopping power when your tires are right before the point of losing traction.

Kevin

 

[Sidecarbill]

Jack what I had in mind was the vw style, the motors piggyback on the caliper. Simple design compact and uses the existing brake pads. As far as corrosion shouldn't be any worse than a car.

 

[MB1953]

I found out by accident how little effort it took to lock up the rears on my '14, and my '17 stops just as quickly! First time I did it, I was looking in my mirrors to see who was behind me in a cage locking their brakes... then I realized it was me squealing the tires! :blush: Enough to require a shorts change!

 

[Jack Klarich]

Jack what I had in mind was the vw style, the motors piggyback on the caliper. Simple design compact and uses the existing brake pads. As far as corrosion shouldn't be any worse than a car.

I remember them, We could not find a good source for the parts, Ohio Caliper was our supplier, We had TOO many problems with them. The dealers had us handcuffed, we had to pass this on to our customers. It is a good but hard to work om brake IMO