Rear Brake

[AncientAndy]

Is it my imagination or is the rear brake on the Vara p!ss poor?

Now, I am a noob with a new bike(ABS model) so I can only compare the Vara's brake with the ER6F from my DAS course. In comparison, the Vara's brake is total sh!t£. I accept the Vara is a lot heavier and takes much more stopping but my rear brake feels like a "fade" monster.

The rear has always been poor but I had put that down to the new pads having not yet bedded in properly. One month old, 1600+ miles, 800 of which were non-motorway, so I would expect the brake to have bedded in.

The front works well-ish, very progressive, but I am not sure that in the emerency stop situation, the Vara is going to impress.

Any thoughts gentlemen?

[Snaphappy]

I even took mine back to the dealer, I thought something was wrong, I had just washed my bike at the garage and as you would did a brake test I nearly stood on the pedal and still locking up the rear was a no no it stopped me sort of but really was piss poor.
The front however will stop you on a sixpence, myself and Panrider attended a rider awareness trackday held by our RAC. Slalom, Cone work, Cornering, emergency stopping and loads of other stuff, I asked the question about the CBS and come to the conclusion that there is no need to use the back and in fact in an emergency can be too much.
If 100% breaking is locked up wheels you should be looking at breaking to 80-90% in an emergency, the brakes are linked roughly 80/20 so if you use the front and break up the 90% mark and then use your back the front will reach 100% and you have an off.
Get used to breaking with only the front, I use a three fingers in the dry two in the wet and one if it's dodgy ground ie. ice.
Find a safe area and break hard repeatedly getting harder each time I've locked the front a few times as soon as you feel it judder release, the brakes are good if yours are still not giving you any confident feedback change them, I paid roughly €50 a pair for Lucas pads

SafeRidin'

[PHILinFRANCE]

Hi Andy / Snap
Great bit of info; SH, i thought it was just me with the back brake but after buying some new big hairy mother boots(MX) i found it was nigh on impossible to use the rear brake !!! no ankle bend!!!! (also had to move the gear shift up a couple of notches) Anyway i found i,m doing a very similar thing to yourself SH and it works for me have a go Andy like SH says and you,ll end up finding its OK just remember lots of little steps
Phil

[AncientAndy]

I even took mine back to the dealer, I thought something was wrong, I had just washed my bike at the garage and as you would did a brake test I nearly stood on the pedal and still locking up the rear was a no no it stopped me sort of but really was piss poor.
The front however will stop you on a sixpence, myself and Panrider attended a rider awareness trackday held by our RAC. Slalom, Cone work, Cornering, emergency stopping and loads of other stuff, I asked the question about the CBS and come to the conclusion that there is no need to use the back and in fact in an emergency can be too much.
If 100% breaking is locked up wheels you should be looking at breaking to 80-90% in an emergency, the brakes are linked roughly 80/20 so if you use the front and break up the 90% mark and then use your back the front will reach 100% and you have an off.
Get used to breaking with only the front, I use a three fingers in the dry two in the wet and one if it's dodgy ground ie. ice.
Find a safe area and break hard repeatedly getting harder each time I've locked the front a few times as soon as you feel it judder release, the brakes are good if yours are still not giving you any confident feedback change them, I paid roughly €50 a pair for Lucas pads

SafeRidin'

Thanks guys!!

The front is decent and I am sure it will do the trick should I ever need to pull it real hard. I am not a big braker, stemming from the days when I was taught acceleration sense and all that jargon. I tend to show a brake light and let the engine do the rest.

I was wondering whether I had almost glazed the pads into a false sense of security. So, yesterday I spent the day braking hard and late, just to burn some pad.

I will virtually ignore the back brake unless I really need them both.

Thanks for the reassurance that it is not this particular bike.



Andy

[marc lenssen]

Same here on a 2000 dero. I don't like the non working rear brake though since I used it a lot on my previous bike (1992 Africa twin) while driving through town and such, just tap the rear brake to slow the bike down a bit beofre turns and such. That way i did not really have to release the throttle, which on a V twin at low rpm results in quite some dive into the front forks..
I also thought that is was my particular bike and was all ready to replace the rear pads, guessing that the previous owner had oiled them or so....

marc

[saitek]

On my '99 Vara the rear brake's as good as and better than some other bikes I've had. Maybe they were all crap of course!

Perhaps the cbs is fooling you into thinking that it's not as good as it actually is, but mine's fine.

[StumpyFingers]

The Vara is an adventure bike and as such has Weak brakes compared to a sports bike, it is most Likely fine and just needs getting used to.

[marc lenssen]

My africa twin was an adventure bike and had much better rear brake. The brake on the dero just does not seem to do anything untill i really step on it, and then the front bit works. I will replace the rear pads and see if this helps...is I just firmly step on the rear brake pedal,....the bike hardly slows down....... I can not imagine this to be correct...

[AncientAndy]

My africa twin was an adventure bike and had much better rear brake. The brake on the dero just does not seem to do anything untill i really step on it, and then the front bit works. I will replace the rear pads and see if this helps...is I just firmly step on the rear brake pedal,....the bike hardly slows down....... I can not imagine this to be correct...

My boot is a size 49 and when I step on something it generally notices!

The Vara rear does very little regardless of how hard I step on it. The ER6F rear was so good I often forgot to use the front.... until my instructor squealed at me in my ear.... my, they boys were observant!

[marc lenssen]

Same here, mostly used the rear brake and hardly the front one. Rear to slow down a bit and engine break for all else..