Motorcycle Repair: Bleeding brakes, suzuki bandit 600, rear brake caliper

Question
Hi Chris

I have a suzuki bandit 600 and have just rebuilt my rear brake caliper. I placed it back on the bike and began the bleeding process. I can see the fluid coming out and it seems to be air free. However the brake pedal must me pressed all the way down and then you can only get minimal braking. I thought that the fluid would fill the calipers until they were stopped by the pads pressing onto the disk(this is not the case they are sitting pressed all the way in and pressing the pedal all the way down forces them out just a few mm).

Any help appreciated

Cheers

Amrik

Answer
Hi Amrik.
 Bleeding brakes is often a frustrating process, however the key is to insure that there are no high spots in the line where air will tend to be trapped (remember that air wants to go up and will trap itself at the highest point in the system that it can get to).  This defeats the bleeding process more often than not.
What you may want to do is to dismount the caliper and raise it up for a minute or two till the air filers up to the caliper, then remount it and bleed the system again.  

Keep the caliper positioned so that any air doesn't have a way to get back into the main line and place a thick (same thickness as the disk) between the pads and rebleed the system.

Good luck.
FALCON