A couple weeks ago when out riding I grabbed the front brake level and there was zero pressure, squezed it a couple times and it pumped right back to normal. Checked it out and no leaks anywhere. Today it did the same same thing several times, always when I hadn't used them for awhile. Air in the line maybe? need to bleed them?

It's kinda scary when you grab the brake and the lever goes all the way to the bars with no braking.

 

Jay,

The master cylinder may be bad, it's could be allowign the fluid back past the whatcamacallit to have the brakes work. You'll need to have it rebuilt or a new one. Is it under warrenty?

Smitty

 

It's under warranty, just got it in late January. Problem is the 2 1/2 hour drive to the closest dealer. Any way to check the master cylinder? If I knew that was the problem I may just get the dealer or Cannondale to send me the parts and replace it myself. I just hate the idea of 5 hour drive to drop it off and then a second trip to pick it up when I could probably replace it myself in an hour.

 

Did you down load the parts number and diagrams off of Cannondale web site. IF not let me know and I'll look up the part numbers for you.

I don' know of a way to check if that's the problem, Knowsalot may. When that happens on my cars I change the Master Cylinder and it's fixed.


Are you buddies with the parts department. Maybe they could send you the new one and you send the bad one back?

Smitty

 

I've had the same problem twice. Once w/ the Dale when I had the parking break set for 2 days (it was sitting in the back of my truck) and when i released it, unloaded it, I road it for a while and when I pulled in the lever, it had no presure, and when I pulled it in the second time, I did a unexpected nose wheelie. The second time (which was actually the first time) was when I had my 300ex and I flipped the front wheels around and just bought some new shocks. I went down this trail behind my house because it had a pretty good jump goin off the side of a creek and the rest of the trail is a little tight. I hit the jump and when I started slowing down, I took a corner and since the 300 was wider than I was used to, I hit a tree w/ my right front tire. It wasn't bad, and when I backed up, I started riding the rest of teh trail and pulled in my front brake and it also had no pressure... pulled it in again and it slowed me down just fine.

 

I would try bleeding the brakes first, I bought a pump from AutoZone, O'Reilly's sells them also for $16. They make bleeding the brakes a breeze, you may just have air in the line.