The Front Brakes Don’t Work on My Motorcycle

I just dealt with this issue on my Yamaha Virago XV250 or V Star 250. The motorcycle’s front brakes weren’t working after I replaced the brake pads. 

The bike had been sitting for a few years, but the front brakes had worked before I started tinkering. The pads were worn down and the brake fluid was dark and old. 

So I went ahead and replaced both.

Brake fluid is corrosive so I highly recommend wearing gloves and having rags and paper towels on hand. Be sure to cover the painted areas of your motorcycle. And quickly wipe up any drops.

Symptoms of Bad Front Brakes

You squeeze the brake lever to the handlebar and nothing happens. If the motorcycle were moving, the brake pads aren’t applying any pressure on the rotor.

There are a couple possible issues but the solutions are fairly simple once you recognize the cause.

Front Brakes Don’t Work Solutions

In my experience, there are 5 likely causes or a combination of any of these. Let’s start with the simplest to most difficult to solve. 

Worn Out Brake Pads

You will need to inspect the brake pads to identify this issue. 

With the brake caliper on the motorcycle, loosen the nut that connects the caliper to the support bracket. The support bracket is the piece where the shims sit and hold the brake pads.

If the material of the brake pads are low, I recommend replacing the two brake pads. 

I have had great luck buying these brake pads from CalTric. 

Poor Brake Line Travel

The issue here is the flow of the brake line. 

You want to look over your brake line and make sure there aren’t any kinks anywhere. It’s also best if the brake line travels down directly toward the brake caliper. 

This issue can be solved by straightening the line, shortening the line, or redirecting the line to travel downward to the brake caliper. 

I replaced the stock 120 cm brake lines on my Virago XV250 with these 90 cm red brake line. I shortened the brake line after swapping in these tracker handlebars.

Air In The Brake Line

This is the most common issue when your front brakes don’t move or do anything.

Knowing the right method to solve the problem is the key. The rabbit hole of Reddit and YouTube was of little help until I found this video.

The simple steps to remove the air in the brake line are:

1. Put on gloves
2. Level your motorcycle 
3. Place rags/paper towels on the painted surfaces under the master cylinder
4. Unscrew the screws on the master cylinder
5. Remove the lid
6. Pour brake fluid into master cylinder to top it off
7. SLOWLY pull the brake lever in 
8. SLOWLY release the brake lever
   1. Watch for air bubbles
   2. Air bubbles are a great sign!
9. As air escapes, top off the master cylinder with more brake fluid
   1. Don’t let the brake fluid get too low or you may pull more air into the brake line
10. Repeat steps #6-9
    1. This may take up to 5 minutes of repeating the steps 
    2. Eventually the bubbles should stop escaping the brake line
    3. The brake lever will become stiffer as air escapes 

This should have removed all the air in the brake line. We are going to do one more step to ensure there is no air at the brake caliper nipple.

1. Top off the master cylinder with brake fluid
2. Remove rub cap on brake caliper nipple
3. With one hand slowly pull the front brake lever all the way and HOLD the brake lever
4. While HOLDING the brake lever, undo the nut on the nipple of the brake caliper
   1. Brake fluid may and should jet out
   2. The brake lever will move
5. Close the nut on the nipple
6. Release the brake lever slowly
7. Repeat steps #2-6
8. Double check the amount of brake fluid in the master cylinder 

After you are done with that, put the master cylinder lid back on and tighten it down with the screws.

Test your front brakes by walk the motorcycle and applying the front brakes. If nothing happens, keep on troubleshooting. 

Stuck Pistons

Stuck pistons are usually found on old motorcycles or motorcycles that have sat outside for a while.

If you are able to pull the pistons out of the brake caliper, you may have an opportunity to salvage this set of brakes. 

With the pistons removed, use steel wool 0000 on the outside of the piston. A drop of some Colonel Brassy on the steel wool will help remove the rust.

If the O-rings are worn and brittle, you’ll need to replace those as well.

Try tossing the pistons back in, replacing the brake pads, and reinstalling the brake caliper. 

Afterwards, you will need to top off the master cylinder with brake fluid and remove the air from the brake lines, also known as bleeding the brakes.

Bad Master Cylinder

A bad master cylinder needs to be replaced or rebuilt. 

You have two options here:

There are master cylinder rebuild kits that have you replace the O-rings on the piston on the master cylinder.  

Your other option is to buy a brand new master cylinder.

In this video from KensWorld, he walks you through how to rebuild a master cylinder on a Yamaha Virago XV1000.

Bad Master Cylinder

Bleeding the front brake was a frustrating process that took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out. Reddit and YouTube did little to help.

In the end, I finally understood the problems were no material on my brake pads, a bad brake line, and air in the brake line. 

Solving these issues one at a time as a process. 

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