Front! brake pinching when rolling backwards?

Hello fellow St-Owners,

I have been enjoying my 1997 1100 ABS for 7 months now aside from experiencing the dreaded rear brake piston seizure on a trip from Los Angeles to Oregon. Luckily, I was able to release the pressure through the brake line and drive without touching the brakes until reaching a shop for servicing in Redding, Oregon. However just recently I have experienced the front brake catching the disc, or pinching as I roll backwards in the garage. Every four inches I rolled backwards the front brake would grab for a second causing a jerking and clacking sound upon contact with the rotor. This boggles me due to never experiencing this before and the fact that it stops when I roll forward. The pads seemed to have about 30 percent left last time I checked a couple months ago.

Any ideas or insight would be great. Thank you!

Hmm.. an unusual issue, never seen or heard of this....;

Are the pads OEM and the discs true?

If it were me I would remove the calipers and clean everything, including the discs, then before refitting I would take a file to the pads and chamfer the leading and trailing edges...

This may stop the pads/discs snatching...

Are the rotors warped?

mageerc said:

Are the rotors warped?

Click to expand...

or worse: one is cracked?...

Hello Aidan,

Pads last inspected a couple of months ago... how do they look now?!?! Pull them and inspect, pretty easy to do.

I'd guess warped rotor because of the pulsing; however, the clank sound is worrysome... pads worn down to metal..?

What happens when you roll the bike forward? Forward with light braking pressure?

John

Thank you for all who replied, never experienced this before. I'm going to pull the brakes tonight and do a thorough inspection and cleaning. Hopefully I wont find any warping or cracks! I'll follow on on the findings.

All the best.

Aidan

Not sure if pads are OEM, they've served me fine until now, I'll roll forward with the light pressure as John has described to see if that reveals any more. But normally don't catch when rolling forward.

I'd be interested to learn what you found when you pulled them. Please follow up and let us know what the final outcome is.

it'd be interesting to determine if it's the right or left side- maybe to what direction the handle bars try to swing towards when backing up and braking

My apologies for the long reply time.

I finally had a chance to take a look when the wife was out. But in all seriousness I ended up installing new HH brakes, thinking that it must be the brake pads, however it turned out to be the wheel sensor. The wheel sensor had lost a bolt and while intermittently hanging a tad low, was catching every few rotations on the hub "teeth". It never caught going forward, so I assumed it was a slight angle wear on the pads catching the rotor. Somehow I missed that initially. The brakes seemed to have about 30-40% pad left depending on the pad, some where a bit more worn. But by the time I had the right hand side pads in and discovered the issue, although I felt a bit dumb for overlooking it. I installed new pads on the rear as well. The caliper stopper pin bolt had me perplexed for a few minutes as I had never seen this type of design. But realized it basically aligned the rear caliper with the rotor after a failed test roll.

Thank you all who replied and if you ever hear a "ping" coming from the front. Check that front sensor. (Not sure if its on Non-ABS or not.)

Well that is always a good feeling when you find what the problem is and you can fix it. Now go enjoy a good ride!!