Brakes Locked After Hitting Pothole?

mljudge

Joined
Apr 21, 2018
Messages
4
Location
Burlington, MA
Bike
1998 ST1100
Hi All:

So last night around 9:00 I was out for a ride and hit a good sized pothole. Right after, I applied the brakes and fronts locked up tight. Now at a stop sign, bike would not move. Got on it, and was repeatedly hitting the lever to see if it would free up, hit the throttle, and it went down on top of me on the right side. Lost my right mirror, the gray plastic that surrounds the highway peg, and some pride, to say nothing of my scraped knee, hand, elbow and now-throbbing shoulder. Anyway, I cracked the lines and was able to free up the right caliper and hung it to the bike with an old battery tender cable I had. Got it home (about 15 miles) but was wondering what the heck happened? It was pitch black last when I was doing all this, so I haven't had time to investigate. Has this ever happened to anyone else after hitting a pothole? I'm a little gun-shy right now about riding it again. Thanks!
 
Well, hitting a pothole, anything could happen so until you take a look and give some more details it's hard to tell. You said you freed up the RIGHT side which is the non-SMC side.. so maybe something happened to the rotar? Just guessing.
 
Like Mellow says, you need a good look at it. No need to fear riding it once the repair is completed. I'd guess something obvious will be broke once you get into it. Never heard of anything like this before so I think you'll find something pretty quick.
And when you get back on it, watch out for those blummin holes.
Upt'North.
 
I'll let you know when I get home later tonight what I find. Tough to see those potholes sometimes; scary though!
 
Its been so many years since I converted mine over to braided SS lines and removed the stock plumbing that my memory is weak. But I believe that the stock brake line setup has a crossover pipe that runs along the top of the fender as it crosses from the one caliper to the other. You probably bottomed out the forks and pinched that line between the fender and lower triple clamp. Get yourself a pair of SS replacement lines, you'll be glad you did.
 
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Must have been a really big pot hole. Did you dent the rim? (Tho this would not lock up the wheel unless you damaged the right rotor.)
 
We've got some big ones up here, that's for sure. No, I was able to drive it home and it ran fine, no vibrations or anything. What dwalby is saying might be exactly what happened though now that I think about it. Where do I get those SS lines if I need them?
 
google stainless steel brake lines, there should be several different sources. I got mine from Galfer, but that was in 1997, not sure who's making them today given that the bike has been out of production for so many years. There are places that will make you custom lines, that's probably the best route today.
 
If you have a fork brace installed a large bump can drive the top of the brace into the metal brake line clamp/clip on the bottom of the lower triple clamp, collapsing it and pinching off the rubber brake line. This will trap fluid pressure in the lines, locking the brakes on.


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There are a couple of threads here on braided lines. When I was looking into them, I noticed that at least one vendor wanted the old lines in order to orient the fittings correctly (you cannot twist the lines much at all), and some did not. If you have handlebar risers (do they make them for 1100's?) take that into consideration if you go to braided lines.
 
ST1100 or ST1300? Can’t tell with the new forum.

Years ago an STrider had a similar problem with his ST1100. His Superbrace fork brace had crushed the brake hose routing clamp on the underside of the fork stem at full fork compression/bottoming. The master cylinder could force fluid past the constriction but once applied the pressure couldn’t be relieved. If this is your case, just cracking the bleed valve would have gotten you home. FWIW

Edit: I see Jeff beat me to it. :)

John
 
Mellow said:
Well, hitting a pothole, anything could happen so until you take a look and give some more details it's hard to tell. You said you freed up the RIGHT side which is the non-SMC side.. so maybe something happened to the rotar? Just guessing.
Click to expand...
An 1100 has the similar SMC as the 1300, but not the problems? Something Mechanical like the last 2 posts make sense. Good luck.
 
wjbertrand said:
If you have a fork brace installed a large bump can drive the top of the brace into the metal brake line clamp/clip on the bottom of the lower triple clamp, collapsing it and pinching off the rubber brake line. This will trap fluid pressure in the lines, locking the brakes on.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Click to expand...

A HUGE +1 on that happening! BTDT, and took a bit before discovering the brake line holder clamp got squished a bit from fork brace!
 
John OoSTerhuis said:
I see the site sub-forum is now listed below the subject line in the thread list. Cool. Always helps to mention the model and year when asking for help though.

John
Click to expand...
So I went out to the garage, and sure enough, the rubber brake line was crimped in the bracket mounted above the fork brace (see attached). That bracketKIMG0644.jpg should be round I think, not oval. Anyway, I'm going to reroute so that doesn't happen again!

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The same thing happened to me a few months ago about 40 miles before I finished my second IBA Lower Great Lakes SS1K. The fork brace hit the hose clamp when I pulled into a rest stop on the Ohio Turnpike and hit a pot-hole. IMHO, that clamp partially compresses the hose, normally. I enlarged the radius of the hole in the hose clamp so the hose can be slipped back and forth a bit now.

I also had slipped the fork tubes up a bit to lower the front end. That may have been why the brace hit the clamp. Fork tubes are back to thre normal position, now, also.

Finished the ride about 45 minutes later than my expected ETA. Loosening the bolt on the clamp relieved the pressure.
 
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