Potential rear brake failure

[Guest IanJ]

I had an exciting experience about a week ago. My rear brake failed. My foot was on the pedal, when it suddenly sank as if someone had put a pinhole in the system somewhere. Fortunately, I was sitting at a stoplight, about a mile from home. I rode the rest of the way very cautiously, and immediately inspected the system.

 

I found that the rear brake line, running from the master cylinder to the caliper, was resting on top of the exhaust crossover. At that point, it had presumably melted or weakened from repeated heating and cooling, until it finally burst under pressure from the pedal.

 

I suspect that this was a re-assembly mistake by my dealership, and obviously not an intentional one, but I wanted to mention it here. Given how the line is routed, it looks to me as if it's possible this could happen to any modern Le Mans, and probably Sport. I urge everyone who reads this to inspect their rear brake line for routing, and make sure the line doesn't come too close to any exhaust components. Even though it's "only" the rear brake, some riders use the rear brake as their primary means of slowing the bike. I can think of nothing worse than discovering this problem at a time when you actually needed the brake.

 

Fortunately, this failure doesn't implicate any of the components used by MG, just potentially dangerous routing of the line. I think the problem could have been avoided by the use of one or two strategically placed zip ties.

 

Please check out your bike, and ride safe!

[Guest dkgross]

thanks for the heads-up. I'll take a good look at mine tomorrow when I was the thing..finally...it's dirty

[Guest Brian Robson]

Thanks Ian for the heads up, I checked mine today at the 10,000 Km service. It was held on by two clips to the frame, but I will be looking at it regularly. Thank you and sorry for your misfortune.