Went for a rip on my 79 shovel chop and on the way back, close to my house I felt the bike not having momentum. Pulled over and saw that my front brake was stuck but not fully. The lever was solid and wouldn't move. I ride the couple feet back home and parked it. Opened the master cylinder pulled the levers d nothing. Too the car to get my kid from daycare and when I got home the brake was fine. What would cause it to "seize" then release itself. The brakes were flushed last summer and I've never had issues. Any input?
Thanks in advance.
Ian

 

Time for another flush and MC/caliper rebuild.

 

If you can repeat it, crack the bleed valve. If it frees up, it could be a hydraulic line with an internal split. It happens often on cars, so I changed all my wheel rubber hoses to braided.

 

I lifted it. Spun the wheel. Cracked the bleeders and it seems fine. Went for a longer ride and no issues. I'll bleed it this weekend. I'll also stop imposing the front brake. It's a chopper after all.

Thanks

 

 

I have steel braided lines. New last season.

Thanks again. If it does it again I got my wrench and will bleed it to see if it frees up. I read rolling it backwards frees up the calipers, so I did that before I left it. So I'm not sure why it started working fine.

 

Never heard that one!

 

Yeah probebly cause it doesn't work. Ha ha ha.

 

Something in the front hydraulics is acting like a leaky check valve. It frees over time because of the leaky nature. I don't understand how air in the line would do this, but an internal dessication would. The wheel cylinder or master cylinder could be cocked in the bore. Do you still have the old flexible brake line ? would be worth a try.

 

Well the way you diagnose is when it locks start loosening the brake line, start at the top, work down until it releases, that will tell you master, brake line or slave.