This past weekend, traded wife's 03 Heritage and my 2012 Road King for a bone stock Big Blue Pearl TG with only 2600 miles on it. My concern relates to the rear brakes. I have to apply WAY too much pressure,in my opinion, to get any kind of response and even then they're not really responsive. There's no squealing or other sounds as far as I can tell. They simply don't grab unless I stand on them. I realize I can go back to the dealer with the complaint but I'd like to have some idea what might be going on or if it's just the nature of the beast. I can't believe the pads or rotors are gone with that low mileage! Would appreciate any ideas to point me in the right direction.

 

You are going from a single rear wheel to two car tires. You don't have power assist. Motorcycle safety says you should use 70% front bread, 30% rear. If the dealer doesn't find anything wrong you just may have to get used to it. OR you could drop hundreds of bucks changing everything.


Good Luck

 

As Screwball just said, remember to also use the front brake too. 70% of braking is on the front wheel. Still should be able to skid the rear wheels, but not advisable.

 

What year TG? 2014 and newer have linked braking, meaning the front and rear work together even if just stepping on rear peddle...2013 and older have the same brake setup as the Ultra, rear and front operated separate...if yours is 2013 and older use more front brake, if 2014 and up should be working together, step on rear and you should see the fron end dip a little as the front brakes are applied...

 

You really can't trust not wearing out the brakes in that low millage. You would need to take a look & see if anything is wrong with the rear brakes.
If you have a pre '14 model you might have some problems with a glazing or just poor brakes. I did on my '12ym, but cured most of it by using the proper pads in place of the OEM. I went to EBC HH pads & have decent rear brakes now.
But I would have the dealer check it out since you just purchased it from him.

 

Like Sloufoot said, get them checked. A lot of new TG owners, or test drives would put the parking brake on and forget it was on then continue to ride. Wearing out pads, or glazing. The demo unit that was at the dealership when we purchased, had exactly that condition. The dealer said with less than 1500 miles they had to do a brake job, and warned me not to forget the Parking Brake.

 

I have same issue also.just remember your coming off a 900 pound bike to a 1300 pound.the breaks suck

 

Regardless of what might be wrong, if you think that something is wrong, you need to have the brakes checked by somebody that you trust ASAP. With safety, you should always err on the side of caution.

 

You will not get the same rear brake response from a trike that you get from two wheelers. It takes more pressure on the pedal to get the response you are looking for. However, if you find that you cannot lock up the rear tires at all, something is probably wrong.

Bill

 

the previous owner could have not known how to use them and glazed them, making them near useless, among other ways to destroy them.