HD brakes that just fall off?????
 

You better believe it! Not only once - but twice!!! I bought a brand new (at the time) 2005 softail deluxe. I store in in my attached garage at me newly built home and the garage is bone-dry and heated to 56 degrees. I don't put alot of miles on and as of today 5/19/08 I only have 14,982 miles. This is where it gets unbelieveable. Last October (at 10,000) I had a car cut me off and had to suddenly jump on my front brakes - nothing! No brakes at all. I jammed on the rears and swerved to miss. My heart was racing - and my wife was on the back freaking out. I pulled over and gave the bike a once over. I found that one side of my FACTORY INSTALLED original equipment brake shoes was simply gone. With absolutely no prior warning at all. The pad had somehow catastrophically seperated from the metal backing plate and fell off the bike. I limped home and took the bike to Carlton Harley Davidson in Mantua, Ohio and they did a fast repair installing new brake pads and got me rolling again.
It took me awhile to get my confidence back for my HD and it's brakes, but I did - until yesterday. Coming off the freeway down an off ramp at 45 miles an hour in a driving cold rainstorm. Just finished a 260 mile poker run, wife on the rear seat. Get to the bottom of the ramp facing fast moving cross traffic, hit both brakes, NO REARS - Nothing! Swearve into a gap in the traffic and am nearly killed! I quickly pull over and give the rear brakes a loook. SAME THING! One side of the brake is gone. My heart is in my throat! Today I talked to Mike at Carlton HD - he said he has never heard of such a thing happening once, let alone twice. He said I should bring what is left of the brakes to him and he would see what he could do with Harley.

Has anyone ever had this happen.?Should brake shoes just catastrophically fail like this? Even out of warranty - should I have to pay for it? I damn near was injured or killed -Twice! Ask me how excited I am to get back on my Harley and go for a spin!

RE: HD brakes that just fall off?????
 

wow, maybe you should buy quality brake pads. I do not sell them but could give you a few suggestions & you can decide.

RE: HD brakes that just fall off?????
 

sounds like you got the friday batch. they should have changed ALL your stock pads w/new one's. Front's/rears are the same so I think you got a sh!tty production run..Now you know H/D brakes suck, so now you can call Lyndall Racing Brakes order the Z-compound/or gold(i have Z) and you'll stop better then ever..You'll never know unless you try em.. Steve

RE: HD brakes that just fall off?????
 

I just changed the tires on my 05 RK Classic today, fortunatly I had bought brake pads to replace the originals. When I took the front wheel off, one of the pad linings fell off just as you've described. My RK has 55k miles on the original front brakes and I'm glad I caught it before it was catastrophic. My dealer will be seeing these pads, not that I want them to make good. But to serve as a warning for others. Glad you all came out OK and no one hurt from what could've been a very bad accident.

RE: HD brakes that just fall off?????
 

[sm=bustedsign.gif] Do I smell a troll????? If not, a brake falling off is really weird.