My bike is a 1996 fatboy. It has a single side, single piston caliper.

I purchased the bike last month. I noticed by Pistons only push out 1/4"-1/2" when I press the brake lever fully. It took me about a minute of none stop pumping on the lever to push the piston out of the caliper.

I took caliper apart, it was super clean, I changed seal anyways, I changed to fresh dot 5 and bled. And still the same .

Is this normal?

 

Do the brakes work normally? Since the pads loosely touch the rotor anyway it doesn't take much piston travel to work. 1/2 inch could very well be normal but I have never measured it.

 

Well it stops! But I am coming from a 4 piston dual rotor bike .. So I am not sure if I can judge if it's normal for the bike 😎

 

I had a 96 Fatboy and it did not stop well on a good day. Better pads and a better rotor will help for not a lot of money. Is the rotor worn out?

 

Piston only need to move 1/16"-1/8" when it's installed. Sounds like a cleaning and fresh fluid, you are good to go.
except for not doing damage to paint DOT 5 is a waste of money on a Harley.
Make sure you never mix 4 & 5.

 

Yes but the manual says only use dot5 are you saying you use 4?

 

Well The interesting part is , the service manual calls for minimum 0.200" for the rotor, but the rotors themselves that are on the bike are stamped minimum 0.180" , I am over the minimum that is stamped on the rotor. I am at 0.189 - 0.190

 

Never mind - 5 is in it, that's great.

 

In which case you are getting close to replacement time!

As for your opening comments about piston travel, when using brakes normally the pistons only move a short distance, yours sound to be in excellent health! I'm not sure why you would want to remove them?