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Brake drag

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harleycruzer41

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On my 01 Roadking, I'm running a stock single disc brake. When I ride for a longer period of time I can hear the front brakes making the noise as if the pads are touching the disc, they make a constant "swishing" noise. When I lightly apply the front brake, the sound goes away. I took the bike to the Harley dealer for it's 1k service and they originally said the rotors were slightly warped and put a new one on and did tell me that I still may hear the noise.

Well they were right, and it's annoying! Anything else I can do???

Thanks for the help!
 
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harleycruzer41 said:
On my 01 Roadking, I'm running a stock single disc brake. When I ride for a longer period of time I can hear the front brakes making the noise as if the pads are touching the disc, they make a constant "swishing" noise. When I lightly apply the front brake, the sound goes away. I took the bike to the Harley dealer for it's 1k service and they originally said the rotors were slightly warped and put a new one on and did tell me that I still may hear the noise.

Well they were right, and it's annoying as hell! Anything else I can do???

Thanks for the help!
Click to expand...

Welcome to The Forum. The Swishing sound is fairly normal on some bikes. As more miles go by the noise may go away, after the pads seat to the new rotor. You can try removing the pads and scuffing them, clean the rotor good with HOT soapy water, wipe dry with lint free cloth, lube up the caliper hardware, clean the caliper piston and dust boot and lube the backing plates of the brake pads
 
harleycruzer41 said:
On my 01 Roadking, When I ride for a longer period of time I can hear the front brakes making the noise
I took the bike to the Harley dealer for it's 1k service
Click to expand...

Help us with the time line. You have a 2001 bike and you took it to the dealership for its 1K service? Are you saying that was a recent visit and you only have a couple of thousand miles on an eleven year old bike. Or back in 2002 they changed the rotor and it still makes the same noise.

What's the mileage on the bike. If it is up there,, who changed the front pads out or did the brake job last time it was needed. If the pads were changed, are you still running genuine HD pads. If this bike really does have extremely low mileage, has the brake system ever been flushed.

You said "When I ride for a longer period of time I can hear the front brakes making the noise as if the..." meaning the noise is not there on short trips. It only happens after the caliper is warmed up from a few stops?

Take the bike for a good ride and ONLY use the rear brake. When you stop, feel the front rotor. Is it hot to the touch.
 
Since the RK in stock form has twin discs up front, when you went to the single disc did you also change the master cyl?
 
Do a visual to see if there is brake dust contamination on the exposed piston/bore area of the caliper. Remove and inspect the brake retainer bolt guide pin that contacts the pads. Is it dry and feel if there is a wear groove that would cause additonal drag, so pads don't move freely.

If either of these two problems exist, then you may want to go the rest of the way and do full disc caliper service with new pins properly lubed and installed. The pad retainer is rather tricky to line up and get right, so take a look before removing and reinstalling it. If dealer replaced the stock disc...too bad, as I would have put a floating one back on (multi-piece disk/hub with 5 or 6 floating rotor fasteners). They center over the single action calipers better and don't rely on the existing solid disc runout to move the pads and pistons back into the bore. JMHO
 
I think this thread is dead.The OP has only this post and it was 10 days ago,when asked for info he hasn't gotten back to us.
 
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