Front Brake suddenly requires lot more force

Hey There,
I have been commuting a short way on my bike for a while with no issues. Yesterday took it out on the freeway for the first time in a while. While braking the lever almost came back to my fingers. Up until now the lever did not move nearly that far to get full braking force. Is this because I was going faster and it takes more force or is it an indication of another issue? Scared the crap out of me!

I mean harder breaking is normal when you are going higher speed. That said though my lever doesn't come back to the hand grip ever.

Check your brake fluid level and check the caliper for evidence of any leaks.

Low level or a leak would result in a loss of brake pressure.

That happened to my bike (search old posts). Turned out that my brake pads had got contaminated by leaking fork oil. Even though I cleaned and sanded them, I ended up needing new pads.

If previous suggestions do not resolve the problem, the master cylinder could be leaking internally, so you would need to disassemble it and rebuild it.

How many miles on the bike?

Thanks for the input all. Brake fluid levels are good, I don't see any leaking anywhere. I am at about 15,000 miles so maybe time for a brake rebuild?

Try bleeding in some fresh DOT 4 brake fluid if you've not done it.

kabulpostie wrote:

Thanks for the input all. Brake fluid levels are good, I don't see any leaking anywhere. I am at about 15,000 miles so maybe time for a brake rebuild?

15k miles are not enough to explain a damaged brake cylinder, but if the master cylinder is leaking there won't be any external signs of the leak.

johnkol wrote:

If previous suggestions do not resolve the problem, the master cylinder could be leaking internally, so you would need to disassemble it and rebuild it.

How many miles on the bike?

Thanks for this suggestion. I bled the breaks, changed fluid and rebuilt the master cylinder (a much simpler process than I imagined, but it sound very cool and technical so now I bring it up whenever I can), fixed the problem and I was surprised how much better the braking was, guess I'd been dealing with crap brake feel for a while.