Has anyone out there managed to get MV to admit that the rear brake on the F4 overheats and is useless even for normal road use. I think that they should recall all F4's and sort the problem out free of charge. I have heard that the new 1000 has modified parts to supposedly cure the problem. Any feedback would be appreciated. Cheers guys.

-- Nick Dickens (nickdickens@supanet.com), July 26, 2004

Answers

Yes...I agree. The rear brake is completely useless. In fact, I thought mine was malfunctioning for some time before I realized it was supposed to be like that.

-- Dave (dking@miami.edu), July 26, 2004.

All it will take is for somebody to crash and blame the failure of the rear brake as the cause and they may fix it.

-- Rick (rgrayston@msn.com), July 26, 2004.

I must agree, it needs to be sorted out. They should recall all F4's and fix this rather potentially dangerous problem. Poor testing from there part not to notice that it does not work as it should for a bike like the F4???

-- Jorge Dos Santos (jorge@yebo.co.za), July 27, 2004.

Come on guys - this an Italian company you are talking about.

The only manufacturer to get an exemption on the construction and use rules that allow them to sidestep the problem of riders thumbs on full steering lock. Form over function and all that.

BTW an easy fix is to relocate the reservoir under the seat with a suitably long hose to the mastercylinder. Stops it overheating.

-- Mark M (m.magenis@btinternet.com), July 27, 2004.

My rear brake works great (02 F4).

Insulate the reservoir, master cylinder with thermotec adhesive foil. Wrap the pipe with Thermotec wrap.

Most important: flush the fluid with a high temp fluid such as Brembo 660 or Motul 600 and bleed well. The rear brake is not easy to bleed completely because of the long line and awkward bleeder location. You might want to remove the rear caliper and lift it up to get the last bubble out. I also swapped out the rear pad to a Carbone Lorraine pad.

My brake works well enough that I've lowered the lever so it does not lock up.

-- martin (martin@motowheels.com), July 27, 2004.

I didn't go to the extreme as Martin did, but like he said changing the brake fluid (I use the Motul race spec) cured the problem I've had with my MVs. This is even after heavy track use.

Not to offend anyone but while it was a pain in the ass at first I don't see it really being "dangerous". The only time it almost caused me to "crash" was when I first noticed it wasn't working. I had come to a stop on a hill and almost tipped over when the bike started rolling because the rear brake wasn't working!!LOL But honestly it doesn't really bother me whether it works or not because I don't really use it at all to begin with

-- TP (tp@mvagustaf4.com), July 28, 2004.

The rear brake on my new F4 1000 is not very effective either. You really have to stamp on the pedal to produce any stopping power. I plan to make the change to Lorraine pads and have asked my dealer to change the brake fluid at the first service next week. I can only assume that MV don't expect us to be using the rear brake much!

-- Rich Flanders (richard.flanders@morse.com), July 29, 2004.

Yo! You guys mean to say that MV AGUSTA's has a REAR BRAKE????? Holy Cow, I never even give it a thought!!!!!! By the way, where the hell can I get a Loraine Brakes? Is she a she???? Dumb questions.

-- AJ (adiviso@hotmail.com), July 29, 2004.

Was about to take F4 on a race school so had to get non working rear brake to work, bled it through and thought no more of it untill 20mins into sesion it sized up, when stripped it today found one piston was sticky, now feel abit nervous of taking it out and thrashing it properly... no problems with Brutale, may change the whole brake setup over...

-- Juan Harrison (juanharrison@manx.net), September 24, 2004.

Wow - how amazing to find this page. So we're not the only ones who have noticed! Ours just failed quite spectacularly - it was hardly ever used so we hadn't actuqally noticed this before - and we haven't yet sorted out exactly what happened, but all I can say is that caliper and disk are in contact in a way that I wouldn't have thought possible - not to mention part of caliper shredded and dispersed all over the bike - I am going to send the whole lot to MV for a look, and replace it with something that will work should we ever be inclined to use it. I totally agree that they should have fixed it free of charge, but as someone pointed out it is an Italian company - we had to wait almost a year for a manual :-)

-- Monnett Soldo (monnettsoldo@yahoo.com), November 24, 2004.

Sounds more like your rear wheel bearing has collapsed. You dont give any details of how damage occured on a brake you never used,so unless it self destructed there is a reason the disc and caliper are in contact.If the bearing has collapsed it allows this to happen and also will allow sprocket to chew eccentric hub. You will then be told its your fault as you had too much torque on pinch bolts,although bearing that fails is positioned outside eccentric.But its a good getout clause and we can supply new hub for lots of money. Good luck ,check if you can rock wheel ,its hard not to notice.

-- ian paterson (ian.w.paterson@btopenworld.com), November 24, 2004.