Just a reminder to check your clutch fluid. My bike has 26k miles and the fluid was filthy. This meant the biting point moving to the extreme end of the lever. Bleeding it has moved the biting point in
Good point NB. I've always thought that changing the brake and clutch fluid should be part of a regular service. Your brake fluid should be changed on average once a year to keep it fresh and uncontaminated. For the bike dealers if they have the right gear, something like a hydraulic bleeder it is literaly a job which takes a few minutes. I used to have a Motrax Big Bleeder and it used to take me about ten minutes a line. Some dealers try to make a big deal about doing it, one of my local bike dealers in Bradford quoted me two hours labour for bleeding the lines, I think from memory I laughed in their face. ( was that wrong)?
I bleed my brakes and clutch once a year. no matter the colour the fluid is, I use a vacume pump. I dont bother sucking out old fluid from the reservoir, just suck the new fluid through, takes about 30 mins to flush the front, rear and clutch fluid through, and a 1 ltr bottle of dot 4 brake fluid. some motorcycle a.b.s systems need to be bled from the a.b.s pump/unit, however kawasaki have used a sealed a.b.s system on the zzr1400 and the gtr1400 so the brake bleeding is the same as the conventional bleeding. this may be one reason why dealers have qouted 2 hours labour, either they dont know the system dose not need the a.b.s bleeding. or they know and are happy to let you think its a much longer job because of the a.b.s system. if you do bleed your own brakes. get your self a vacume pump bleeder. when finished bleeding the brakes. just apply the front lever and leave a cable tie on the front brake lever over night, do the same with the rear brake pedal by using a weight to hold the pedal down, this will bleed out any air from the master. p.s if using a vacume pump, make sure you have the bottle of brake fluid ready to refill the reservoir bottle, it drains dam fast.
Good idea about the cable tie on the levers. The first time someone told me that I thought they were having a laugh at my expense. But no it actually works and you will find there is so little travel in your brake levers the morning after it'll astound you.
The Big Bleeder made by Motrax which I had was a vacuum pump, unfortunately I dont own it any more but it did make the job very easy.