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Old April 16th, 2014, 09:08 AM   #21
kennetht
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Name: Ken
Location: Central New Jersey
Join Date: Oct 2013

Motorcycle(s): 2009 Kawasaki Ninja 250R

Posts: 219
Quote:
Originally Posted by DaBlue1 View Post

Another interesting fact about brake fluid-
"One of brake fluids most important characteristics is in fact its ability to absorb water! It is designed to absorb water! Diffusion allows moisture in the air to permeate microscopic pores in the rubber brake hoses and the various seals in the hydraulic brake system. This moisture would then rot out the internals of our brake system if it wasn’t absorbed by the brake fluid. In extremely cold weather it also stops this water/moisture from freezing in the brake system. This feature comes at a cost, which is, that water contaminated brake fluid reduces its performance. But brake fluid composition and therefore its effectiveness can also be altered by its working environment, because the brake system generates extreme temperatures, some of this is transferred off the disc pad and rotor into the brake caliper holding the disc pad and this heats up the brake fluid that flows within the brake caliper. To give you some idea of this in action, should your brake system have 3.7% of water trapped within its brake fluid, the boiling point level of your standard brake fluid is reduced from 205 degrees Celsius to 140 degrees Celsius a thirty percent reduction! So we now know that moisture will reduce the effective boiling point by almost 1/3. There are many different types of brake fluids with many differing effective temperature ratings to handle this event. "
Wouldnt water in the line have the opposite effect tough? Meaning that I would have to apply much more pressure to the brake lever to get braking power? Why would the brake pads be compressed by themselves in cold, but in warm weather they act just fine?
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