(front) brake shake

Yahoo. Brakes are working again. Tying down the lever for a night worked wonders, and then I also went and bought a vacuum bleeder and now they're as tight as they ever were. When bleeding with a vacuum bleeder, do I pull the lever to apply the brakes when bleeding?

The thing now is that the front of the bike shakes when applying my front brakes at speeds over 20kph. Any ideas what this could be?

 

Q#1. No, you don't touch the lever during the process.
Q#2. Could be loose head bearings or a lightly warped rotor(s). I'd get those bearings checked out (if you haven't been in there yet, it is high time you did anyway) and check the runout on your rotors.

 

Hmm will check that out but now I'm wondering... I had the front wheel off recently is it possible I need some sort of alignment/balancing done?

 

Another question: are my discs my rotors? I don't see "rotors" in my parts guide but pictures I've searched for show the rotors as the discs that the front brake pads press against to stop the bike. Is this what they are?

 

Yes, discs/rotors are the same thing.

 

It's time to revisit this and get it worked out. It first popped up after I rebuilt both front calipers.

What are "head bearings"? And what does it mean to "check them out"?

 

Alright I found the head bearings in chacal's catalog, and I found the "steering head adjustment" section in the service manual. I'll give that a try tonight.

I'm still curious how I "check out" my head bearings though. What am I looking for, etc.

 

Ok I'll be quiet now. I found that in the service manual too. I'll give step 1 and 2 a try before asking about step 8.

 

aww, it was rather entertaining watching you have a discussion with yourself.

A service manual is a wonderful thing.

You can rig a simple runout gauge fom a Sharpie (fine point permanent marker) and a couple popsicle sticks and duct tape, to answer your next question.