2 things you have said ring alarm bells.
Firstly if you can feel it through the handlebars it could aim towards head bearings, OR what ended up being my problem was a faulty/old braided brake line, which caused a "juddering" feeling on braking, which just happened to be the only thing left for me to try changing to cure it.
Because it was braided i simply didn't think it would've gone wrong.
Now i know better. :'(
Secondly, you said you have to pump the brakes a couple of times (and you feel it through the bars).
This could point at a disc problem.
If you get any warping of a disc, when you are moving it will spread the pads further apart than normal, which can result in having to pump the brake one or two times to bring them back to react, then because the disc isn't flat it can create a pulsing effect through the brake lever.
Really not good in an emergency, it will frighten the life out of you when you do a panic stop and you get a handful of sponge.
So at the moment i doubt very much it's just a simple pad issue by the sounds of things.
But you need to eliminate things one at a time.
Start with the real easy stuff like are the caliper bolts done up correctly, bleed the brakes, clean/grease the front brake lever joint, etc.
If i have pads for you i'll clean them up at work for you, i'll let you know soon.
Firstly if you can feel it through the handlebars it could aim towards head bearings, OR what ended up being my problem was a faulty/old braided brake line, which caused a "juddering" feeling on braking, which just happened to be the only thing left for me to try changing to cure it.
Because it was braided i simply didn't think it would've gone wrong.
Now i know better. :'(
Secondly, you said you have to pump the brakes a couple of times (and you feel it through the bars).
This could point at a disc problem.
If you get any warping of a disc, when you are moving it will spread the pads further apart than normal, which can result in having to pump the brake one or two times to bring them back to react, then because the disc isn't flat it can create a pulsing effect through the brake lever.
Really not good in an emergency, it will frighten the life out of you when you do a panic stop and you get a handful of sponge.
So at the moment i doubt very much it's just a simple pad issue by the sounds of things.
But you need to eliminate things one at a time.
Start with the real easy stuff like are the caliper bolts done up correctly, bleed the brakes, clean/grease the front brake lever joint, etc.
If i have pads for you i'll clean them up at work for you, i'll let you know soon.
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