I have been riding this model since 1995, and have had very few maintenance problem with the linked brakes until recently. I blew the rear master cylinder, ordered the repair kit, and had a dealer install the kit. Problem: the dealer had a difficult time bleeding the rear brake - took him about 3 hours with all of his equipment (the dealer can both suck and blow fluid). I never had trouble bleeding the brakes with a hand held vacuum device, but then again I never had to refill an entire system. The dealer said he finally solved the problem by "back flushing" the system from the proportioner valve. He said that the linked brake system is difficult to bleed and that some times they get lucky and it goes well, and sometimes it doesn't. I realize the the linked braking system is complicated, but it seems to me that bleeding any system should be straight forward if there are enough bleeder valves designed in at critical points by the manufacturer. Can anybody shed light on why this can be such a problem? I certainly respect Honda engineering, but did they screw this up by not providing enough bleeders? Thanks for any information.
