I just replaced the fluid in my rear brakes after a minor mishap, and they feel a little spongy now. Looking for advice on whether or not this is an issue.
The backstory: I had used a heavy Kryptonite chain lock run through my rear spokes and over the swing arm while parked in a sketchy neighborhood. I was in a rush to take off and forgot about the chain; tried to drive away with the chain still in place, dropped the bike. On the way home noticed I was losing power in the rear brakes, and arrived home (safely) to see that I was leaking fluid. Later checked the lines and the banjo bolt and didn't see any damage; looked like the bolt just got pulled a little loose.
Took the opportunity to replace the fluid in my front and rear brakes. Front brakes are working great, but now it feels like my rear brakes don't engage until I depress the lever significantly farther than I used to need to. The honest truth is I'm not entirely sure this is a bad thing... I still have braking power, and it this actually allows a more comfortable resting position for my foot. I think it's related to me being quite tall, but I used to have to float my foot off to the side of the pedal because my comfortable resting position would engage the brakes a little. Now, by contrast, my foot rests in a comfortable place, and I have to push down hard to get the brakes to engage.
But I'm still worried because it's different from before and I don't know why. The brake fluid level is a little more than 3/4 of the way between the low and high marks, and I bled out the bubbles when I changed the fluid. Could this be a sign of some kind of damage to the brakes that wasn't obvious on visual inspection?
Side question: I noticed that my front brake reservoir has a white plastic plate between the black top plate and the rubber thing underneath that suctions to the fluid, whereas there was no white plastic plate on the rear brakes. Is that normal?
The backstory: I had used a heavy Kryptonite chain lock run through my rear spokes and over the swing arm while parked in a sketchy neighborhood. I was in a rush to take off and forgot about the chain; tried to drive away with the chain still in place, dropped the bike. On the way home noticed I was losing power in the rear brakes, and arrived home (safely) to see that I was leaking fluid. Later checked the lines and the banjo bolt and didn't see any damage; looked like the bolt just got pulled a little loose.
Took the opportunity to replace the fluid in my front and rear brakes. Front brakes are working great, but now it feels like my rear brakes don't engage until I depress the lever significantly farther than I used to need to. The honest truth is I'm not entirely sure this is a bad thing... I still have braking power, and it this actually allows a more comfortable resting position for my foot. I think it's related to me being quite tall, but I used to have to float my foot off to the side of the pedal because my comfortable resting position would engage the brakes a little. Now, by contrast, my foot rests in a comfortable place, and I have to push down hard to get the brakes to engage.
But I'm still worried because it's different from before and I don't know why. The brake fluid level is a little more than 3/4 of the way between the low and high marks, and I bled out the bubbles when I changed the fluid. Could this be a sign of some kind of damage to the brakes that wasn't obvious on visual inspection?
Side question: I noticed that my front brake reservoir has a white plastic plate between the black top plate and the rubber thing underneath that suctions to the fluid, whereas there was no white plastic plate on the rear brakes. Is that normal?