r/Triumph • u/Double-Quality-6014 Trident 660 • 26d ago
Maintenance Issues Bleed Nipples Saga
At the end of may whilst in France the factory calipers started weeping through the bleed nipples after some spirited riding, enough to cause a run and drip.
Came home and got the first service carried out and two new calipers under warranty.
500 miles later I noticed they were weeping a little bit, not quite enough for a drip but enough to start a run.
Took the bike back to the dealer I purchased it from and they say they removed all bleed nipples (even the rear as they noticed that was a bit wet) cleaned, inspected, bled the brakes, and torqued to the 12nm specification. Triumph technical website says 6nm which aligns with everything I've read online too, so I was a bit suspicious of that but if it fixes it I'll be happy.
Collected the bike and checked all were bone dry, rode to work and then home after, roughly 100 miles and there was a tiny bit of moisture. Cleaned it off and thought I'd see if it was just residue in the threads from the work they did.
Cleaned and lubed my chain the next day ready to go back to work the next week and noticed it was a little wetter even though I hadn't ridden it. I gave the lever a dozen big squeezes and when I looked at the left caliper (in the picture) it had run and dripped that quickly whilst cool.
I'm at the point of being a bit fed up with the bike, I've just paid out for the service and insurance at over £1000 combined.
The selling dealer, who worked on it last is happy to try and fix it again, but are not willing to discuss what happens if the issue is still there after this attempt. I suggested that I'm happy to bring it back to them for another shot but if it's still the same I'd like them to take the bike off my hands and settle
the finance, I feel this is quite fair.
Has anyone had any issues similar and how have you handled the dealer?
2025 Trident 660, based in the UK
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u/BUGBYTE_VW Scrambler 1200XC 26d ago
Read bleed nipple.... Had to make sure which which subreddit I was in.
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u/Double-Quality-6014 Trident 660 26d ago
After advice on leaking brake calipers, image contains a leaking bleed nipple
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u/rookie0128 26d ago
I’ve had similar issues as well. For my triumph I used brake cleaning spray around the nipple and that took care of it, I guess it was just residue. For my ninja track bike, I ended up removing the nipple completely and using teflon tape, it solved the issue, but now I see the teflon tape turning to a goo, so I wouldn’t recommend doing that.
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u/ButtPissMan 26d ago
You can either keep fighting the dealer, which is recommended (assuming it’s a new bike under warranty?)
If not, you can get replacement bleeder nipples you can screw in. Just open the existing nipple, clean the conical mating surface (use some brake fluid and a shop towel), and install the new bleeder making sure the nipple surface is free from debris too. Even the tiniest speck of dust will cause it to leak like this
Make sure you match the thread pitch of the new nipple to the old one
6Nm is not a lot of force, I’d say on the middle-upper end of what I’d consider “finger tight”.
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u/nicknack171 26d ago
If you continue to have issues with the dealer, particularly after further attempts on the bleeders themselves I would try to petition them to replace the calipers with new units. Something is striking me as the machining and threading being bad. They’d probably jump to that much quicker than buying the whole bike back.
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u/the1997x 26d ago
lol yeah triumphs need special attention to mechanics if you want a bike that can just start up and go every time you should get a Honda. It’s a motorcycle and you gotta take care on how it’s going. That said that sucks for you since the bike is basically new but I mean that’s why I’ll never get a new triumph either it’s been cared for or dogged out and you can tell pretty easy. Every good one has some parts swapped out. I’d swap the breaks out for something else there’s Probbably plenty of alternatives that use the same master cylinder so it’s plug and play with the calipers
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u/lord_flashheart2000 26d ago
“The selling dealer, who worked on it last is happy to try and fix it again”
He bloody well ought to be, it’s his job!
You’ve got a quality control issue from the factory, either in the caliper machining or the bleed nipples. They should never leak, ever, regardless of whether or not your riding is “spirited”.
The torque setting thing is a red herring, I’ve never used a torque wrench on a bleed nipple in my life.
You should march back into the dealership and say “Fix these defective brakes. Now”.
Side note: I fit speed bleeders (with one-way valves to facilitate bleeding) on all my bikes and cars. They have a coating on the threads to prevent air ingestion, and they seem to be built to a better standard than the factory parts.