BRAKE FLUID FLUSH: First lets discuss what we're trying to
achieve. Part of the regular service for the R1200R is a
biennual (every 2 years) brake fluid FLUSH. A flush is different
in some ways from a brake-fluid bleed, in that there should be
no air introduced into the system when doing a "flush". Bleeding
brakes is the process of getting any air trapped in the system
(after opening the system for some repair) out. Flushing is
getting old fluid out, and replacing it with new without getting
air into the system. Why do we need to do this? Brake fluid is
hygroscopic - ie - it absorbs and traps water. As the fluid
ages, the fluid becomes contaminated more and more with absorbed
moisture. The water is a bad thing in brake fluid. It has two
undesirable properties: - It lowers the boiling point of the
brake fluid. Fresh brake fluid has a boiling point of well over
400F - so even if your brakes get quite hot, the fluid doesn't
turn to vapor. If it did turn to vapor - it's easily
compressible and you'd have no brake