Excesive travel on front brake lever - 1997 kawasaki ZRX 1100

Adjustment: 1) Start the engine and shift to Reverse. With the vehicle moving backwards, firmly depress the brake pedal several times to seat the shoes in the brake drum. Turn engine off. 2) Remove the console trim surrounding the parking brake lever. This isn't really necessary if you have a deep socket and extension. 3) Pull up on brake lever until the seventh notch is engaged, just listen and count the clicks. 4) If it is out of adjustment and you can't get the seven clicks, turn the adjusting nut located on the drivers side next to the lever. 5) Release the lever, block the front wheels, raise the rear end. Best to put on jackstands. 6) With car in neutral and brake lever released, rotate the rear wheels. The wheels should turn freely, but a slight drag is acceptable. 7) If the lever travels too far or the parking brake fails to hold the vehicle on a hill, tighten the adjusting nut a little more and recheck,

There should not be a great deal of lever travel.

Technically, there is no adjustment for the brake lever,the effort required or the amont of "travel". You have a very responsive lever and if someone unqualified attempts to "fix" this phenomenom, I suspect that you'll be setting yourself up for trouble. Personally, I'd find an empty parking lot and practice, practice, practice as the front brake is responsible for 70% of all effective braking.

you can renew the master cylinder seals, the calipar seals can also cause the lever to feel spongy, they grip the pistons and pull them too far back into the bores instead of letting them return just enough to realease the brake, in this condition when you apply the brake most of the lever travel is just pushing the calipar pistons out to reach the pads and the little travel that is left is pushing the pads on to the disc, hense the spongy feel

try using a line locker close to master cyclinder ,lever should go rock hard if it has no air in system,work line locker down lines to see if lever stays hard.
also check the lever travel to make sure that lever is pushing on master cyclinder plunger as a lot of after market levers dont have correct casting and have to travel in a long way before brakes work even when system is bled. also check to make sure calliper carriers are not bent and pads not sitting square on rotors.
hope this helps

Is it off the brake lever on the handle bar? If not shorten the outer cable by turning in the knurled adjuster at the back of the brake lever. This will make it easy to take the inner cable off the brake lever. Once that is off you can work on the hub and you should now be able to swing the inner cable round to slide it off the lever on the hub. If that is damaged it might be difficult to clear the cable and the end nipple, so you will need to open the gaps using a flat screwdriver as a lever. When you put it all back together it will help to lubricate the inner cable with some engine oil which you can run down the inner from the brake lever end. Moving the inner cable up and down helps the oil to travel down the cable.

This is by design. When you have new pads on the bike and a rotor within limits the lever has very limited travel before engaging.
As these parts wear the position of which the lever engages changes. Unless you know that at the last brake pad change the caliper was "centered" this could account for the travel and will result in premature wear on the components.

JP

Possibly 2 problems m8.
If the brake-lever travel has increased then it either wasn't bled up properly or it's allowing air past the seals in the master-cylinder.
Try tying the lever back to the bar overnight to bring any air in the system up to the top (resevoir) and see if the brakes stay good, if not they'll need bleeding again.
Check for any leaks around all the banjo connections, up at the bars and down at the calipers, plus have a close inspection of the master-cylinder piston area for leaks.
The juddering might be down to a warped disc or two, get the front wheel off the ground and spin the wheel to check for this visually or with a stick and pointer.

Check the pads for wear, they might need replacement. You should also check brake fluid level. And last you can bleed the brakes.