[Moto7man]

Originally Posted by sneaky98gt

I concur.

I've bled it forwards and backwards, literally put quarts of fluid through it both ways. It seems better right after I do that, in the garage, but it could easily be a placebo. When I actually ride it, within a few minutes, I notice that it's right back like it was before (though, interestingly, it doesn't seem to get any worse over time). I'm confident that there's not any air in it, unless that bleed nipple is letting some back in. I still intend to swap that out sometime soon, since it'll be cheap, but the fact that it doesn't continue getting more mushy over time leads me to believe that's not the issue.

Let me ask this: when you squeeze on the lever really hard, like harder than you typically would to actually brake, does your caliper move / flex very much? It's not a ton, but mine definitely flexes a good bit. I try the same thing on the Nissin system on my XR400, and it flexes just a bit, but nowhere near as much as the Gasser. You have to look really hard on the Honda to see it move / flex, but it's easily noticeable on the GasGas.

I suppose if something is moving / flexing that isn't suppose to be, then this could be allowing the caliper piston to continue moving outward a little bit, and thus cause a less firm lever, right? Is this normal? What might cause this?

When the caliper is lined up with the disc rotor, you should not have hardly any movement at all.

On bleeding, go to your front brake lever and and back the adjustment screw all the way out. This will allow the master cylinder plunger to fill with fluid and push the air out of the system and firm up the lever feel.