I have successfully installed new front and rear pads

I managed to not notice that little o-ring that fits in the middle of the rear calipers. So I made a nice leaky mess trying to bleed them without that o-ring.  Luckily, I checked the Bike Bandit schematic and saw that I was missing that part.
A little crawling around on the floor of my car port found it.
After that, I bled the rear brakes again with no mess.
I probably should have stopped there but I took a look at my brake fluid in the front resivour and it was pretty icky looking. So I figured I will bleed it as well.
My problem
Evrything was going fine until I emptied out the brake resivour the first time. I filled it with new fluid and continued to mash the brake while opening the drain screw and then closing the screw before I release the brake. The only problem is I no longer have any pressure in the line. I have refilled and emptied the resivour several times but I can't get the pressure back.
Any thoughts would be very appreciated

oh boy.. i dont know what to say.. i am clueless.. but here is a free bump.

See old thread Brake Bleeder Help.  kigroy had the exact same problem.

Several ideas and tips were tossed around, but in the end kigroy bought a bleeder kit "and that solved all [his] issues".

I'm not sure much the bleeder kits cost, but we're talking about your FRONT BRAKES!  If the kits are pricey, maybe you can split the cost with some other local members?

Whatever you do, please report on the specifics of your final solution.

Good luck!

Thanks Kerry, I guess I was just being to impatient because on the third or fourth refilling I got my pressure back.
I got it all back together and I just got back from a test ride. It felt pretty good but not a 100% maybe, 93% of the braking I had before. I am thinking the pads may need a few miles to wear in properly.
If I don't notice an improvement I will do another bleeding next weekend.
to being able to stop :lol:

If you bleed the reservoir empty you fill the lines with lots of air and it takes a while to purge enough out to feel any pressure. It can feel like you're making no progress, but it just takes a while. Frustrating, ain't it? The hand held vacuum pumps make it a little easier to do alone. You can pick em up pretty cheap at an auto store.

So you drained it, and then filled it?!?  I simply pour in new brake fluid on top of the old brake fluid as soon as draining the resivoir gets 90% empty and just do that a few times until its 99% new brake fluid.

 hi, in the UK you can get the most amazing (and best of all cheap) bit of kit to bleed brakes with no fuss.
all it is, is a rubber tube with a small slit in the sidewall (near the bottom) with a blanking stud in the bottom.
you just atach open end on to bleed nipple, slaken nipple and then just pump the leaver (keeping fluid topped up) no need to keep opening and closeing nipple, just take fluid down to low level about six times then tighten nipple top up fluid  and you should have pressure.  
failing that if still no pressure check for leaks and consider changing caliper and / or reservoir seals  
PS put tube into a bottle to catch fluid.

Now that's a nice idea, you could perhaps make your own out of clear tubing from home depot or somewhere, that way if it didn't work, you could see the air getting in and go back to the old way.

I guess, the split in the tubing lets internal pressure out, but not lower external pressure in.

If you want to get a little more "fancy", you can do something like the Bleeder Bag / Hose Combo on this page from the Speed Bleeder site:

http://www.speedbleeder.com/News.htm

Not much possibility of getting air in your brake system (from the "bleeding end"), and a tidy way to collect the spent brake fluid.

I've had the same problem.  A friend of mine told me that when you get air in the master cylinar, the only way to get it out is to unbolt the hose from the calipar and hold it above the master cylindar so that any air bubbles will travel up the line. When you get fluid pumping, bolt it back onto the calipar quickly and continue normal bleeding.

Otherwise the air bubble will just keep going back and forth and no pressure will develop.

I also have a nice vacumm pump if that doesn't work John.

Let me know if you still have trouble.

Paul