Brake Bleeding questions

[ppc750]

So I replaced my front and rear brake fluid yesterday and noticed a few things:

I couldn't use my vacuum pump to suck the brake fluid through the system via the bleeding nipple, so I had to do it the manual way and use the master cylinder to pump the fluid and close the nipple after each pump to make sure there wasn't any air that got in the system.

Is this normal? Or did I do something wrong? I'm not exactly an expert on brake bleeding but I'm pretty sure I did it right. My vacuum pump is a handheld one with a gauge for the vacuum pressure so I could tell it was actually creating a vacuum, but it wasn't sucking any brake fluid through the system until I used the master cylinder to do it.

[SocalTech]

that is normal.

unlike Car brakes, motorcycle brakes have a piston in the master cylinder and unless the lever is pulled in the reservoir is cut off from the line to the brakes.

i always bleed brakes by hand as its more reliable.

you can use the vacuum method but the lever has to be held in, with a zip tie or something similar, then you can pull the fluid through the lines but still run the chance of air bubbles left in the line.

i hope this helps