Bootstrap Navbar collapse not working properly

Question

I'm using twitter bootstrap on my site and when I collapse the window partially, this happens! If I collapse the window further, then the desired button appears and the links disappear.

Q) Why is this happening? I want the nav links to collapse at this window width, leaving the button. Nav code below:

<nav class="navbar navbar-inverse navbar-fixed-top" role="navigation">
<div class="container">
    <div class="navbar-header">
        <button type="button" class="navbar-toggle" data-toggle="collapse" data-target=".navbar-ex1-collapse">
            <span class="sr-only">Toggle navigation</span>
            <span class="icon-bar"></span>
            <span class="icon-bar"></span>
            <span class="icon-bar"></span>
        </button>
        <a class="navbar-brand" href="/" style="font-size: 24px;">My brand name</a>
    </div>

    <!-- Collect the nav links, forms, and other content for toggling -->
    <div class="collapse navbar-collapse navbar-ex1-collapse">
        <ul class="nav navbar-nav">
            <li class="<%= GetCssClassNavItemHome() %>"><a href="/">Home</a></li>
            <li class="<%= GetCssClassNavItem("/about") %>"><a href="/about">About</a></li>                
            <li class="<%= GetCssClassNavItem("/services") %>"><a href="/services">Services</a></li>
            <li class="<%= GetCssClassNavItem("/project") %>"><a href="/projects">Projects</a></li>
            <li class="<%= GetCssClassNavItem("/prices") %>"><a href="/prices">Prices</a></li>
            <li class="<%= GetCssClassNavItem("/blog") %>"><a href="/blog">Blog</a></li>
            <li class="<%= GetCssClassNavItem("/contact") %>"><a href="/contact">Contact</a></li>
        </ul>
        <ul class="nav navbar-nav navbar-right nav-pills">
            <li>                     
                <a target="_blank" href="http://www.linkedin.com/">
                    <i class="fa fa-linkedin fa-2x"></i>
                </a>
            </li>
        </ul>
    </div>
    <!-- /.navbar-collapse -->
</div>
<!-- /.container -->

Answer 1

The problem is the padding applied in the class .container - 15px both left and right. If you reduce the padding, the problem goes away.

If you add another class to the div.container - in this example, say lesspadding:

<nav class="navbar navbar-inverse navbar-fixed-top" role="navigation">
<div class="container lesspadding">
etc.

and then apply different padding to the new class, like so:

.lesspadding {
    padding-left: 10px;
    padding-right: 2px;
}

Bootply here