Argh, oil mess and general mess all over me, the bike, the pads and the patio.

In the past whenever the brakes stop working I just bin them and buy new ones. But for some reason I bought a bleeding kit recently and have spent the afternoon in the garden fannying around with hoses and syringes and swarfega.

It’s so bloody irritating. The instructions are way too long to make sense so I just follow the general jist and then it all seems to go wrong.
Now got loads of oil over the handlebars and frame and disk and pads and caliper.

The last, and only other time I’ve bothered trying to bleed brakes was after junior was moaning about his brakes not working in the alps. I did an awesome job of bleeding them only to find a big puddle of oil on the patio. Closer examination revealed that he’d worn through the pads, and the metal backing plate, and the brake piston into whatever lies behind the piston and all the fluid had pissed out all over La Thuile.

So that was a waste of time.

Anyone know where to buy cheap Shimano Brakes?
Anyone want some old Avid brakes that might work if they were bled?

Anyone want any work done on their bike? I’m really competent.

No. I get an lbs to bleed them.

The only reason I’m even using this bike is because I can’t use the ‘good’ bike.

To be fair, it’s not very good either… Started making this really annoying screeching sound when I braked. When I looked closer, the blasted pads (rim brakes) had worn down so far that the silly wings on the brake blocks had started gouging into the wheels and made them all shiny. I’m not used to shiny on my bikes so am suspicious of this.

It’s really annoying as it’s a new wheel I had to buy when the old one cracked one day when the rim wore through. Come to think of it, the rim cracking may have been connected to the brake blocks wearing back to the metal.

Anyway, can’t stand spending time fixing bikes.

jesus, I can barley afford new pads! As for new brakes, had the same (awesome) set of brakes on my main bike since 2011 and they have not needed bleeding yet. Still feeling great too 🙂

Edit: Just noticed that you mentioned Avids. Great fun to bleed, they are! Bin might be the best option after all …

madness

The instructions are way too long to make sense so I just follow the general jist and then it all seems to go wrong.

Looks like you have identified the problem at least. The solution should be fairly obvious.

Yep..just like when I have a puncture I buy a whole new bike 😉

to be fair …. the best place for avids is the bin.

hopes are nice and easy to work on and no special tools needed for bleeding 😀

fixing my Hopes which are about 10 years old and second bleed since a rebuild

Use YouTube tutorials, it’s dead easy then. I was always fearful of doing it, but it’s actually far easier than you think when you do it step by step following the vid. 15 min job max. (That’s shimano, but also done avids that way)

All my bikes have Formula The Ones from 2011 on them, they’re awesome. So, no. But some brakes are a pain in the arse to bleed to be fair. And some really do respond well to following the instructions even when it sounds illogical or longwinded (er, have to admit that I went “I can bleed motorbike and car brakes, of course I can bleed pushiron brakes” and proceeded to **** it up)

Well that backs me up, Northwind. Mine are 2011 the ones as well. Cracking brakes.

I think in this case, if you have Avids, then yes, it’s best to buy some new ones. 😀

Once you have some shimanos, you can bleed them when required in about 15mins.

Is it worn out yet?

Nah, reckon it’s good for a couple more runs son.

Bloody hell.

Yeah and I change my car every time it needs a service 😯

Brakes don’t need regular bleeding anyway.

We all remember that thread and we wish you did 😉

😆

I too lost too many riding hours trying to resurrect a set of sticky-pistonned Avids. In the end got rid and put on some £35-an-end Deores. Excellent brakes, but told myself I would treat them as disposable. 5 years on they still work as good as new! Dont think id bother fiddling with them when the time comes….

Avid was one of the first victims of predictive texting – the computer missed an ‘o’ out of the name.

So in summary OP the problem is that you don’t do basic maintenance (like checking/replacing pads), and when you do attempt fixing things, you make a bollox of it because you can’t follow written instructions or watch instructional videos…
But it’s cheap brake’s fault… Right?

Bin em and buy new ones if you want, it’s your money…

What happens when you take the car for its MOT?

Whoaa cookeeaa dude. Chill man.

I don’t recall saying it was the brake’s fault. It’s totally my ‘fault’. I can’t be arsed with bike maintenance. I’m quite open that I’m the turd here.

I just though I’d give the opposite point of view to the mind bogglingly tedious angles/ valves logo alignment/ carbon or Zee/ sled gnarpoon / do you think my but looks fat on this Meccanoitis that the forums love so much.
TBH I DO feel dirty chucking out a perfectly reasonable pair of brakes; which is why i tried to fix them. Funnily enough the bite point is now awesome; no air at all. I’m sure the damn things would work as new if they didn’t have a slick of hydraulic fluid coating each and every part of them.

Noise like a banshee.

Just to be clear here. It was the cheapo shimano deores that I bled. The 7 avid brakes are staying firmly in the bin.

I’d go so far as to say that Avid brakes are so shit; it’s almost as if they were built by someone as mechanically incompetent/ uninterested as me.

Bled my Maguras once, just because I bought a kit. Do I need to do bleeds more often than once in 5 years?

I’m sure the damn things would work as new if they didn’t have a slick of hydraulic fluid coating each and every part of them.

Then you’ve done the hard part. Get the Muc off out!

i did something similar. i bought a bleed kit and new pads for a set of formula rx’s that had been sitting unused for a long time. about 3 years or so. had them all bleed up and running, but there must have been other seals busted or something else wrong and it was back to square one. saw a set of shimano on sale at chain reaction, cut my losses on the formulas and bought the shimanos.

Haven’t bothered reading the whole thread but…

I’ve had a lot of success sticking with Shimano, using a Shimano screw in funnel at the lever and a vacuum car clutch bleeder at the caliper end. Just pull a lot of fluid through under a heavy vacuum and knock it off when the bubbles stop.

Takes seconds and gives a flawless bleed… and it’s completely mess free!

I might make my first YouTube video showing this method as I can and I’m sure a lot of other people can empathise with your original post.

errr 12 year old Maguras, bought 2nd hand 7 years ago, never touched them. Do you bleed your car brakes all the time?

Everyone slags off avid, my set worked so well that my guides have tough competition when it comes to modulation in my mind. And if you have trouble bleeding Guides or Avids check out: http://enduro-mtb.com/en/how-to-correctly-bleed-a-sram-guide-brake/
The best no BS guide.

New set if Saints, but I think I bled my Hopes once in 5 years after I fitted a longer hose. Leave them alone

Part of the problem is the obsession with bleeding brakes. Unless you’ve had a hose off or they’re actually leaking, they’re sealed and air shouldn’t be getting in or out, but “give em a bleed” is presented as the cure for just about every problem you might encounter with hydraulic brakes.

OP – if the only problem with the Shimanos is that they’re covered in fluid then take the pads off, stick them in the oven at 200C for 10 minutes, clean the discs and calipers with IPA or brake cleaner, then replace pads and carry on.

Dragging the brakes down a big hill will probably also achieve the same effect.

they’re sealed and air shouldn’t be getting in or out,

Except they aren’t sealed more like “sealed”. And it’s an open system, with pistons moving through o-rings and so on. So yes, air does get in and water/moisture. And dirt past the seals.

It’s vaguely the same sort of “sealed” as sealed bearings are. Far better than a completely open system. But still leaky.

pdw – Member

Part of the problem is the obsession with bleeding brakes. Unless you’ve had a hose off or they’re actually leaking, they’re sealed and air shouldn’t be getting in or out, but “give em a bleed” is presented as the cure for just about every problem you might encounter with hydraulic brakes.

Sure but… The flipside is that fluid can have air suspended in it when it’s added, and the current bleed might not be that good- it’s pretty common ime for factory-bled brakes to have air in the reservoir, which sooner or later gets into the working fluid

(that’s where the issues with home bleeds most often occur imo, people bleed that actual hydraulic working fluid fine but leave air in the reservoir or don’t reset the bellows or whatever and so it goes wrong when the pads wear or the bike gets turned upside down. And then they just chalk it up to one of those things)

So yes, air does get in and water/moisture.

Water maybe, with DOT, but how does air get in? you’d need negative pressure in the system. When the lever is released? That would hardly seem to be enough surely?

I may get a brake fluid water tester for this (and the car!)

still leaky

As anyone who’s had the leaky Shimano squeal will confirm, if you’re losing even a tiny bit of fluid you will know all about it. The seals on an hydraulic system are very different to those on a bearing which are very thin, and necessarily a trade off between sealing and friction.

An hydraulic seal has to hold fluid under very high pressure. As molgrips says, the drop in pressure when you release the lever is tiny by comparison. In fact, it may never drop below atmospheric, as the seal itself will push the piston back.

It’s a fair point that any air from the reservoir may get into the lines if the bike is turned upside down, but equally, it’ll work its way out again in normal use.

Nope…I don’t have enough disposable income to see that as a workable idea.

I got a kit and did a couple of bleeds.
Even made a decent job of it.
Then I discovered LBS only charge £10 to do it.
I’ll not be doing it myself any more 😀

what you need are some cable disc brakes

Oh lord no, I’m far too poor to do that.

In my very limited experience, 75% of time riders say “my brakes need bleeding” they really need to centre their calliper.

But that aside, it’s pretty easy to do, but if you don’t fancy it, ask your LBS to do it, they’ll be like new again for about £15 an end.

Shimano brakes are easy peasy to bleed if you buy the little screw on cup thing for about £5, just make sure to use Shimano oil or they can eat their seals and you’ll need new ones.

I did once have some Avid Juicys I couldn’t bleed, so I put em on Ebay. Let someone else bin em I say.
I also had a set of Juicy 4s that last for years without any maintenance. he bike was semi-retired and when I came to use it the brake fluid had corroded the calipers and leaked out. All bikes I come into contact with have Shimano now.

I have got 2 sets of Elixirs that were both bought(on separate occasions) as spares or repairs.
Stripped both sets down(actually just the calipers)cleaned them with soapy water, dried them thoroughly, rebuilt them with silicon grease on all the seals and once bled and new pads fitted have been running faultlessly(touchwood) ever since.

Agreed that the bleed process isn’t the most straightforward but if you use a proper bleed kit and decent instructions then you should end up with a decent lever feel and working brake.

On a side note if anyone has a Elixir 7 rear brake they want rid of(preferable in White) feel free to give me a shout 😀