I need to bleed one of the Magura Marta's I've got fitted and have checked the Magura website, looks a fairly straight forward process. I have also looked on CRC and they have the Magura bleed service kits so was thinking of getting hold of one.
Before doing this though any advice / useful tips from Marta & Louise owners on here when it comes to bleeding them?
Ta.
In the internet tradition of answering a different question to the one asked, I took my bike into the shop to get the Maguras bled. £15 for both ends, including routing the rear hose properl, and zero hassle for me. Cheaper than a service kit!
Any one else?
The bleed kit makes it all pretty easy, definitely worth it rather than trying to bodge it. Mine seem to need a fair bit of TLC so I'm glad I made the investment rather than shelling out frequently to my (not very L) LBS.
Trickiest bit I find is getting the grub screw thingy back quickly into the caliper when taking the syringe out at the end of the process, without losing fluid. But I am mechanically declined... 
same as drain - the bleed kit makes it easy; lever horizontal, take off the reservoir cap, screw the bleed syring into the caliper and away you go. Taking the grub screw out quickly so that you don't lose loads of fluid is the hardest bit...
The bleed kit is worth the money. Get one and it's an easy job, but I doubt you could do it at all without.....
drain - the way i do it is to ensure that after you have bleed the system and put the cap back on the reservoir, position the bike so that the caliper is higher than the reservoir. That way when you take the grub screw out of the caliper it wont lose lots of fluid.
This has some good info and ahs left me with a solid lever feel.
drain - the way i do it is to ensure that after you have bleed the system and put the cap back on the reservoir, position the bike so that the caliper is higher than the reservoir. That way when you take the grub screw out of the caliper it wont lose lots of fluid.
This has some good info and ahs left me with a solid lever feel.
I agree with those saying to have the caliper higher than the master when you disconnect the bleed syringe. Another tip is to lay the caliper on its side with the grub screw pointed upward - take the bleed syringe off and the fluid won't start to come out (with the caliper above the MC). Put a drop of oil into the hole (so that it's full to the top) before putting the grub screw in. Some oil will overflow when you put the screw in, but there's no trapped air bubble in your caliper.
I had seriously messed up a bleed on one of my louises, and recently tried another method that worked very well indeed. Place the MC so it is on the flat and the caliper is above it. Connect a completely empty syringe to the caliper and then remove the MC cap. Draw some fluid out with the syringe, then top up the MC. Keep doing this until you've got all the air out. Twang the lever a couple of times then push a little oil back through from the caliper (you'll probably see a lot of very small bubbles rise in the MC reservoir) to get any trapped air out of the MC piston.
One word of caution - be absolutely sure that your pistons are completely backed into the caliper. If you don't you will get dragging pads.
Ah - top tips on the caliper position relative to the master. Told you I was mechanically declined!
I made my own bleed kit that works well. My own bleed kit consists of the following;
2x 60ml syringes
1x top cap with hole drilled in top the size of the syringe end
1x 1 metre lenght of vinyl tubing
1x old brake hose end (one end of this is into the vinyl tubing and the other to screw into where the bleed port is)
1x bottle of royal blood brake oil
The procedure is that same whether you use the purchased or home made bleed kit;
1. Remove brake pads and install a wedge to keep the pistons apart.
2. Charge one of the syringes with oil and connect this one to the bleed port of the brake caliper
3. Connect up the up to reservoir syringe
4. Push oil from the caliper up to the reservoir
5. Pump the brake level to return the oil from the reservoir back to the syringe.
6. Repeat a number of times until no bubbles are seen.
7. Leave a litte of extra oil in the reservoir then disconnect the caliper syringe and install the bleed screw.
8. Pump the brakes until hard then carefully crack the bleed screw and collect the oil in a rag.
9. Repeat step 7 a number of times until you have used the extra oil in the reservoir. NOTE do not let the level in the reservoir go too low or you will have air in the system and will have to start again.
10. Box everything up, clean the caliper, install brake pads etc.
11. Install a rubber band to depress the brake lever and leave over night
12. Go for a ride.
Hope this helps
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