and does it really make a difference when bleeding ?

some guides say wind the screw out a few turns before bleeding. I find that the back brake comes in a bit more than the front, probably as the hose is longer and more compressibility in the system than the short front. Wondering if I bled it with the freestroke undone a bit and then screwed it in a few turns afterwards would it take this extra travel away ?

Bump for the sober crowd 🙂

What does the freestroke do? I turned mine ‘up'(?) and cant find much difference

The theory apparently is that you bleed with it open (I don’t know how far unscrewed it goes before screw comes out !) And then replace pads etc. In use then you can tighten screw and it reduces chamber volume and hence brings pads closer to rotor, meaning that it bites sooner into lever travel.

Mine are at factory setting of fully in, so curious if following above when bleeding would change the bite point of rear.

Some threads say it does nothing tho 🙂

I have bled lots of Shimano brakes and yes, you should screw the freestroke out to bleed them. As iainc says, it increases the size of the chamber in the lever so you get more fluid into the system. Then you can screw it back in and it will actually do something.

Thanks Mister P. How much should I undo the screw ? Does it have a stop point after a few turns ?

It comes quite a way out, you can give it a good few turns.

The most useful thread regarding this subject yet. At least of the ones I could find. Everyone else seemed to think the screw does nothing. That doesn’t seem like shimano’s MO.

Right, I have just redone the back, bleeding with the screw about 4 full turns out. Reassembled and screwed it back in. Yes it has moved bite point out a little. Will do again later with it unscrewed a lot more.

Would I be right to assume it alters the position of the m/c piston in a similar way to Hope’s bite point adjuster, ie just giving you a patch of dead travel before covering the transfer port and creating brake pressure? (just interested, can’t check on mine as I went for 3 finger/no frivolities levers)

Coatesy – I think so, or at least in theory. It isn’t as effective as I had hoped, but I only unscrewed it about half the screw travel. Taking kids to footie and swimming now but will fettle again later.

The old ones did almost FA, wind it all the way in and the pads seemed to shift almost imperceptibly, the lever feel changed about the equivalent of a quarter turn on the servowave, not tried the new ones yet.

If you look at the lever when you screw the freestroke screw in or out you can see it move away from/towards the bars.

SST – yes, a little, but nowt compared to the knurled reach adjuster. I suspect the key is down to where it is set when system is open, ie during bleeding.

BTW i have several of these brakes and on all of them the rear comes in closer to the bars than the front.
I put it down to hose length as the rear brake (hope moto) on our tandem does it even more with the hose being even longer.
I just use the reach adjuster to get the bitepoint the same back and front.

stu – yes, suspected that to be the case too, cheers

well I can categorically say that that freestroke screw doesn’t do much at all, at least on mine. I tried a bleed with the screw unwound about 6 turns, then reassembled, tried brakes, wound screw in and tried again. It does move the lever a bit, but mimics the reach adjust mainly.

The brakes are working perfectly anyway, and as with singlespeedstu, my xt brakes (this is my 4th or 5th set over the years) all have had a little more travel on rear, with longer hose than front, probably for the reasons that stu and I mention above.

This was more a wet day exercise to experiment with the freestroke, which I’ve never really understood and a chance to play with my new epicbleedsolutions bleed kit, which is great – dead simple and a quick and easy solution. I can do a bleed in sub 15 mins now, per end (although I have been playing with it for a few hrs over last 24 hrs 🙂 )