I have a problem with my rear Saint brake which I will try to summarise briefly.

When I ride the lever pulls to the bar. This leads to many brown pants moments. It takes a couple of pulls to pump up and provide non-spectacular stopping power. This is despite many attempts at bleeding it with all the correct gear.

I currently have the brake off the bike dangling from a spare handlebar.

I have a funnel in the lever, syringe at the caliper and one old brake pad between the pistons.

There is not enough braking power to push out the pistons. No matter how much fluid I put in the pistons will not clamp the pad. If I overfill the system using a syringe at both ends I can clamp the brake pad using the syringe. Even at this point when it should be all locked up there is still loads of pull in the lever.

I just can’t make it solid. The front brake works exactly as you’d expect.

I would have sent it back to Madison but I bought them in 2013, used them for two frustrating weeks in the Alps then threw the bike back in the garage. I suspect two years later they’d tell me to sling my hook. They were bloody expensive as well as I chose to ‘support my LBS’ when I should have bought online.

Yours, Frustrated, trying to fettle a bike for a once every two years trip to proper mountains.

Bike shop.

I can install headsets, bottom brackets, perform a fork lowers service etc but bleeding brakes is like mission impossible for me….some people can do it, i cant…my LBS always do them and they always come back neck snappingly awesome….dont know how they do it, sorry i couldnt help.

2 year warranty on Saint: http://www.shimano.com/publish/content/global_cycle/en/sg/index/Warranty/warranty_.html

try the epic bleed kit, easiest way to get a decent bleed on shimano brakes. however it does sound like something else might be amiss

Sounds liek something’s broken, they’re real easy to bleed IME

Have you adjusted the lever pull? If the levers are wound in too close to the bar the brakes will feel naff, good bleed or not.

I’m using the epic bleed kit but to be honest I’m not concerned about the bleed they’re really easy and I’ve been doing my own forever. Levers are wound all the way out front and rear for setup purposes. Always had bang on brakes in the past.

Top shout on the 2 year warranty though I’ll check with the lbs I bought them at. Might be too late now I’m away at the end of the month.

I’ve used the Epic kit on the tandem rear brake (Saints, very long hose), you really do need to do the “flicking the lever/rotating the lever” thing for a long time to remove any bubbles. Put some gloves on first or you’ll get sore fingers. When I’d finished mine, the lever travel was just as bad as before I started. As we were using the bike the next day we just rode it as it was………….miraculously the lever travel fixed itself during the ride and all is now fine. Can’t explain than unless a bubble worked its way up to the reservoir.

knackered seal in the lever.

Eu BikeSHop do replacement levers cheap

I have nothing to add, but describing your brakes as ‘haunted’ made me laugh so thanks.

^^^ Mary loves Dick 😯

Hi, I had this same problem with my brand new Zee brake.
Had a shop bleed it, did it myself twice but nothing changed.

I then got a tip to ‘overfill’ the brake, did that and the problem was gone.
At least for half a bike park visit. I still have the original resin pads in, so metallic pads could work better as they don’t wear as quickly.

Overfilling it helps with the lever feel as well. Much firmer and less stroke. But the pads wear, so it doesn’t last forever unfortunately.

Cheers

How do you over fill them?

Might be a daft question, but How do you over fill them?

When the bleeding is finished, you take off the funnel and put in the bolt to close the reservoir in the lever and then you push more oil in with the syringe on the caliper, forcing the pistons out. To check the lever feel you need to close the bleeding bolt on the caliper.

It will not work when you’re using the bleed block obviously.
And it’s up to you by how much you reduce the free stroke. Getting the free stroke even on the other brake is a bit tricky, but not that hard.
If you put too much in, just squeeze the lever and it goes back into the syringe.

And no free stroke means the pads are constantly touching the brake rotor, so putting too much in will not be ideal either.

My brakes have just had the most thorough bleeding they’ve ever had with lots of agitation and leaving overnight. Can’t believe the amount of air I got out of them. It just kept coming. Gave them a final bash this morning, couldn’t get any bubbles out and it’s all fresh fluid.

Over filled them by winding the pad adjustment all the way out and fitting a bleed block. Pump the caliper end until there’s no movement at all in the lever. Fit to bike and wind in the pad adjustment. Fresh new sintered pads and rotors from Superstar (my ice-techs melted in France).

To be fair they feel amazing on the bike. It’s the first time I’ve had a satisfying bit at the lever with a reasonable amount of travel. They feel like I’ve always wanted them to.

Don’t have time to test ride it but I’m actually looking forward to riding the DH bike for the first time in ages. Fingers crossed.

Well, I hope that actually worked.

I just ordered a new set of XT levers to mate to the Zee calipers. We’ll see how that works out.

Any news on your brakes, sharkattack?

I changed the lever for the rear brake yesterday evening. Apparently I had huge amounts air in the caliper as well.
I’ll try it out later today.

im using current xt levers on m810 saint calipers and they are astonishing, and im 16 stone of chaos