Last week I had an issue with my rear brake – was spongy and pulling to bar on any decent length of decent.

The brakes are Magura MT Trail Sport and I don’t have any Magura Oil and was busy so I left my bike in LBS for a bleed of the rear. When I dropped it off the mechanic said that he might as well do the front too as he could improve it a bit too so I said OK thinking I would have ultra sharp brakes afterwards….

Had first ride since the bleed this weekend and now not only is the rear brake as bad or worse than before the front is definitely a lot worse!

What is the best approach to take with this? Is it fair enough to think that they might offer to re do the bleed or since I squeezed the levers in the shop and it seemed OK have I accepted the job? I don’t want to be an arse about it – if it were just the rear again I might not be so bothered but now the front is significantly worse too which is annoying to say the least.

Take it back , you don’t need to be an arse about it but if the brakes are not right it should be pretty obvious . One thing though if they felt ok and then not ok there could be a seal issue with them which no bleeding will ever cure .

Honestly the best approach is just to learn how to do it yourself and don’t rely on a bike shop.

The sooner you take it back the better. I’ve seen people bring back a bike months later saying it’s not right. It’s these a bike shop has a problem with. Having a bike a week and taking it back as you are not happy with the job is acceptable.

My lbs would rather you took it back to sort out then complain about it to other people or on the Internet.

If it’s been done properly and they feel crap then perhaps they have seen better days or it could have been done by the Saturday kid and the owner needs to know its not up to scratch.

How old are the brakes?

I do my own, couldn’t get them right recently, turned out to be the master cylinder and I needed new levers. These things happen.

Brakes are just a few weeks old. I was happy with the front before they bled it.

The rear has to be disconnected for frame routing so I assumed there was a bit of air in and a bleed wound sort it out.

Obviously in an ideal scenario I’d have had all the kit needed to do it and sorted it myself but point is that I used professionals and now have worse performing brakes.

Just take it back OP, a hassle and potentially a difficult conversation but if the lbs is worth dealing with they’ll put it right.

care to name?

MT’s are an absolute doddle to bleed! Did they have correct bleed port connector?

Yeah I am going to give them the chance to resolve if possible. Its about a 20min drive so debating whether to call first or just roll in with the bike and explain face to face.

bruneep – I’ll give them a chance to sort/see what they say first of all incase a witch hunt starts…..

Give them a call, make a time so that somebody or the person who bled them is there and they can test it and be ready to re do it while you wait. If they can’t make it right then it’s another question.

thecaptain – Member
Honestly the best approach is just to learn how to do it yourself and don’t rely on a bike shop.

Speaking as somebody who can do their own these days it’s hardly worth the hassle, gone are the days of boiling fluid once a month on unerspecced brakes, leaky ones that seemed to go off etc. I swapped from hope to shimano (mistake) and for the amount of work needed the LBS was better equipped and nicer than standing around outside under a light in winter. I needed a hose shortened and internally fitted to my new Hope’s LBS did it fine for a good price, I didn’t need to buy fluid, hoses or get the kit out. Somedays the bike shop is easier and more cost effective. Everyone makes mistakes so give them a chance to rectify it – always always always call the person who did the work before going online shouting about it – the internet can’t fix the problem…

This seems very much like a conversation to be had in your own head, OP. I mean, surely in any other walk of life if you have a repair job done by someone else and is not right, you’d just give em a call and get em to sort it properly, without feeling the need to post on an internet forum, right?

Could it be that we as a society have become so detached from interacting with one another that we have to check how to do it on the internet first? Bigger questions…