I had Avid Codes on my old DH bike when they first came out which were awesome, they had a simple and effective method to adjust both the lever distance and also the pad contact/bite point.

The Shimano Deore M615s I’ve got on the Stumpy still stop the bike fine and have lever adjustment, but the feel of the brakes is spongy and terrible and don’t have bite point adjustment which is a feature that I personally think makes all the difference.

What disc brake setups would you recommend that have the same or more stopping power than the Deore’s, but also have an effective bite point adjustment system?

Loving my Guide RSC brakes.

And my Hope Evo 4 Tech 3 thingy stuff…

Hope have the best and easy to adjust brakes

And my Hope Evo 4 Tech 3 thingy stuff…

Hope Tech 3 E4 look awesome, but do I really need to pay £300 to get pair of brakes with bite point adjustment though? 😯

If your shimano brakes are spongy something is wrong with them I would have thought.

If your shimano brakes are spongy something is wrong with them I would have thought

I bled both brakes just after I got the bike, and also checked alignment on front and rear. They stop the bike like I’ve thrown an anchor off the back of it, but there’s just far too much travel in the lever before they start doing anything.

Would the pads being worn increase lever travel? (bearing in mind I bled the brakes in their current state of wear)

Nope – if the lever throw is too long yo have sticky pistons. they should move out gradually to take up for waer but often with bike discs they stick in the seals -the normal on/off movement is distortion in the seals not moving thru them

Take them off the bike and pump them till the pistons move visibly. Be careful not to pop them out. LUbe the pistons with the correct fluid and keep working them in an out until they move freely thru the seals

the long lever throw is the pistons having to move further than usual but remaining stuck in the seals so spring back too far.

Sounds easy enough, looks like I’m doing a caliper strip down tomorrow evening then!

Will I need to re-bleed them once they are unstuck or will they self adjust into their new position?

they shouldn’t need rebleeding – you are not doing anything to introduce air into them. You might find one piston sticky and the other move freely – you will need to hold the moving one in. Be very careful not to let them pop out – total movement is only a couple of MM. If you bled them with half worn pads they might not go back all the way as you could have excess oil – the key thing tho is to get them moving freely.

Definitely something not right with your Deore’s, I have 2 sets and a pair of XT’s and the Deore’s have less throw before working and give less when pulled hard than the XT’s.