Is there a good way of doing this really carefully to avoid having to bleed them afterwards? I’m thinking perhaps squeezing the lever as you pull the hose out to avoid sucking air in – lacky band on lever, do the other side the same and “mate” the fluid meniscus from the hose onto the menuiscus on the other cylinder?

Good idea? Fool’s errand? Or do you not even need to be that careful?

Ta!

I’m thinking perhaps squeezing the lever as you pull the hose out

Do not do this.

not even if I do it really carefully? just enough to replace the missing hose with fluid?

[/quote]I’m thinking perhaps squeezing the lever as you pull the hose out

Do not do this.

Please do

Just pull them out and put them back in the other side. The hard part is finding enough hands.

Cheers for the doom mongering/anticipatory schadenfreude.

Why not?

Are you banking on my complete lack of mechanical competence and imgining brake fluid all over my face, clothes, bike and eyeballs?

Thanks Mike. Is it really that simple? no air bubbles caught?

just swap the hoses being very carefull not to spill any fluid. do not squeeze the lever at all. it works fine.

I chose to squeeze the levers a few times BEFORE breaking the circuits. My logic being that when re-connected and the caliper pushed back in, any air would be bled back to the master cylinder.
Seemed to work ok but I might just be kidding myself. It might not have been necessary but can’t do any harm so far as I can imagine.

Just pull them out and put them back in the other side. The hard part is finding enough hands.

You could also blow down the hose when you’ve removed it to ensure you don’t lose any oil. 😉

Ace, I won’t worry about it too much then!

Cheers, all.

DezB’s excellent guide is here.

push the pistons out a bit before removing the hoses, attach hoses & push pistons in again. Any air introduced to the system when reconnecting the hoses will be pushed to the levers. Then put the bleed block in the caliper and attach the bleed funnel & pump the lever a few times to allow the air bubbles to escape.

Cheers again for the advice. I thought that there’d be something in the 12 pager, but thought someone might be able to save me trawling through it.

Lazy, I know, but the help’s appreciated!

Did mine just like rondo101. Lovely.