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Elixir 5's, so no bite point adjust.
OK, bled them again with the intention they'd go on the missus new bike. Bled them once, the front's fine, the rear's OK. If you run the lever reach wound right out it's fine, super powerful, but the bite points inconsistent.
First pull of the lever if pulls an inch ish, second pull half inch, and it keeps doing that until you leave it a small amount of time when it goes back to an inch. Obviously with the levers in a more normal position this means the first pull goes straight to the bars.
Bled twice with no difference 🙁
The old set on my bike did exactly the same until I binned them. Not really an option as this bike was supposed to be built from the contents of the shed!
I fixed mine with a set of XT's 😆
Do the hoses have "avid" on them, coloured silver?
If so, get new all black hoses, rebleed and all will work well, if original owner, can be sorted for free, drop into lbs and they can talk to tech centre about it.
What position do you have the bite point adjuster when bleeding? I was speaking to a Sram tech at the weekend, he was saying to ignore the video guide that says have the bite point as far out as possible, instead have adjuster around halfway or even set the bite point right the way in
So did I 🙂I fixed mine with a set of XT's
What's wrong with the hoses?
5's so no bite point adjust.
If your hose has "avid" in silver written on it, it expands when you pull the lever and you get inconsistent lever feel.
Other than that, use a "professional" avid bleed kit, easy to bleed, the cheaper kit is really hard to avoid getting bubbles by-passing the plunger in the syringe
Not sure it feels like expanding hose, unless it expands then stays expanded between lever pulls (which I guess might be plausible).
My first guess was a bent rotor or overly elastic seals pushing the pads back further than necessary. Neither seems likely though.
First pull of the lever if pulls an inch ish, second pull half inch, and it keeps doing that until you leave it a small amount of time when it goes back to an inch. Obviously with the levers in a more normal position this means the first pull goes straight to the bars.
That is air still in the system, I used to have the exact same problem with a set of elixir 5s.
I was able to get them to work perfectly after a lot of faff, that faff was required each time I bled them - in the end I gave up and bought a set of SLXs.
However, make sure your calliper is aligned and that both pistons come out the same amount on both sides.
When bleeding place the levers 90 degrees to the ground.
If you have bled your brakes go for a ride, don't bleed them again - why? because the vibrations from riding will cause air bubbles to relocate and hopefully collect at the lever (I always found that the majority of the air will be in the lever).
Ideal scenario would be to go for a ride, remove the brake from the bike hang it vertically ensuring that the lever bleed port is the highest point.
For me I have found that when bleeding the lever it helps if you pull the lever syringe and hold it, then pump the brake on and off, keep doing this until large bubbles stop coming out (disclaimer, this is something I do, if it does any damage to your brakes I can only be sorry, but it worked for me).
edit: it isn't hoses or seals, I have replaced the lot on my Avids and I have always had that problem. I put it down to poor design in that the reservoir is too small and therefore [i]any[/i] air in the system [u]will[/u] affect performance.
I did try that trick of riding round the car park dragging the brake hard (gets it hot, but the bubble cant expand, once the levers released it gets pushed right upto the lever/reservoir. It's currently in the shed with the lever zip tied to the bars.
I'll give that another go with the lever horizontal.