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I recently mentioned to my old man that i think my front Avid Elixir R brake should be bled as it hasn't been done for a long time.
He claimed that never should a brake have to be bled unless its messed with, does he have a point?
I tried to argue but i guess bleeding a brake gets the air out and, how would air get in?
So why do we need to bleed our breaks?
Bit of light reading... 😀
Never had to bleed a MTB brake, even after shortening the hose, if the brake needs bleeding then someone has messed around with it or something has failed.
Rubbish. I've just come back from a very wet weekend at Afan and the brakes that I've not touched all year were still working but feeling a little under par. A quick bleed was all they needed to get them feeling like new again. The stuff in the reservoir was a very different colour from the stuff in the new pot.
This probably applies more to DOT fluid brakes rather then mineral oil systems as the DOT fluid absorbs moisture.
I seem to remember that I'm supposed to change the stuff on the motorbike every two years and the mountain bike gets a much harder life. I do that about once a year.
But in a weekend is it really going to absorb that much moisture?
The state of the fluid that's come out of some systems I've bled beggars belief.Black,with bits of seal and swarf floating around.Fluid seperated into two distict fluids because theres so much water in them!
Not over a weekend but definitely over a longer period such as a year.
Glycol ether brake fluid such as DOT 4 is hygroscopic (water absorbing) over time. This effectively reduces it's boiling point and in extreme conditions such as long descents will reduce the effectiveness of the braking system.
Bleeding the system on your Avids should be an easy task so why faff around debating whether it should be done, just get on with it and then you know where you stand..
Otherwise, if you really want maintenance free brakes, fit Shimano or Magura as they use mineral oil (non hygroscopic) and not glycol ether based fluid.
I agree to an extent. My hope e4s weren't serviced/bled etc for 4 years. I stripped them down as I had a new man cave and needed a project and have had to keep ti kerning with them every few months since.