Forum menu
I'm feeling a bit picky today.
If you bought a brake as described above, would you assume that the lever , hose and caliper would be connected?
Is it possible to connect a lever and a hose with fluid in and not need to do at least a little bleed?
I have all the tools so it's not really an issue but if my brother had bought it he wouldn't have a clue what to do with it.
Yes, it cannot be both "fully bled" and dissembled.
That said, you've usually got to trim hoses and you can do that on Shimano brakes at least and they go back together 'ready to ride', although not exactly 100% perfect imho.
I wouldn't suspect you could ship a hose without most of the fluid / oil seeping out of it.
I'm more puzzled at who you bought it from that it came in parts.
Merlin. Hose connected to caliper and a separate lever.
I've had this before from Merlin with a supposedly brand new set of Avid Ultimate carbon brakeset that you guessed it did not turn up in the aftermarket boxes as should have.
Cost me a heck of a lot at the time.
Put me off using Merlin for a while tbf. not impressed.
Hm. Personally I’d take Merlin’s description of being bled with a big punch of salt anyway, they often sell EU sourced kit that they’ve switched the levers round on, and as anyone that’s seen YouTube knows, you never need to bleed after taking a Shimano lever off or trimming the hose ... 🙄. In general it doesn’t bother me as it’s cheap for a reason and I’d expect to be trimming and bleeding anyway, but I suppose it does catch some that aren’t willing/able to bleed before use.
In general, if a ‘fully bled’ brake from any source arrives and actually doesn’t need bleeding, I view this as a bonus...
I did ask them to change the product description but I got fobbed off.
Yes they are cheap but you should get what you pay for regardless of cost.
If a set is fully bled then it is assembled bled and ready to fit.
Bought 3 sets of aftermarket brakes in past and they were indeed fully bled and were fitted and felt fully bled in use. Bit different nowadays with internal-routing being so prevalent.
Agree that goods should be as described, but given almost all bike kit is listed with a copy paste of the manufacturer blurb that may or may not describe the item usefully, this isn’t something it’s fair to single Merlin out for. The entire industry is universally bad at this with possible exceptions of odd small shops here and there.
Maybe not entirely but Merlin cycles are particularly used to fobbing off customers, well that's the impression I have had being a customer of theirs in the past.
I also yes took advantage of a particular offer which I felt was real good at the time except items arrived with paint flaking away.
In general mind, Merlin cycles might be good for mega bargain kit but a false economy to do so.
The entire industry is universally bad at this with possible exceptions of odd small shops here and there.
Dunno, I got sram level tl brakes from Evans, they came in retail boxes, everything connected and ready to fit (unless you decide you need to shorten the hoses they were good to go).
If the hoses were not connected it suggests the package wasn't brand new or if it was, it was cobbled together from seperate OEM parts?
Is it a J-Kit set (usually says on the hose)?
This comes pre-charged with fluid but ha a membrane over both apatures to stop fluid leaking out in transit.
Some Seam brakes now come like that, with the caliper and hose as one, with a little screw on cap at the end of the hose, and a lever with a screw in bung. The two just attach together and are ready to go. My Guide RE brakes came like this and work excellently with no additional bleeding.
Not a problem. There should be a seal over both ends of the brake hose/lever and shouldn't need any additional bleeding once connected.
FWIW, I've changed over a hundred or more of shimano brake hose/lever combos from Euro to UK spec and I reckon I've had to bleed maybe half a dozen in that time.
I've seen some Shimano brakes come with they levers separate but full of oil - with little seal caps over the hose end and lever end. Allows for easy assembly in internal routed France. You double checked that op?
I knew the lever had fluid in it but assumed the hose didn’t as when I pulled the plastic cap off no fluid came out, When I cut the hose fluid was in there.
Assembled the brake put the bleed bucket on and gave it the lever flick.
Bubbles did come out so gave it a full bleed.
So I would say yes, the individual items are fully bled . Whether the whole brake is, is down to your mechanicing skills.
They should still say that assembly is required.