Brakes are on their way back from Hope from a full service including bleed. Because the hose has to run through the swingarm I'm going to have to detach the hose from the lever to push it through, probably losing fluid and having to re-bleed. I can do this myself, but it's just a bit of a p*sser having paid for a full, professional service.
Any tips on how to minimise the loss of brake fluid? I was thinking about keeping the insert in the hose and covering the end up with duck tape and shoving it through - poss having the bike standing on it's rear wheel so the hose stays upright during the process.
Any thoughts gratefully received ta
Cocktail/match stick in the end of the hose will do
Then a quick mini bleed should see it right - air doesn't easily travel down the hose so it'll still be at the caliper end.
I had the same problem. I attatched the lever and then left the caliper dangling. I disconnected the hose at the lever end while the front of the bike was elevated and then faffed to get the nut and olive off so I could thread the hose through the guides. I then kept the hose always pointing in a vertical direction as I threaded it through the hose guides from the back wheel towards the bars. No fluid leaked from the lever because I didnt pull it and didnt shake the bike at all, so the surface tension on the fluid in the lever never broke enough to drip. I may have lost a drip from the top of the hose though.
Once the hose was threaded through I reconnected it all and then with the bike still elevated I pumped the lever whilst rattling the hose. Depending upon what levers you have, you may need to re-orientate them to allow any air you introduced to be pumped into the lever reservoir (e.g. tech levers need to be faced towards the floor I think, which is different to mini levers which I think may need to be level).
I didnt bother bleeding my brakes after doing that as they worked perfectly. But you may find you need to add fluid in at the reservoir end if you pushed any air in there.
Maybe I did the wrong thing, but my brakes are great so I dont care!
Stick a syringe & 6" tube on the bleed nipple.
Suck fluid into the tube & clamp tube.
Disconnect & re-route hose.
Re-connect to lever.
Remove reservoir cap, unclamp tube & push fluid back till 1" still in tube.
Top up reservoir.
Light your pipe & lean on mantlepiece w/ smug grin.
with teh caliper off the bike pump the lever to move the pistons out [i] a bit[/i]. disconnect at the lever end. Fit hose thru guides. reconnect at lever end - push pistons back in - this will cause any small bubbles to travel back into the master cylinder. Usually works but bleeding hopes is dead easy anyway
zip ties 🙂