I’m ashamed to say that in my many years riding MTB’s I’ve never bled my brakes. Now broke so am gonna have to do it myself. I have Magura Marta’s, do I need to buy a Magura bleed kit as they seem pricier than all the others? If not, can anyone recommend which one I should use?

Anyone..?

The “Cyclo Universal Bleed Kit” works (and will with most others manu’s if you change).

There is probably a cheaper avid / something else kit that will also work just on maguras so I’d be reluctant to pay full whack.

Someone with specific knowledge will be along shortly…..

Bump

Where are you loddrik? I’ve got a Magura Bleed kit knocking about. Actually… I don’t own any maguras any more. Mail me. Address in profile

Try epic bleed solutions online or ebay mate, i have had nothing but good products and service from them

A couple of things; there are two general classes of brake fluid – DOT and mineral oil. Don’t mix the two, either in bleed kits or brakes. If you have a bleed kit that uses mineral oil (Maguras, from memory, are mineral) then don’t use it to bleed brakes that take DOT fluid, or put DOT fluid in them – it’ll do horrible things.

I haven’t ever bled Maguras, so don’t have any knowledge of that system, but I have bled a *lot* of Hope, Formula / Avid (Formula designed the early Avid brakes, so there are similarities) and Shimano.

A couple of general tips:

* Take your time

* Be prepared to take it to a friendly local shop and pay them to do it properly should you make a mistake

* Find as many instructional videos or manuals as possible for our model of brake, and read up / watch them. Magura’s manuals can be found here: http://www.magura.com/en/service/downloads.html

* You don’t always need a fancy bleed kit – sometimes a spanner, a length of tubing and a yoghurt pot is all you need.

* Your local bike shop can be really helpful here – assuming you’ve gone to the trouble of making friends and buying from them regularly. You can probably get tips from the mechanic in exchange for beer / donuts / cake. You can’t get this sort of thing from an online bike shop, which is why it’s worth supporting good local bike shops, IMO.

Pinkbike step by step here: LINKY!

Epic bleed solutions do cheap kits, I used one for my now replaced Avid Juicys. Just be careful not to suck air past the seal when the syringe is in high pressure: the little ring of air between the plunger seals will creep into the chamber if you are to rough. Not cool!

This is one of those odd things where it can be cheaper to get the LBS to do it. But it’s obviously cheaper longterm once you have tools. Luckily you don’t need to get alcohol as they use mineral oil which is far less freaky to work with.