Hope Tech X2 spongy after flight

Hi all,

Finally received my by in Australia after being here for 2 months. Really excited to get out on the trails and dodge some snakes, but slight issue with the brakes. They’re feeling pretty spongy and levers pull almost to the bars.

I’m putting this down to one (or both) of two things:

1) The flight.
2) The bike being stored upside down at my parent house for the two months while it was waiting to be sent.

I’m thinking it’s probably the storage upside down. Before I left it the levers were pretty sharp, with not a lot of travel before the bite.

Pumping the levers seems to improve them slightly, but not loads. Haven’t ridden it more than down the road yet.

So, question is: Are they likely to improve with use, and soon/eventually return to how they were? Or will they definitely need to be bled before they’re back to normal?

Never done a bleed before, although I’d normally do most other work on my bike. If I need to, is it a tricky process for the Tech X2’s, bearing in mind I only brought a multi-tool with me to Oz.

Thanks for the advice.

R

try the old ziptie trick
overnight pumpthem till they go as goo as possible the then zip tie or string the levers back as far as they will go

this pressurises the fluid making any bubbles as small as poss so they travel into the handlebar end masywr cylinder

may work. did for me once

I work abroad for 10 weeks at a time during which my bike is always stored upside down. No issues yet, (been working abroad for over a year now). I have Hope Tech V2’s. They probably just need a bleed, there’s some videos on the Hope website if you need some pointers.

Thanks guys, I’ll give the ziptie trick a go first, then look at bleeding.

R

Potentially the air in the system has worked it’s way into the caliper resulting in squidge. Keep bike upside down and try bleeding it, might remove the air very quickly.

Or get a syringe, stick it on the bleed nipple and squirt the fluid in…should force the air into the lever and escape.

Bleeding is very easy but takes time and patience the first few times doing it.

Awesome tip Trout. That’s working a treat, sure they’re almost back to normal already!

Thanks Dick for the bleeding tips. I should probably look at doing that at some point as I guess there must be some air in there somewhere.

R

Bleeding hopes brakes especially the x2’s is a simple process, as said before check out the internet.

See below