I’ve got a rear deore brake on my bike which has been on for bout a year or so, the bike doesn’t get used much so the brake hasn’t seen much action. The lever feels fine but there’s hardly any stopping power in the brake, I’ve replaced the pads, bled the brake and tried a different disc (180mm). Any ideas?

Bad bleed or Possibly leaking?

clean everything off then elastic band the lever on. Leave it overnight then inspect for leaks around lever, cables, pistons.

if no leaks have another go at bleeding. Could still be air or dirt in there.

I’ve just had to buy two new calipers due to leaky pistons on 6 month old deores and this is how I discovered the problem.

Cheers I’ll give it a go but to be honest it all seemed clean when I took the pads out earlier.

Could be talking through my bung here but it sounds to me like it just needs bedding in. If the lever feels good , doesnt feel spongey or need to be pumped a couple of times to feel taut, then I dont think it needs a bleed or could be leaking. Good article here.

Edit: could also possibly be that the whole pad isnt contacting the disc. Ive had a few bikes where the brake was bit misaligned and so only half the pad was actually gripping the disc.

Dont do what I did….put Dot5 in mine!

Good points above. Didn’t notice you said the lever feels good.