I finally had to bleed my brake twice, myself. It really takes an hour to do each brake, but it's worth the effort I guess. You cannot trust a shop to do a good job on this because it's so time consuming.

 

I guess I'll have to learn to do that. I to a unexpected drop down in trail yesterday and could not get the back brake to lock. Wasn't trying to, but it was a mild panic, downhill, rock covered, tree rooted drop off. Little bit of pucker. The lever uses damn near the full travel for nothing. The fronts are the same brakes just 180mm and not that bad. I'll order a bleed kit and make a mess for a day.

Still sorting the bike out. Still a bit sore from yesterday, but want to go out again.

 

Having never owned a bike with hydraulic brakes, do they use dot brake fluid? Or some special stuff?

 

Most new discs systems use dot 4. Some older designs use mineral oil.

 

I'm curious...

Even my current hotness with disc brakes uses conventional brake cables. I find them easy to adjust, and the lever has sufficient travel that I can lock them both (if I choose to), while having a nice, progressive feel.

Yes, there's some give in them. Not at all what I'd equate to a spongy pedal in a car, more like you can just tell that things are stretching a bit when you get on it.

Is that the primary "problem" that hydraulic brakes are meant to "fix"?

 

Greater leverage from reduced mechanical losses means more power with less effort. Not an issue for the average lightly loaded commuter bike. More of a n issue on a high performance XC Race, 6" travel free ride or heavily laden touring bike.

Rim brakes get the job done if you go slow enough. Just like drum brakes could be made to work acceptably well on a Miata for some drivers.

The tiny, lightweight discs on my XC race bike need radiators bonded onto the pads or they'll fade pretty bad on steep downhils like the one I posted Saturday. They look like little electrical heat sinks but work wonders. A good racing level disc brake system on a well suspended mountain bike with big knobbies will amaze on steep downhills.

Cables are still a touch lighter than hydraulic lines and cheaper to mfr so you'll see them on entry level disc systems. They do work just fine until you start pushing the limits of the braking system.

 

I'd rather grab the hydro brake lever than the cable leather by a country mile.

 

The best cable operated discs are pretty good. Around the parking lot you barely notice the difference. Where you notice it is after 20hrs use bombing down a long downhill. Cables gummed up and a little draggy, pads slightly fading requiring more effort, spiral wound cable housing compressing and sucking up energy.. then it's like, "that's it, getting hydraulic brakes tomorrow".

I raced on cable discs for a few years. They were a significant improvement on my tricked out V-brakes (rim brake) that were in turn way better than my olld cantilever rim brakes. Then I rode a downhill bike with, at the time new tech hydraulic discs. Been spoiled ever since. The latest cyclocross bikes have discs but they're mostly still cable operated.

 

Why does it take so long to bleed them?

 

Because they were clearly engineered by people who don't understand car brakes. No bleeder valves, just a shitty fill-hole in the caliper and fill-hole/master reservoir in the lever housing. The solution is tedious syringe bleeding in and out and in and out and in and out for like an hour. There are other tricks, let me know if you are interested.

 

Teeny master cyl displacement.

 

I'm assuming the fill hole has a screw plug. Convince a company to make bleeders that go into that fill plug.

 

Then it won't fit under the vanity cap. The bleed on my bike is fine, it doesn't "need" to be changed.

 

Vanity cap?! That has to weigh at least 1/10th of an ounce, take that heavy **** off.

But wouldnt it be nicer to be able to perfectly bleed your brakes in 10 minutes without any BS?

 

No, the aesthetics of the bike may not be violated. Any solution that violates the lines of the machine is unacceptable. GTFO

 

trade for quad or ?

 

LMFAO, could you imagine riding any real DH trail on that bike 2 up? Just the thought of that makes my back feel broken.

 

I was told this was not a bleed valve. I feel like I was lied to. Won't work like a car/motorbike one?



I really want it to

 

Haha, feel like a noob. Read the manual. That is the fill nipple and a line goes on thhe top reservoir to push fluid through. Definitely needs done. I've broken mine in more than hers and just rode hers and it is way better. Same brakes.

 

Rode my old heap a bit this weekend.

Determined that I really needed to repack and tighten the old bottom bracket because the front derailleur was rubbing a bit and the gear is straight with no runout.

I then rebuilt the bottom bracket replacing the bearings from the type with housings to 11 ball bearings per side (vs 8 i think) and used some extreme pressure wheel bearing grease. SO MUCH SMOOTHER.

all in all i have taken the bike for about 15k of riding now since building it.... not much but i want to make sure I dont break it too far from home in the first while.

I still need to get some bar wrap. the raw aluminum drop bars are hard on my hands absorbing the cracks in the pavement. Thoughts on an inexpensive wrap?

M