Bleedin' Brakes!

I've wedge the leaver and left it now, hopefully it will be better tomorrow.

Originally Posted by dizzyblonde

It took aprox a half hour to bleed my brakes........and that included help off a six year old

That just makes me feel worse.

Anyone want to pop over and burn them for me?

[yorkie_chris]

Originally Posted by Grinch

Anyone want to pop over and burn them for me?

Bled them out of the banjo bolts and stuff?

[northwind]

I would recommend you invest in £3 worth of syringe and hose, as an easy alternative to proper bleeding... Doesn't make much difference for fluid changes but it does help bleeding from dry a lot. I hate doing brakes, but this makes it easy.

Hmm, I just replaced my calipers with better condition second hand ones, changed the brake fluid, and bled the brakes. But there is barely any difference . Do second hand pads need to bed in on different discs at all? The brake lever is stiffer, bu the braking performance is still no good really, you still have to haul hard on it to stop quickly.

[dizzyblonde]

perhaps your lines themselves are the problem. I have braided hoses on Suzy, but the stock ones on the black one. There is a difference, but even with stock ones i don't need to haul on them........only a little more than the others

Originally Posted by Warthog

Hmm, I just replaced my calipers with better condition second hand ones, changed the brake fluid, and bled the brakes. But there is barely any difference . Do second hand pads need to bed in on different discs at all? The brake lever is stiffer, bu the braking performance is still no good really, you still have to haul hard on it to stop quickly.

Yes they do. A little wet sanding of the disks might also improve things. Use 400 grit wet&dry. Don't use power tools do it by hand. Mine improved 50% afterwards. I've also found from experience that old pads although still looking meaty may also need replacing. They harden through time especially sintered pads. The molecular composition of their material changes from heat transfer.

Originally Posted by zunkus

Yes they do. A little wet sanding of the disks might also improve things. Use 400 grit wet&dry. Don't use power tools do it by hand. Mine improved 50% afterwards. I've also found from experience that old pads although still looking meaty may also need replacing. They harden through time especially sintered pads. The molecular composition of their material changes from heat transfer.

Thanks for the responses guys. The main reason I swapped them over was for better pistons and calipers, the newer brake pads just came along with them. I will try Zunkuses trick maybe, or maybe I need brand new pads. Braided lines would no doubt help but I am not up for doing that quite yet.

I have had a nightmare on my race bike, i need to bleed them after every session, changed all the seal, master cylinder plunger etc.

Someone told me to reverse bleed them which is what I am going to after I strip them just to check nothing has gone funny. Basically take a big syringe (not sure where to get these) and inject the fluid from the bleeding nipple until it come out of the brake fluid reservoir. Obviously make sure that you are not injecting air bubbles into the air line.