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Bleeding hydraulic disc brakes
As a mountain biker, there’s nothing worse than bombing down a steep run and pulling your brake levers until the come into contact with your handlebars. And even then they still fail to stop you. For most people, this scenario ends with a trip to the local shop for a brake bleed (or new pads, but that’s another story).
The good news is that bleeding hydraulic disc brakes isn’t that difficult if you take your time and have a sliver of mechanical aptitude. While this entry isn’t a ‘how to’ guide on bleeding your own brakes — there are plenty of examples online — it is meant to be the starting point for your search for good technical data on your brakes. Below is a compilation of links to relevant online resources for major hydraulic disc brake brands.
Bleeding Hayes disc brakes
Hayes’ new website is a great resource for all of you Hayes owners out there. Whether you’re interested in learning all of the ins and outs of the brakes at Hayes ‘U’ or downloading detailed product service manuals, you can find all of the information you need at the company website.
While you can easily put together your own bleed kit for Hayes brakes, you can also purchase pre-assembled Hayes bleed kits from your local bike shop or at an online retailer.
Bleeding Avid Juicy disc brakes
I was particularly impressed with the performance of SRAM’s Avid Juicy 5 disc brakes. I continue to be impressed by the brakes’ stopping power, even when it’s pretty obvious to me that my brakes need a little bit of brake bleeding love. Looking online, I found that Avid makes available all of the servicing information for the Juicy brakes.
The Avid Juicys require a special bleed kit that can be a chore to track down if you don’t know where to look (or if your local distributor doesn’t have any in stock).
Bleeding Shimano disc brakes
Unlike Hayes and Avid hydraulic disc brakes — which use Dot 3 or Dot 4 brake fluid — Shimano hydraulic disc brake systems use mineral oil to help provide their stopping power.
At this point in time, you can find servicing manuals for all Shimano products at the company’s website. While the listing is a little intimidating, Shimano makes it easy to track down your brake model.
Inexpensive Shimano-branded bleed kits are readily available, but I’d recommend putting together the pieces on your own — you’ll be able to get far more bang for your buck doing it this way.
Other disc brake systems
Anything you’d like me to add? Drop me a line or add your comments below.
1. Posted by Jeff D McDaniel | 5:36 pm, 7 October 2007
Do you know of a bleed kit for Hygia Elite disc brakes?