Anyone know anything about disc brakes?

You’ll get a company car out of it! Thank the bike gods he doesn’t ride Cannondales any more.

Dura Ace Di2

Ouch! At least mine was tiagra. Will approach the new lever with some trepidation. Hoping to refit the hose with the already crushed olive still in place so hopefully won’t repeat the incident.

Relatively inexperienced with disc...is there a go to 160mm center lock budget friendly rotor ? Also sintered or semi metallic pads? Thanks.

is there a go to 160mm center lock budget friendly rotor

Whatever is available, Shimano are good but the cheapest are resin pads only so not those.

sintered or semi metallic pads

Depends what you're doing, I reckon resin unless you're MTBing, sloppy winter graveling or going down the Alps on the road.

you might as well disassemble to see what it really does and educate us all

Well, here’s a try anyway. The crack is about 15mm from the bit the flanged bolt sits against.

2 Attachments

The grub screw and the hole where it goes. There’s nothing in there, just metal.

2 Attachments

No sign of damage on the inside. 15 mm is right at the end of the metal flange that meets the olive

1 Attachment

Olive, barb, hose and bolt all look ok

1 Attachment

No leaks either, gave the lever a few proper squeezes before disassembling. Someone on that reddit thread I linked to had used theirs for a year like this without issues so in all I think it’s probably just a cracked casing. Will be replacing lever anyway and the guy I bought it from has offered to try and get it replaced under warranty. It’s only a year old after all.

I have the impression that the hose like with SRAM inserts in a metal cilinder, the difference being than in SRAM is external and you hold it with a wrench to thread the hose in and with Shimano all is held inside a external plastic casing and that wee grub screw stops it moving.
But I may be wrong and all could result in fiery death.

Bike mechanics ... [t]hey’re unbearable.

Unfortunately, IME often incompetent and not to be trusted with tools. Tool up and DIY. It's the only way to ensure the job is done the right way.

Until you fuck up, then a real mechanic will have to clean your mess and put up with your distrust, because of course you know better.

Until you fuck up, then a real mechanic will have to clean your mess and put up with your distrust, because of course you know better.

A lot of so called 'real mechanics' are similarly insecure and feel the need to lash out to protect their self perceived worth.. Which shop do you work at?

Meh, there's plenty of shit mechanics working, and plenty of DIYer who can do a decent job. They're also a lot of people who do horrible jobs at home and decent mechanics have to sort it out.

Who's hurt you before? Let go of the anger, it'll be ok.

No anger at all, but there are a lot of 'real mechanics' for people to be angry at.

Maintaining bicycles is not rocket science, despite what many would like to believe.

That's it, I'm here for you, the "real" mechanics won't hurt you anymore.

I bet you're an engineer

Ooff.

Jesus man, come on, this is a safe space.

Maintaining bicycles is not rocket science, despite what many would like to believe.

It does sound like there’s a story there. Also you underestimate how bad some reasonably intelligent people can be at understanding mechanical stuff.

No, I do not. I am also fully aware the extreme defensiveness going on in this thread regarding bike mechanic competence. So, I'll leave you all to argue about how difficult bicycle fixin' is amongst yourselves. I don't need to waste a moment more of my my time while that particular CJ is going on.

Out.

CJ

Clive James? Clinton Jefferson? Claw Job? Crabapple Jelly? Crumpled Jacket?

My money is on crabapple jelly. Delicious crabapple jelly.

I think they meant contact juggling, massive waste of time.