Dammit’s adventures in mountain biking

Anyone got any ideas?

Did the levers have a lots of throw then it get less the more you use it?

(it sound like the hose is kinked).

Why does it sound like the hose is kinked?

Are there any shops left in London who are willing to accept this challenge?

It’s going to my (somewhat) local bike shop - no other shop has ever done any work on my brakes.

They’ve shortened the hoses on the hardtail, and re-installed the brakes on the full suspension bike when I got back from Morgins.

In terms of why the rear brake (it’s always the rear brake) is being a pain- the only thing that is different to when it worked perfectly is that I had to cut the end off to pull it through the frame, so the hose is shorter than it was before, and the loop under the BB is slightly (10mm) longer.

I notice somebody on Retrobike ( eww ) stripped and nickel plated an RC529 and went with a retro look

Few too many stickers mind

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Yeah, less is more there I think. XC tyres?

XC tyres?

Maxxis list the Ardent as a 'trail/do it all' tyre, and whist some don't get on with them, I found them a fast rolling and reliable tread

Managed a wet weekend at BPW without them killing me :-)

They look like they’d go like the clappers on hard pack.

Ardent

they are road tyres

You're a road tyre

Bike is with my LBS, I have asked them to make the rear brake perform like the front brake. Very interested in how they get on.

Fluid not flowing back and forth easily.

It’s possible, I guess, and why I dropped off a spare hose kit with the bike.

LBS have commented on the distinction in feel and performance between the two brakes.

By this point Trickstuff would have arrived and been cheaper.

And fluoro yellow?

I just had a thought - when I was putting the bike back together the swingarm grommet vanished on the floor somewhere, so I replaced it with a different one (from an Intense) which I've used before and was fine - bit tight, but fine.

I recall it being really tough to get in this time round - but didn't really think much of it. However - could the grommet be constricting the hose to the degree that it makes fluid return difficult? That might explain the pistons sticking out too far. Not the wooly lever feel maybe, although I'm not sure there. I'd think that has to be air in the system.

Turns out it may well be user error - I put everything together then realised I'd missed off the rubber cap that goes over the end of the hose. I then moaned for a bit, and re-did it. By which time it was fairly late and I was tired, so I did a bad job of getting the olive to seal over the barb, which RR think is the cause of the lever feel/piston issue. They're bleeding the brake now having replaced the poorly done barb and olive with a better example of both.

This could be the answer to all your suspension woes

It settles which enduro bike to buy. S-Works Enduro.

Dibs that secus.

Hah, I was reading about that earlier - looks interesting for sure, I doubt it is optimised for a coil rather than an air spring though.

Got the bike back from the shop - they did find the leaking olive, and they have fixed that.

So all good until next time you disassemble the bike?

Which you'll need to do when getting it painted fluoro yellow

Well. It's a little hard to tell - they cleaned the rotor so the brake needs to be burnt in again, so it's got no bite/power, and I won't be able to tell what it does have until I've attended to that.

However, despite bleeding it three times the lever feel isn't where I know I can get it, so I'll look at that - likely after taking it for a ride to shake things around and get some heat into the system.

I know they spent a long time on aligning the calliper, but it's dragging on the rotor and off-centre quite significantly after riding it the three miles home. I assume it's drifted in use- which these do have a habit of doing, necessitating fairly frequent adjustment.

So I'll re-align the calliper and torque that up, burn it in, then take it for a ride and then get it back in the stand and bleed it again. Oh, and a lot of the paint has been chipped off the brake clamp, so I'll have to blast and repaint that.

Unless they've heavily sanded the rotor, a simple clean shouldn't require you to burn the brakes in again

Well there's no power and no bite there currently, so it's my operating assumption. Could be contaminated pads, but you'd hope not.