Anyone know anything about disc brakes?

Sorry if I am coming across as an arse.

Think that I have read far too much on the internet, and gone from using lhm will be fine (as I have used in the past) to the newer Shimano oil is thinner so even more responsive. I'm stuck in the fear of making the wrong decision. With fear of buying a red dyed oil.

the newer Shimano oil is thinner so even more responsive

Anything you can pour is thin enough, the fluid velocity is trivial.

I sometimes come across an arse too.
It'll all probably work ok, but as you don't seem to need vats of it, you may as well get whatever is meant for the job rather than experimenting. A little pot of finishline is overpriced if you're doing loads of brakes, but if it's just a pair occasionally it'll be fine, as will cyclo, Halfords, epicbleeds or even Shimanos stuff.

As £60 is a joke when I can buy a complete sram level bike set up for £44 delivered.

The low price of new parts doesn't make paying a mechanic properly for their experience, equipment, overheads etc "a joke".

No, but it's also not the responsibility of consumers to keep mechanics in work if they can get the same result cheaper by buying new

I didn’t say it was*.

However, “same result” might be pushing it if we are comparing a decent set of Shimano brakes (I’m not actually sure what brakes @lynx has but mineral oil could be Shimano) and some £44 Srams.

I’d also argue that, for some people, ‘buy new brakes, throw old ones in bin’ isn’t the same result as ‘fix old brakes’ regardless of how the brakes perform.

I would say that it’s not the mechanic’s responsibility to work for a pittance just because new brakes can be bought for cheaper and it behooves us all to recognise that training and experience are both costly and valuable. Being dismissive of someone charging what they’ve evaluated their time, knowledge, experience etc to be worth just isn’t a good look imo.

*My personal choice would be to learn to do it myself and spend the £60 (or even just the £44 or less) on some tooling which would do nothing to support the mechanic.

Yeah, will be significantly less than £60 for sure, pads are new/not contaminated? Rotor too?

Yeah I know you didn't, but it's still true.

And yeah it depends on which end of the market we're looking at. Lynx brought up the cheaper SRAM brakes so I guess he's not against them. In which case the same result is having brakes that work.
Sure if you've got Dura Ace or XTR, 60 quid for a service is good value compared to replacing but if you've already got £44 SRAM brakes and you take them in for maintenance to find that you can replace them for cheaper than you can have them serviced, something's gone wrong.

Everyone, I would hope, would rather service and repair than replace but not everyone can ignore the costs of doing so.

Are mechanics getting paid £60 per hour? Or is that what the workshop charges? Because I'd also argue that's not the value of their training and experience if more than half of it is going on shop overheads. Maybe it's the bike shop model that's not working properly.

I'd also buy the tools and do it myself.

you take them in for maintenance to find that you can replace them for cheaper than you can have them serviced

That's not strictly true, because you're not accounting for the time to remove old brakes and fit new ones.

Are mechanics getting paid £60 per hour? Or is that what the workshop charges? Because I'd also argue that's not the value of their training and experience if more than half of it is going on shop overheads.

Let's not have another 200 pages on whether "£15 to change a BB" is right. The extent to which you get to decide whether they know their business is you pay up or walk away.

Are mechanics getting paid £60 per hour? Or is that what the workshop charges? Because I'd also argue that's not the value of their training and experience if more than half of it is going on shop overheads. Maybe it's the bike shop model that's not working properly.

No, I doubt the mechanic is getting £60 an hour but whether you are paying the mech's wage or for the rent on the premises where the work is being done, the insurance that'll pay you out if anything goes wrong, for the consumables like barbs and olives and mineral oil, for initial outlay for the tools and the wear and tear on them as they are used (minimal on a job like this maybe but more of a factor for things like chasing and facing and every tool has a finite service life) the result is the same, it's a cost for the service rendered.

Our choices to perform the work ourselves circumvent most of these costs.

Our choices to perform the work ourselves circumvent most of these costs.

But adds the opportunity cost of not doing something we could get paid for if we weren't wasting hours fiddling around with bikes 🙂

You need a job where you can tinker with your bike while on the clock. And using the work’s tools!

Apologies if this has already been covered, I had a quick search but couldn't see anything mentioning it - I need to shorten my hoses but would prefer not to unwrap the bars, is there anything stopping me cutting at the caliper end on a BR-R7170?

Nope, you'll just need a new olive and barb, and probably rebleed.

Amazing, thank you!

It was more that I asked the price for a fluid replacement on a front brake nothing else, the price went from £10 to £60. On a front line only, when a pair brakes that use dot brake fluid are less than that price.

The brake I have is Shimano, I can buy a new syringe and i have the tube already. So not excessive, I have a kit somewhere but mislaid long ago. Not even sure if the brake system hasn't been damaged by being part filled.

I'm back!

I'm missing some of those 15mm bolts SRAM uses to mount a front caliper (+ the flat mount adapter) to a fork.

To save me phoning up loads of shops, any suggestions on who is likely to have them in stock, today - somewhere inbetween SE1 and E4, but don't mind venturing a bit into the city (e.g. Condor).

Without knowing the details of the service, 60 for a brake bleed sounds steep, and a pair of brakes 44 sounds too cheap?
44 each brake maybe, without labor.

Asked for a fluid replacement, I would bring the front set up to them. Would think that all the fluid would be replaced, as no idea what fluid was in there before.

Ribble supply the kit at that price, my labour.

can't remember if it was used for brake fluid or mineral oil

You can clean them. DOT washes off with water, mineral oil takes a bit more effort, but hot soapy water should be enough to remove from syringes.

a complete sram level bike set up for £44

Your fluidless brakes would work better than Levels.

Ring Condor, I'm sure they'll have some.

Rang them. They didn't. Only the longer 31mm bolts for the rear, which I have like 20 of lol. Have bought some generic m5x15mm A2 stainless steel bolts from amazon, which should be sturdy enough.

Will get the proper sram tings later. Thanks!

Would have said Clerkenwell Screws but I'm not sure if they're open.

Sorry just seen this, I have red rubber grease if you still need some.

EDIT If any one wants some red rubber grease, can give some in a packet or syringe for forum donations.

Ah, cheers. I (think) I solved it by letting a little excess fluid out of the system. At least, I did that and the piston appears to no longer be sticky, so hopefully correlation equals causation.