Set up and hydraulic disk brake maintain tips for the home mechanic

[Philip_Hackstock]

Hi everyone, I am in the process of setting up my first road bike with hydraulic disk brakes. I’d consider myself a somewhat competent home mechanic but I have very little experience with hydraulic disk brakes. Many years ago I attempted a brake bleed on my mountain bike which ended up being a big mess and worked only somewhat.

So my questions would be:

• What are some good resources (books, videos, etc…) to get me started on this topic? I’m thinking along the lines of some park tool videos.
• What are some common beginner mistakes to avoid?
• What are some tools that are absolute must haves?

Any help is much appreciated

[Martin_M]

@Philip_Hackstock

• What are some tools that are absolute must haves?

In my experience, having tried this myself, a credit card to pay for the service at my local shop is the best way to deal with hydraulic brake maintenance. And leaving them a craft beer or two as a tip goes a long way to making sure my bike is in and out quickly.

I’ll do everything else myself, but I hate dealing with brakes.

[Philip_Hackstock]

Hm fair enough not the answer I was hoping for but seems like a solid approach given how my last brake bleed went

[chris_cochran]

This is the correct answer. Credit card solves all maintenance issues so much better than I can at home. Works every time.

[Yoon_Ha]

I just finished a brake bleed on my road bike with sram force groupset. I played the official sram video (YouTube) on my laptop while performing the procedure. It took a couple of tries, as there are some nuanced steps, but very satisfying to carry it out successfully. Video by GC Performance was also very helpful.

[Clark_Smithson]

What group set? If SRAM, their maintenance videos on YouTube are excellent. I haven’t worked on Shimano so can’t comment on the best info source on that end.

As for common beginner mistakes, of course don’t grab the brake lever when there’s no rotor or pad spacer in the caliper, since the pads will advance and get stuck together. Or even worse, squeezing the brakes with nothing in the caliper, at which point the pistons will fall out and fluid will spill out. This in turn points to a must have tool, a good pad spreader and piston press.

The other common mistake is related to pushing the pistons in–always clean the pistons with isopropyl alcohol and a bristle brush before pushing them in. This way you don’t contaminate your braking fluid with dirt/grit/brake dust that has collected on the pistons.

One more necessary tool is a set of calipers to measure pad and rotor wear.

If you want to bleed your own brakes (annual on SRAM/DOT fluid, less frequently on Shimano/mineral I believe), then a good bleed kit is a must, but if you want to leave that to the pros then the above should be most/all you need.

[Crosswind]

@Philip_Hackstock

So my questions would be:

• What are some good resources (books, videos, etc…) to get me started on this topic? I’m thinking along the lines of some park tool videos.
• What are some common beginner mistakes to avoid?
• What are some tools that are absolute must haves?

Going hydraulic…
Decide first what skills you are bringing to the party. And, what skills you plan to enhance.
Don’t be discouraged by those declaring the trials and troubles of servicing hydraulic brakes. It’s not to be feared, but plenty to be gained.

YouTube is your friend. About any hydraulic brake or service procedure can be found here. The OEMs have some good videos, but there are some excellent creators producing high-quality how-to videos.

Beginner mistakes are sometimes outlined in the videos, but my predominate advice would to be well prepared and have everything planned readily available and close at hand. Come to the table with an open mind to learn. If something doesn’t seem quite right and isn’t going to plan, STOP and reassess the situation. A common beginner mistake would be to just push forward without validating the problem or clearing the question. Don’t pass over the details. The details are what makes the process go smoother with less distractions.

Last, but still important – bring your patience and don’t be afraid to use it.

Tools that are absolute must haves… That’s a loaded question that will likely depend on your brake wrenching ambitions. If you want to service and maintain your brakes, I assume this would include the normal task of bleeds & fluid purges along with learning the appropriate skills and tools to perform this task.

Brake Tools for consideration…

What brakes are you considering?

· Center lock or 6-bolt?

· Shimano – Mineral oil

· SRAM – DOT fluid

· Bleed block(s)

· Model specific Bleed kit - High-quality with appropriate bleed fittings – quality syringes

· Brake Reservoir funnel/cup for gravity bleeds

· I would not bother with line cutters or barb/olive tools – easy enough without them

· 7mm/8mm flare wrench for brake lines – nice, but absolutely not necessary

· Pad spreader – I usually use Pedro’s tire tools, but I have some nice tools for this.

· Maybe a rotor tool to true the rotors. An alcohol cleaned crescent wrench works fine too

· Lots of rags or paper towels. This is particularly important for those newbies and first bleeds.

Maintaining your ride can be very gratifying.

[William_Tsang]

If you’re a good home mechanic, there really is no reason to be afraid of hydraulic brakes. Yes, be prepared the first few times to make a bit of a mess with potentially brake fluid leaking all over the bike and floor, but tons of folks out there do it just fine - you can too!

[Don_Runberg]

Youtube is your friend, watch multiple videos to see what is occurring and what might be left out. That is the best way to see what is occurring. I used that method for the hydraulic bike brakes and for replacing the timing belt on my WRX. Brakes work well on the bike and the pistons and valves did not try and occupy the same space at the same time.

Tools are whatever you feel you need to complete the job at a high level. I used tools that I had around and then built up hydraulic specific tools over the next few years.

[Philipp_Stehr]

Disc brakes aren’t that hard to work on. And there’s not even a need for fancy tools. Any old plastic bleed kit works fine. Other than that, you just need the bleed block, 7/8mm spanners and some brake fluid.

The important things revolve around when to pull the lever and push in the blocks when bleeding:

• Watch very carefully when pumping the brakes without pads and a rotor. You really do not want to push out the pistons all the way.
• Clean the pistons before pushing them in, you don’t want to rub dirt in there.
• Make sure the pistons are pushed all the way in before closing all the bleed ports. You don’t want to try and push them in later and explode your brakes.

Finally, I have a personal like for the no-syringe bleed. It has worked fine for me for a number of old and new SHIMANO brakes and, to me, is a whole lot easier than all the pushing back and forth with the syringe. Here’s a good explanation by a pro MTB mechanic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piWBVDh1pTE

[Philip_Hackstock]

@Clark_Smithson

What group set? If SRAM, their maintenance videos on YouTube are excellent. I haven’t worked on Shimano so can’t comment on the best info source on that end.

It’s Shimano GRX 610, good point though about checking the official videos. They’re probably quite good.

@Clark_Smithson

As for common beginner mistakes, of course don’t grab the brake lever when there’s no rotor or pad spacer in the caliper, since the pads will advance and get stuck together. Or even worse, squeezing the brakes with nothing in the caliper, at which point the pistons will fall out and fluid will spill out. This in turn points to a must have tool, a good pad spreader and piston press.

Uh yeah, I was aware of that one but good to have a reminder for sure

@Clark_Smithson

The other common mistake is related to pushing the pistons in–always clean the pistons with isopropyl alcohol and a bristle brush before pushing them in. This way you don’t contaminate your braking fluid with dirt/grit/brake dust that has collected on the pistons.

Ah that’s a good one, didn’t know that one but makes total sense.

@Clark_Smithson

One more necessary tool is a set of calipers to measure pad and rotor wear.

For that I heard that you need to check where you measure the rotor wear, right? The argument being that there might be a lip that has formed on the very edge of the rotor while the part closer to the center has worn down more.

[Crosswind]

@Philip_Hackstock

For that I heard that you need to check where you measure the rotor wear, right? The argument being that there might be a lip that has formed on the very edge of the rotor while the part closer to the center has worn down more.

Service life and measurement
Rotor wear is something that you’re not likely to address for a while. I can go years without even getting close to service limits. If the caliper is fitted correctly with correct adapter, you should not have a lip on the rotor edge. If you do, then use a micrometer rather than a caliper to clear the rotor lip.

Measure brake pads? Shimano pads have a fixed minimum pad thickness of 0.05 mm. Most can eyeball that, I don’t need a measuring device. You prolly can too. You can visual the pads long before getting close.

[Elijah_Gunther]

I recommend laying down a bunch of cardboard or rags for when you leak or spray hydraulic fluid everywhere

[Crosswind]

Hopefully, you’re not doing this in the kitchen.

With a basic understanding of what you’re doing, a pinch of skill, simple planning, a little patience and hopefully leaks and spraying hydraulic fluid will not be a normal scenario. I make more of a mess getting fluids into syringes than bleeding brakes.

For the slightly mechanically inclined, bleeding brakes is not difficult (conceptually or mechanically). To those that have steered clear of hydraulic brake maintenance for whatever reason but remain interested, reconsider and try and listen those who comfortable do this on a regular basis. It’s not as scary as some proclaim.

[Changren_Yong]

I find the manuals provided by Shimano and SRAM sufficient for performing hydraulic brake maintenance (pad/rotor replacement, brake bleed, etc). SRAM also has a library of videos on servicing hydraulic brakes available on its support site and its Youtube channel.

If you are just going to do the basic brake maintenance at home like brake pads and rotor replacement, you will want the following:

• Digital caliper for measuring brake pad wear
• Micrometer for measuring rotor wear
• Isopropyl Alcohol for cleaning brake pads/rotor and brake pistons
• Plastic tire levers for pushing pistons in. I use this tool made by Sumart but it’s no longer available on Amazon Amazon.com : SUMART UBB-20/RD Universal Bleed Block for Hydraulic Disc Brake Maintenance, Piston Alignment Tool, Protects Ceramic Pistons, Fits Most Bike Brakes : Sports & Outdoors
• Rotor truing fork, as the rotor will almost always go out of true
• I have good experience with the Silca drivetrain and brake cleaner in silencing noisy brake. But if the brake pads are too contaminated, as was my case when the front Dura-Ace brake started leaking mineral oil out of the bleed port, replacing the pads is the only option.

[Crosswind]

For general press-back of pistons, I tend to use the Pedro’s yellow plastic tire levers, but for a full-bleed I prefer to start with a full piston press to flush with caliper using these. They work great!

Rotor truing…
In fact, I rarely need to true a rim or brake rotors. Honest truth.
Generally speaking, I use the FeedBack rotor tool (below) or Knipex smooth jawed pliers, but I have used a bottle opener and alcohol cleaned crescent wrench to true rotors.

[Changren_Yong]

I don’t think I have ever own any set of disc brake systems - SRAM Force, Shimano Ultegra/Dura-Ace - in which the rotors did not go out of true. That said, I routinely service my wife’s commuter bike and the “cheapo” rotors on her bike are still straight as an arrow

[Ben_Stafford]

Get a Park Tool Brake Bleeding kit (for Mineral Oil since it sounds like you’re running Shimano). The only tool you’ll need beyond what comes in the kit is a hex wrench for the caliper bleed screw. Obviously, extra rags are helpful

Watch and follow the Park Tool video on bleeding Shimano brakes. If you’re bleeding road levers, pay close attention to the burping procedure in the Park video where you rotate the bars above and below parallel to the ground to eliminate all residual air bubbles.

I bleed my own brakes (Shimano and SRAM) and my Shimano set up is still braking strong 2+ years later.

[Henrik_Andersen]

Fixing hydraulic disc brakes is really not that difficult!

A lot of good advice in this thread. I will add:

You really don’t need fancy tools for measuring the thickness of the brake pads and rotors. If you don’t need to wear them down to an absolute minimum, you can easily see when they need to be changed. And really, brake pads are usually not that expensive. I always have 1-2 pairs lying ready, and change them when they look too worn or I can feel the brake performance starts to dip. I never wear them down to minimum.

And yes, that’s one of the advantages of doing the maintenance yourself: It honestly takes 2 minutes to check them. In fall or winter, with a lot of wet riding on dirty roads, I like that reassurance.

My biggest mistake when I started maintenance on hydraulic systems was contaminating the brake pads with brake oil. Honestly, when that happens, you will never get the brake pads clean again. Change the pads, clean the rotors THOROUGHLY with brake cleaner and make sure there is no oil left on the brake which will contaminate the new pads. And, of course: Avoid brake fluid contamination in the first place. Only install brake pads when ports are totally closed and the brake environment is clean.

I bought the Shimano maintenance kit. Cheaper than the Park Tool, and works fine.

If you need to cut brake hoses, it is an advantage to have a dedicated tool. Here, I splashed out and bought the Park Tool, since it will last forever.

New pads or rotors = always a bed-in period. Also true if the repair shop does the work for you, but too often forgotten.

Apart from YouTube (of course), I had great help from Lennart Zinns book on bike maintenance. Has been my go-to bible for bike repair for 20 years, in various editions.

Have fun - and always try to be on the safe side. Hydraulic brakes are not that difficult to maintain, but it IS rather important they work.

[Adrian_Leggett]

There is a learning curve, at least for me. I can now confidentiality say that I am approaching the level of sort of competent. The two biggest issues for me have been not getting mineral oil all over the place and figuring out where the air is hiding.

To address the oil issue there are a few things I do. I have shop towels wrapped around anything I can, especially the port on the shifter and as most videos will tell you I set the shifter so the port is level. I make sure the rotor and pads are not even in the same room as me so I can remember not to touch them while covered in oil. I don’t buy bikes with SRAM

Air hides in secret places in the calipers and sometimes in shifters, my 11 speed bike seems worse for this than the 12 speed ones. To deal with that I remove the rear caliper from the frame so it’s easier to move it around to let the air out. I also prefer using a syringe. If the fluid is clean and new and the bleed is just to get air out I use 2 syringes.

One day I hope to do a brake bleed that is perfect start to finish. At the start of the pandemic I set out to learn to do all my own bike maintenance and building. Brake bleeds are my final boss