- Brakes are the one thing that are gonna
slow you down on your mountain bike,
and, if you're like me and you like going fast,
I like to be really powerful and sharp.
Now we've got a number of different hacks
to get this absolutely dialled in,
and I'm gonna share them with you.
So follow along.
So the first one that we're going to do
is making sure that the calliper is perfectly centred.
Now, if it's not aligned, one piston is going
to have to do more work than the other,
and the fluid is going to have
to be pushing them together evenly,
which isn't going to give you a solid lever feel.
So let's just do that there easy.
All you've got to do is come to the calliper itself,
and you loosen up the two bolts.
Get the first one loosened up,
and then you go up to the lever.
Pull that lever in.
You take a look down, and then you re-tighten it.
And then, once that's hopefully aligned,
it doesn't always happen first time,
it may take a couple of goes,
and you take a look once you've got these bolts back.
Done tight.
We just wanna check and see that they
are pretty even but could be a little bit better.
It is running free though, which is also another one.
So I'm just gonna do that again.
And this time I'm actually just
gonna wobble the calliper around,
just to make sure that it is free and loose.
So if you just do that there of play,
there it'll shove around.
And, when we come back up, pull that break lever in,
and tighten them back up.
And let us see how this one looks.
Yeah, that is perfectly centred.
Both the brake pads are moving evenly,
and let us now check if it's rubbing or not.
Boom! We've nailed one.
Now, you might have seen this trick already done.
I think I've done it in one video before,
but, if you haven't, then you're missing out.
And you need to know about this one.
It is so easy to get your brake calliper
aligned with the desk.
So all I've gotta get is two pieces of paper.
What I'm gonna do,
I'm actually just gonna take them over
and slide them in to the calliper.
The distance between the pads and also the rotor,
and you just want to use them to really line up.
And they barely fit out the other end.
Then, once at the other end,
just be careful not to touch too much
on that disc rotor itself,
because you can get that oil off your skin.
You can always wipe that off later
just using some disc brake cleaner.
I'm just gonna slide the next one in,
give the rotor a spin around,
and you can actually just make sure that they're aligned.
Or you can see, in my case,
it's not quite centred actually,
so I'm gonna have to undo the calliper
and redo this with the paper.
And you can even build up different layers
or you could use a pistons card.
It's a great way to get them perfectly spaced.
So bear with me while I get this done.
So now that I've got the paper in there,
it is pretty well perfectly aligned.
So now, all I have to do is,
I don't have to worry about pulling that brake in.
I just have to tighten up with the calliper end right here.
Do the two bolts up tight,
and then we're gonna take that paper out.
And, all being well, everything should be aligned
and it should be centred,
giving us that really powerful brake that we're looking for.
Perfect!
No rub,
and again it is perfectly aligned.
Both the brake pads are doing equal amount of work,
which is what we're looking for.
Okay, so the first two hacks have really been centralised
about making sure that you've got that calliper
absolutely, perfectly aligned with the disc rotor itself.
These next ones are gonna be sort-of a hack,
almost as if you've done a bleed already,
but you want to get that brake
dialled in and feeling really firm.
On this one, I'm actually going
to push those pistons out just ever so slightly.
I'm talking about one single squeeze of the brake lever.
And what that's gonna do, it's just gonna mean
that everything's closer together.
There's gonna be less sort-of contact between the pads,
so they're just gonna move in a little bit slighter.
And all you're gonna get is a really firm lever.
So to do that, we're gonna have to take that rear wheel out.
So let's do that.
Okay, so I've got that rear wheel out.
Just looking down, make sure at this point
that you do check your brake pads so they're not worn.
Mine are absolutely perfect.
So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna come up to that lever
and give it a really light pull.
Not all the way into the bar,
because that's gonna really force a lot of fluid.
You just want about half a pull in.
It's gonna make those pistons go out ever so slightly.
You can just watch it.
So, if I just pull that brake lever in,
I'm gonna watch it over,
and I'm just gonna see that they come out.
And then release it, and I'm gonna see.
It's moved a tiny bit once more,
and we've got absolutely (mumbles).
So it's just pulled out like a tiny, tiny amount,
but that is just gonna really allow
this sort-of reservoir.
So I've almost pushed the brakes in,
so it's just gonna take less fluid to push them in.
And that's what gonna give the brake lever
a super rock hard feeling, which,
if you're like me, then I really like that.
You pull on the brake, and you know that it's gonna work.
So let's gonna put that back wheel back in now,
and we're gonna test it.
It's feeling good.
The brake lever is actually really, really solid.
There's no movement at all in the square
when you pull it into the bars.
And the good thing is, it's already centred.
It's good to go, so I can take it out
for a ride now if I want to.
But we've got some more hacks for you.
Okay, this next hack is one of my favourites.
It's a great one if you're racing,
and you're brakes aren't feeling quite that great.
You can just do it overnight and leave it be.
We also do quite a lot with our own shoots,
or just if you're out riding back home.
All you need it two zip ties.
And what you're gonna do is just put them
around the grip of the lever,
pull that lever tight,
and now you get behind this.
If there is any air in the system,
it's actually gonna come up to the lever.
That's one on, and we'll get the next one on.
Now I've also got a pro tip for this one.
So you've got it in that position.
What you actually want to have
is you want to have the calliper,
both of them, right down at the bottom.
So the lever is the highest point,
and there's no points enclosed,
for example, where the air could get trapped.
So if we just pop this into the stand, like so.
There's still a slight kink, even though
the calliper is below the lever,
But what we can do is just twist it around.
And you can see that it's pretty much
a horizontal line right there.
The lever's at the highest point,
and any air bubbles that are in there
are gonna make they're way to the lever.
You're gonna leave this for
a couple of hours or ever overnight,
so we'll see you in a little jiffy.
Okay, let's see how this is doing.
Let's take the stand back down,
and we'll just cut away the zip ties.
One,
and two.
Feel the brakes, whoa!
They're feeling really solid.
This has got to be my favourite brake hack.
Okay, so the hacks so far,
they haven't really required
any tools, equipment, et cetera.
But for this one, you're gonna need
a little bit of your hydraulic fluid.
This is your manual brakes, so you use mineral oil.
All I'm going to do is put the lever flat,
Step one done.
And then we're gonna take this little grub screw,
which is where the hydraulic fluid sits at.
Step two.
Step three, you're gonna need this little cup.
It's the bleed cup you get
with the Shimano bleed brake system,
and it's got some mineral oil already in there.
We're just gonna screw that into the top.
And what we're gonna do now is just a little lever bleed.
This will work similarly for a Sram or other brakes,
just check on the manufacturer's guidelines for their tips.
And all you're gonna do is basically just pumping the lever,
and already I can actually see
that there's some bubbles coming out.
Okay, so just look into it,
I can actually see that the bubbles
are starting to come to an end,
but I'm just going to double check.
The best way to do this is just
take the allen key, use the end of it,
and just tap on that cable ever so slightly.
Make your way throughout the whole lever.
Just make sure that no more bubbles are coming up.
And that is looking pretty good.
So I think I'm gonna call it a day.
And stop right there, and then
we're just gonna push this plug back in.
We're gonna unscrew this, get rid of the mineral oil.
It's still actually really clean,
so the brakes been bled quite recently.
Pop that to the side, and the finishing step
is just to put that grub screw back in.
Okay, so all that remains is
just using my formula allen key,
gonna tighten that brake lever back into position,
and I'm ready to ride it.
If you guys have got any more hacks about brakes
then please do leave them
in the comments section down below.
Be sure to check them out,
and I look forward to seeing what you've got.
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And if you want to know how to bleed a system,
then click just up there.
And if you want to know how to make them really powerful,
really strong, then click down there.
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