Shimano XTR Brakes

[Darko]

My spongy brakes ended up being an issue with the brake lever. I had to adjust it every time. Tighten or loosen I can't tell which action is to move the lever further away from the bar. 

[Bicycle Supply Chain]

If you in the jhb area. Come past my shop and I’ll gladly assist you in getting your brakes firm.

 

Dm me for details.

 

Mike.

[ChrisF]

It might be that you've blown some seals by trying to bleed form the bottom.

Lot of good advice in this thread.

 

Just so many things that can impact the braking performance.

 

My cycle workshop also advised that I bleed the new systems top down. On the older system on the Mongoose we use the older approach of bottom up bleading.

 

 

Finding damaged hoses must be a nightmare with the internal routed hoses ...

 

 

When the one pad wears more than the rest the caliper is effectively off centre .... probably one of the easiest fixes though.

 

 

Contaminated discs or pads .... had this last week. I am very careful to keep contaminants off the disc ... all I can think of is that the tip off a washing cloth touched the disc .... the feeling is different to a spongy brake though. The bite point is the same, rather, the brake lever moved to the same point but the bike does not slow down like normal !! OOOPSSS...

 

Using isopropol alchol on the disc helped a bit .... by now some of the contaminants got onto the discs. LBS used brake cleaner spray ... brakes felt good during my last ride. Was lucky ... few years back I had to replace contaminated brake pads.

 

 

As for the "feel" of the Shimano brakes .... after the first few months the bite point of the brakes seems to "drop" just a few millimeters on the levers .. bleeding restores it for a few rides only ... I have left it at this position for more than a thousand km, seems to remain here ....

 

I do prefer the earlier bite point, but have made peace with this new setting ...

 

 

QUESTION to the experts ... what causes glazing of the brake discs, and best way to remove this ?

 

Maybe also, what is the best way to bed in brakes ?

[Simon123]

To get the crispest Shimano brakes you need to burp them, and always bleed top down using the cup.

 

There's also a trick to get even crisper brakes by bleeding them with the pistons ever so slightly pushed out (think of bleeding but with a thin rotor spacing them instead of them pushed all the way in with brake block.    You can then easily modulate fluid from the top cap.

 

I do this for all my Shimano brakes:

 - Zee's on DH bike

 - M8120 on Trail

 - Ultegra on Roadie

 

And dozens and dozens of brakes on my other bikes and before.   Always have people comment on how crisp and solid the lever is.