hugh_b Posted May 9, 2005 Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 Hi everyone. I have noticed many riders opting to gop back to the old style magura lever because it provides a stiffer more solid feel. Is it oright to bleed the brakes with distilled water or should i use the mineral oil? Also what are your thoughts on the new magura lever? -Hugh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caleb Posted May 9, 2005 Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 You can use either with no hassle, water has a nicer feel on the lever imo and a quicker return, however mineral oil is less prone to evaporation (Y) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biff Posted May 9, 2005 Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 I always use water, mineral oil lasts about hlf a year before air seeps in with the oil itself, I made a topic on my method of a DAMN fine bleed which i doubt anybody on this forum will have such a good rear brake as mine! submurge your lever at a higher level in water and your piston pots at a lower level (this will allow gravity to do its job) unscrew bolts, and place your finger over the hole in your level and compress ur lever blade allowing the water to seep through the hoses untill you can see bubbles coming out of the bolt hole on the bottom pistons, keep doing this until no more air bubbles are coming through. Finally tighten bolts STILL UNDER WATER! your brake then should have ABSOLUTLY NO AIR! what so ever :S I dont care what anybody says this is the best bleading method ever! WATER all the way man! Biff (Y) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaRtZ Posted May 9, 2005 Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 As Bob pointed out quite logically to me a while ago, try to buy White maguras.... ...the reason? White reflects heat and just as Caleb said, you dont want none of that water evapourating. Therefore with a white magura, it wont heat up as much and thus removes the chances of evapouration =;¬) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prawny Baby Posted May 10, 2005 Report Share Posted May 10, 2005 please dont be so stupid.... maguras are a closed system, it CANT evaporate inside a closed system :S:S:S it CAN heat up and expand,giving a tighter feeling brake, but in 2 years of using water ive never noticed this at all.... biff: your method is highly commonsensical if thats a word.... but probably a little over the top!!! i take great care with my bleeds and i can assure you there is no air in my brake.... to check if u have air free brakes, place a finger on each brake pad and pull the lever with the other hand. if the bleed is perfect the pads will move the INSTANT the lever is touched.... you will find most levers move a fraction before the pads move.... thats the air in the system Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thornabytrials.co.uk Posted May 10, 2005 Report Share Posted May 10, 2005 maguras are a closed system, it CANT evaporate inside a closed system :S:S:S ← My thoghts exactly :S ^^ Biff, explain you way in a bit more detail please :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
munkee Posted May 10, 2005 Report Share Posted May 10, 2005 biff: your method is highly commonsensical if thats a word.... but probably a little over the top!!! i take great care with my bleeds and i can assure you there is no air in my brake.... ← very true, biff's method is as good as syphoning, you could just do it all under water would make no difference i expect, or you could put your cylinders in a bucket of water and use the syringe to suck the water up the system ( the level wont drop each time you reload the syringe due to pressures). But theres nothing wrong with normal bleeding of brakes to be honest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roozor Posted May 10, 2005 Report Share Posted May 10, 2005 biff, explain in more detail! we want a bleed guide from you :S pics ? :S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SebJT Posted May 10, 2005 Report Share Posted May 10, 2005 My way of bleeding brakes with water seems to be flawless, similar to that of biff's. 1. Fill bath with warm water (well about 15*C would be best, as this is about average temperature outside, so will have the least expansion effects, but having the water 10 dergees more will be unnoticably different. Just stops your hands from freezing.) 2. Submegre brake underwater, completly. 3. Remove bleed bolt from lever and caliper. 4. unwind TPA fully and loosing reach adjustment grub screw. 5. Take a bleed tube and a syringe and attach to lever and tighten with 8mm spanner (so many people dont do this and wont give such a good bleed.) 6. Repeatedly fill and empty the syringe, this draws water back and forth through the brake removing air and swarf. 7. I usually add a little DW40 to the syringe and repeat step 6, this really gets rid of the crap inside. 8. Remove syringe from bleed tube and completly fill with water. Reattatch to bleed tube and push water through brake. Repeat this a few times. 9. Remove bleed tube and replace all bolts. 10. Remove brake from water and give a dry and wipe down. 11. You now have an awesome brake. So good it made me consider going back to maggys. But that hasnt happened yet, still prefer my Vee :S Seb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minitrialer Posted May 10, 2005 Report Share Posted May 10, 2005 The amount of topics on this is rediculous(sp) , please have a bit of common sence and bleed them with mineral oil. It doesnt cost a stupid amount and they tell you to do it for a reason, bleed it with water or wd40 and it will f**k up after time. I think a sticky is in order, and a poll for people who use water and have had it make there brakes leak. Just spend a little extra and get a good working long lasting brake, and also if it is blead with water the warranty is void. Lil Dan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
munkee Posted May 10, 2005 Report Share Posted May 10, 2005 Its all absolute bollox in my opinion the amount of people that seem to think water is bad. Just do what you want at the end of the day. Aluminium will corrode due to water.. but only on the surface, as soon as its done that it will stop. Its getting damn tiring listening to people say use the proper stuff.... i've been through so many sets of maguras that have leaked using magura oil ( due to sand and dirt getting in the seals). it was a bleed and clean out every couple of weeks which = lots of money. With water ive had to do nothing since the bleed. It won't leak at the seals if you put a few drops of oil around it so theres 0 worries anyway. Just use what you want.. forget all the deionised water stuff just use tap water. If your shitting a brick this much over using it then dont bother simple as. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prawny Baby Posted May 10, 2005 Report Share Posted May 10, 2005 The amount of topics on this is rediculous(sp) , please have a bit of common sence and bleed them with mineral oil. It doesnt cost a stupid amount and they tell you to do it for a reason, bleed it with water or wd40 and it will f**k up after time. I think a sticky is in order, and a poll for people who use water and have had it make there brakes leak. Just spend a little extra and get a good working long lasting brake, and also if it is blead with water the warranty is void. Lil Dan ← sorry matey... but its nothing to do with money at all! ive been using magurs for over 4 years.... and ive spent the last 2 years using nothing but water, and i dont ever intend on going back to mineral oil! its not about money, its about feel! a brake bled with water has a much lighter lever action, and generally a much more positive feel as it hits the rim, its also faster returning giving it a snappy feel. in the 2 years ive run water in brakes ive not had a single leaking issue. the only issue i had was when i first did it, after about 9 months of leak free braking, the lever action slowed down a touch due to the remains of the oil from the old fluid emulsifying with the water to form a sludge :- once cleaned out it was fine! i now run a very weak mix of water and antifreeze, as unlike water it is a lubricant (Y) so keeps things smoother for longer :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark W Posted May 10, 2005 Report Share Posted May 10, 2005 The amount of topics on this is rediculous(sp) , please have a bit of common sence and bleed them with mineral oil. It doesnt cost a stupid amount and they tell you to do it for a reason, bleed it with water or wd40 and it will f**k up after time. I think a sticky is in order, and a poll for people who use water and have had it make there brakes leak. Just spend a little extra and get a good working long lasting brake, and also if it is blead with water the warranty is void. Lil Dan ← That really is a total load of bollocks. It doesnt cost a stupid amount and they tell you to do it for a reason,← Er, would that be the £3.50 for something pitiful like 50ml bottles? So could the fact that Magura can utterly rape you for the fluid be part of it? They sell it with oil in it because that brake is going to be used around the world. If they sold it wiht water in and someone in a cold country bought it, it'd freeze and they'd complain. If they sell it with oil it's a happy medium that will work for everyone. HOWEVER, in that we don't live in a super cold country, it's not so important for us. My brake's frozen 3 or 4 times, twice so much so it made the pads touch the rim. However, no damage was done to the rim because as the water expanded, it simply pushed the pads out a little, meaning there was no harm done. a poll for people who use water and have had it make there brakes leak.← So, in that case, should we have a poll for people who've had Magura blood in and had it leak? That's right - people with mineral oil can have leaky brakes too. Hot poop! Either way, I've never had a leak with my Magura (touch wood this weekend (Y)). The only time it's ever had the fluid come out was when I got sold a Magura with a hole in the tubing. That, and when I bleed it. and also if it is blead with water the warranty is void.← Er, how would they actually know you'd bled it with water and that, for example, you hadn't used water to clean out the brake to get rid of any oil so when you posted it to them they didn't get an envelope full of crap? Assuming they could actually know that there'd been water in there anyway :) Seriously, I ran Magura blood for...hmm...a year and a half (or so). No need to bleed it at all apart from when I put the hose on initially. It worked. However, now I've got water, it still works, but it feels and works a shitload better. You can't argue with the physics and viscosities of liquids - water will ALWAYS have a 'lighter' lever feel to a comparably set up Magura with oil in it. People generally prefer 'lighter', less stodgier lever feels, so why shouldn't people run it? Magura also say you should use the black pads as standard, seeing as that's what the brake comes with. What are you running at the moment? Equally, I'm pretty sure most rim manufacturers initially didn't intend for you to grind your rims? Or drill them, if they weren't pre-drilled? D'you get the point yet? Anyway, in answer to the initial question - go for it. Just make sure you thoroughly flush out the system :- Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
munkee Posted May 11, 2005 Report Share Posted May 11, 2005 So, in that case, should we have a poll for people who've had Magura blood in and had it leak? That's right - people with mineral oil can have leaky brakes too. Mark ← Would be a very good poll.. i've been through more seals and levers with magura oil than i can count. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thechink Posted May 11, 2005 Report Share Posted May 11, 2005 there is no need for all this bleeding in the bath malarky. just get the bleed kit and a bottle of buxton water. and bleeds as normal. if your good enough it will feel uber. ask matt staples if you want. we had to bodge a new lever on when he snapped one and i bled it with buxton water. best brake ever he said. i kid you not. thechink Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomm Posted May 11, 2005 Report Share Posted May 11, 2005 Yeah, I've always found Buxton to be good. Volvic ain't bad though. But if you want the best brake in the world, you gotta use Borsec mineral water from Romania. The extra magnesium gives you much more power and an awsome feel. P.S. Don't be silly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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