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Maggies


fatty r

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as winter is pretty much here and for all the people with water bleeds i wondered if theres any tips for unfreezing them i already no not to use a kettle of water because its can split your slave sylindres and i only live with my old man so no hairdryers avalable any ideas

cheers kyle

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Water gives a better feel to the brake, returns quicker, easier to pull etc.

It's also free and if you don't have the syringes etc, you can't exactly fill your sink with oil.......

Proper brake oil is made for a reason though...like not freezing for a start...and I also thought its because water can be compressed more than a formulated brake oil.

Water may be free but so what if you can't use you bike when it gets cold. It doesn't cost that much for a proper bleed kit and oil....maybe if you can't afford to maintain a magura switch to a vee (just a suggestion)

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This is funny, lots of people bleed there maggys with water. "WHY!"?? mineral fluid is a lubricant, water is not. the feel of water is nice at first because its thinner than mineral fluid. hence the quick piston return etc. but sooner or later the pistons will go sluggish and will return slowly, the lever feel will be nasty and you will have just void your warranty. Put steel in water and see what happens, corrosion. Yet all magura fittings are steel so nice bit of corrosion from the inside out. Never good. And to top it all off water, (unless antifreeze added) freezes! And at this time of year thats not what you want!

Get to halfords or alike get some mineral fluid and do the job right.. so many brake complaints on here yet so many people dont follow the simple manufacturers guidelines! there there for a reason!!

£4.00 aint gonna brak the bank!!

Dave

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Yesterday!! haha, is it really worth it though. no one ever has any problems with mineral fluid but lots do with water. and corrosion wont happen overnight your right. but it will happen. also the compression chareteristics of water are different to those of mineral fluid.

Bottom line, Use the correct fluid and your brake will last twice as long and wont play up. use water and it will be good for a while then the brake will be ruined, its been done many times "By myself too!"

Dave

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My maggie has been water bled for the last 6 years, still on the same lever and slaves :)

Its frozen once in all that time, mainly because I was riding at 11pm in winter - getting too old to do that now so its not really an issue.

The corrosion also isnt an issue as there is this magical thing called oxygen that needs to be present to cause steel to rust, funnily enough there is bugger all oxygen in a hydraulic brake (ok discounting the minute amounts of oxygen in solution). Besides which, all of the steel fittings are open to atmosphere anyways and when was the last time you say a maggie with rusty fittings? ;)

The only problem Ive found with a water bleed is that the slave cylinder seals dry out a touch (as you mentioned), this is easily solved by dropping a spot of oil onto the pistons every couple of months.

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Proper brake oil is made for a reason though...like not freezing for a start...and I also thought its because water can be compressed more than a formulated brake oil.

Water may be free but so what if you can't use you bike when it gets cold. It doesn't cost that much for a proper bleed kit and oil....maybe if you can't afford to maintain a magura switch to a vee (just a suggestion)

Thats why some people chose to put anit-freeze in with there brakes... i always used to keep my bike in the garage and never ever had a problem with freezing out on rides.. and water cant compress in a sealed system, (well obv it can but its farily negligable when compared to the pressues that our small plasic hoses provide.)

Anit freeze is free, if your parents own cars, you literally need less than half and half and you only need like 50ml to bleed a whole brake... bleed kit costs about a tenner, and oil is a fiver, so 15 quid and you have to wait for bits to arrive and you have to leave the house... or you can put it in a sink and do it straight away, also on a ride if your brake goe's, no-one will carry oil with them, and it will get messy and it will be a massive pain in the ass.

thats not mentioning the benifits of the responsivness of water, because of its viscosity.

even if it does void your warrantee, if you bleed it with mineral oil before sending it back how will they ever know anyway/ and it wont corrode your seals because there should be no air in the system... seriously ever one does it for a reason and it is worth it, ive had a water bleed for years with no problems occouring. to stop sluggish pistions you should oil the pistions... not oil the internals.

also the compression chareteristics of water are different to those of mineral fluid.

doesn't matter... your frame will flex to the point of snapping before the water compress's.....

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This is funny, lots of people bleed there maggys with water. "WHY!"?? mineral fluid is a lubricant, water is not. the feel of water is nice at first because its thinner than mineral fluid. hence the quick piston return etc. but sooner or later the pistons will go sluggish and will return slowly, the lever feel will be nasty and you will have just void your warranty. Put steel in water and see what happens, corrosion. Yet all magura fittings are steel so nice bit of corrosion from the inside out. Never good. And to top it all off water, (unless antifreeze added) freezes! And at this time of year thats not what you want!

Get to halfords or alike get some mineral fluid and do the job right.. so many brake complaints on here yet so many people dont follow the simple manufacturers guidelines! there there for a reason!!

£4.00 aint gonna brak the bank!!

Dave

I've known people to get sticky pistons with oil bled maggies.

I'd say its more dirt etc on the pistons rather than not being lubricated.

What happens when you split a hose with an oil bled maggie.... Oily mess over rims/disc...

Hellooooo contamination.

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Haha, nice bit of sarcasm thrown in for good measure! appreciated. but....

water can be compressed like anything else. It's just that the molecular structure of water is so dense that it takes extremely high pressure and the amount that it can be compressed is relatively little. Water is an extremely simple molecule but it has extremely unique properties. It called the universal solvent because more substances will dissolve in water than anything else. There have been entire books written on the properties of water alone.

And thats how bored i am!

Dave

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