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Bleeding Brakes


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There is no 'best', you'll have to decide yourself what to use in the end, all people can do is give their opinions on what they feel works best.

It depends what you want from your brake, personally I find magura mineral oil works fine, and prefer it as it's designed specifically for the brake.

If you feel the lever is returning slowly, then you might want to consider bleeding it with water, or a thinner oil, such as WD40.

The best thing to do is try and ride other peoples bikes, and see how their brakes feel, but renember the rest of the setup (pads, booster etc.) also affect the feel.

Is there anything wrong with your brake? Or do you just want to try something new or what?

If it's not broken, don't fix it!

Alun

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I bled my maggie with water, which makes the lever snappier than the magura oil. I really like this, and coupled with some aluminium backings on my pads and a good booster the result is also very responsive. (Y)

Baby oil is the cheapest oil option. I've seen bottles in Tescos for less than £1. Worth a try too!

Steve

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Definitely magura blood. Water is ok but is known to kill the hosing and slave pistons. :sick:

Wrong on both counts. How can water kill plastic? Afterall, your Magura hosing is plastic. I work at a supermarket, and we don't have to mop up the drinks aisle ever day because the water's corroded all the bottles away. Equally, I've run water in my brake for over a year now (with a strong water/antifreeze mix in it over the winter), and there's no trouble with it at all.

Water really is one of the best options to use, basically. It's free, it's easily available in whatever amount you need, it won't be a bitch if you spill it everywhere, and it gives the best lever feel time and time again. There's no real reason not to run it, basically.

Plus, if you do use water, you can even just use a bucket or a sink/bath to bleed it too, if you don't have a syringe and some pipes to hand.

All good.

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Bucket and water method, 2 buckets of water both at a high and low level.

Leave in top bucket.

Pistons in bottom.

Shoot water through the hosing untill you see air bubbles coming out of the bleed hole in the pistons.

Really does work well, Say no to Magura Bleed kits!

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If you're not too hamfisted, you can do it in a single bucket too (Y) SAme sorta principle as that one - just make sure that the top bleed hole is the highest point of the system, and that way you won't get air bubbles (Y)

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Also, this may void warranty but who cares?

Stretch the springs behind the piston in the leaver, this will make the brake stiffer, also making the pads go in towards the rim alot faster!

Put abit of XC maintanence oil in the pistons in your leaver aswell every now and again.

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Stretch the springs behind the piston in the leaver, this will make the brake stiffer, also making the pads go in towards the rim alot faster!

Can you explain how this works? Surely the spring is nothing to do with the speed at which the pads hit the rim? I always thought this would be affected only by how fast the lever blade is moved?

Alun

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USE MAGGIE OIL OR MI M8S JUST USE VEGGIE OIL THAT WORKS ACE (Y)

Ive just used some veggie oil and its working orite for me, its cheap aswell: 29p a litre, Wilky try not to use Txt talk or CAPS LOCK if you can help it... (Y)

>>Keni<<

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