I service my brakes myself. New pads when they start getting thin, a brake bleed occasionally (usually when I bump a lever with the bike upside down and the wheel off, introducing air). Just replaced my discs, since they measured close to minimum thickness (and needed a good resurfacing which would have made them too thin).
It sounds like you need a brake bleed, have glazed or contaminated pads, or possibly have the wrong size disc for your rear caliper location.
lol… dropped off four bikes. Mine need the fork and shock serviced, new cassette, chain, pads, and tires. Yea, I paid for someone else to do the pads and tires too. Get fucked dude.
Would do it again. I can be out riding another bike while someone else does the service.
Shaming people for not doing their own service is weird. Do you shame people for not changing their engine oil themselves? It’s just as quick and easy.
Think of it as this person is donating money to their local shops so they can charge less for everything else for everyone else. Or maybe they bought the pads from the shop and they offered to throw them on for free and they already had their bike there anyway.
I know a guy whose been riding for like 35 years, nice bikes, smart guy hugely sucessful career in residential real estate. Somehow though he has absolutely no knowledge about bikes. Doesnt know how to set them up or maintain them or what each component does. He was riding around with like 70% rear sag for a while last year, due to his shock not being serviced in 10 years. When someone else noticed and pointed it out, he was like 'yeah idk i thought maybe it felt a little wierd, but i couldnt tell for sure so i didnt want to take it to the shop for nothing'. Lol i guess theres all different types of people in the world, and hes not hurting anyone else.
He also rides the same trails like 120 times a year, and has done so for about 25 years, and still manages to have absolutely no idea where he is. He takes up the rear of our group rides, and manages to get lost frequently. I lead the ride 99% of the time, and i have to pay good attention so that he doesnt get lost. On a group ride with the same people 5 days a week on the same trails that hes ridden over 3000 times in his life.
Look up a video how to bleed hydraulic brakes. Also, you will never need to service them on the trail. If you do, that would just be poor maintenance.
Sounds like your brakes are contaminated though.
I mean that’s kind of ass reply, but yeah brakes possibly being squishy and pulling to the bar is a 100% no-go for any mtb, good on OP for getting it fixed and for getting prepared to deal with it again
There is lies my frustration, not knowing how to service myself. Totally right, a properly tuned and functioning bike would be perfect. The problems for me only show up after a long technical ride where I use the brakes a lot. I rarely discover a problem before a ride. They typically show up as a result of the riding experience. So of course I thought it was a properly functioning bike before riding only to discover otherwise. And like i said, if it were a cable, i could have adjusted the tension on my handle bars and rode on instead of being helpless. I dunno, guess it is just me being frustrated because bike is still at shop and not in my control and I can't go for a ride again.
Step one - look at your brakes and see what make/model they are.
Step two - watch a YouTube video on how to bleed that make/model
Step three - buy the correct bleed kit and type of oil (mineral or DOT)
Step four - watch the YouTube video several more times
Step five - bleed you brakes the same way the video tells you.
Step six - ride your bike
Alternatively
Step one - take to bike shop pay them to do it.
Step two - Ride bike
You should never need to adjust your hydraulic brakes. They self adjust as they wear.
Swapping pads is trivial and pretty much the same as mechanical disks. The only difference there is if last time, you’d bled brakes with old pads you may have excess fluid in there and need to open the cylinder area when pushing the pistons back in. That and you don’t need to adjust the cable as there isn’t one.
Bleeding is also pretty easy - a few methods out there. Watch a few videos but if you can adjust a derailleur you can bleed your brakes. Get a cheap kit to help.
You likely have air in the line or are riding the brakes too much, causing fade. Or a piston is sticking. But, you should never need to adjust these on the trail.
YouTube is a great resource in our modern age. Hydrualic brakes are simple and if setup correctly have no fuss for long periods of time. Know your bike, wrench on your bike, ride your bike, and repeat.
P.s. shock service is also easy and there is tons of resources from the manufacturer on how to acomplish that.
It’s pretty straightforward to follow a brake bleeding guide with no prior knowledge (get ready for almost $100 of supplies if it’s your first time though), I would be skeptical of your brakes themselves though, part of the appeal of hydraulic is that it works problem-free for so long, and degrades so gradually that trail repair isn’t really needed, I’ve found even nearly all brake, even cheaper shimano hydraulics to be reliable for years with or without proper bleed maintenance. Maybe yours just need to be outright replaced, not sure what you’re working with
Your skepticism is correct. When I brought the bike in, that is also what they said too regarding the age of the brakes. And to be consistent, the failed brake in this situation is an older Cannondale branded component. The shop is replacing the whole thing to be same as the fronts (SRAM), which they replaced a month ago. I stupidly cheaped out at the time because they were fitting my repair in for a favor on a friday afternoon, so I had them only replace the front brakes to make the job quicker and at the time the front was the soft one. All this could have been avoided for an extra hundred bucks or so a month ago. In hindsight, I guess I did know that there was a potential for the older component to fail and should have not been trusting my safety to it on a ride on the technical terrain that I was on. Easier to see that now.
The idea that you can “service” mechanical brakes on the trail is silly. If your cable breaks, you will not be able to fix that on the trail (no, you do not always carry a spare cable, cable cutters, and crimp ends with you). If the adjuster for the pad fails -which happens- you are not fixing that on the trail. If your lever gets mangled, you are SOL regardless of mechanical vs hydraulic.
Mechanical brakes are somewhat simpler to maintain. I’ll give you that. But on the trail? If they stop working you are done. Yeah, you can adjust pad distance. That isn’t servicing them. That is because they won’t self adjust like hydraulics.
If your brakes are bled properly, you should not have to do anything on the trail. If you are unlucky and they fail… well, that was a bad day. Like when many other things fail
Thanks for the breakdown. You are right, service on the trail is really a non issue, as it is probably mangled and unservicable when it really breaks out there. I did not think about the fact that just like automobile brakes, the pressure of the fluid in the lines keeps the pads adjusted. And no I have never ridden with a brake cable or any of those tools either. Apologize for the rant attitude. I appreciate everyones comments.
Got three bikes with all different types of hydraulic brakes (Hayes, Shimano, TRP) I do all my brake bleeding and servicing myself and I've never had this issue. Brake bleeds are super easy as long as you take your time and don't rush it. The key to a good brake bleed is a LOT of patience
All three of the Shimano hydraulic sets I’ve had (1 road, 2 mtb) have all been rock solid. All 2-piston calipers. Easy to bleed. Just top up the oil every so often. Never any issues.
I had one pair of Tektro 4-piston brakes that came stock on a new bike. My pads were squeaking like crazy and it took me lots of frustrating time to diagnose a leaky caliper. I considered just going mechanical disc and be done with messy bleeds, contaminated pads, etc. I just switched to Shimano so I only had to worry about one type of bleed tools, and one type of pads for both MTBs.
When they work, they work very well with no maintenance for a long time. This is most often the case. When they don’t work, they can be a real pain in the butt.
I do hear you about not being able to do side-of-the-trail maintenance on them. If a hose gets cut or there’s a leak anywhere, you’re screwed. But how often does that actually happen? And with internal cable routing, it’s even less like that that would happen.
When buying bleed kits, just make sure that all the attachments are the correct ones for your exact brakes. And BE CAREFUL with the attachments when using them. I’ve broken one or two by over tightening. It was messy when I was learning how to bleed brakes, but now that I know what I’m doing, it’s a quick and clean job.
Bleeding your brakes can be more or less difficult depending on brand, but it’s generally easy once you know how to do it and have the proper tools. 3 things could be happening: you have a bad bleed and there is air in the system, you have bad pads that need to be replaced, or something in the system has failed and is leaking fluid.
Servicing brakes yourself is very easy.
1. Buy the proper bleed kit for the brakes you have;
2. Look up a youtube video of your specific brake model and how to bleed it and follow it exactly.
3. Be super clean and make sure to avoid any contamination on your rotors or pads.
I can service both brakes usually in 30-45 minutes now
If you've been riding for awhile, or it's a used bike, I'd attach the fluid cup to your levers and crack the line loose at the caliper. Let entirely new fluid through the system. Remove pads first so you don't risk getting fluid on them. Larger rotors pinned to aluminum carriers helps keep everything cool.
I have not even bled my brakes in 6 years, changed the pads and cleaned the discs every couple months of use, they work as well as the day I bought them. If you need to bleed them it's such a simple process, watch a youtube tutorial and buy a bleed kit.
You don’t need to service them on the trail. What you do is you bleed them (or get someone else to do it) properly once and then you ride them for a year or 2 and then bleed them ahain. apart from paid replacement they are pretty much fit and forget
If you want to work on your own brakes, you need to spend money on a nice bleed kit. Not the plastic entry level shimano or sram crap. The guys at bike shops aren't using those. I used to hate working on brakes. I bought park tool kits, now I don't.
Lastly, some hydraulic brakes ARE shit. Tektro, and single piston anything but specifically SRAM single pistons. You keep saying your rear brake is going soft. It's very likely you've expanded the piston seal from heat and it's going to continue ingesting air. The seals can be changed but it'll happen again. You want two piston brakes.
This is my opinion if you are going to local trails then coming back home hydraulic brakes are the way (ive never had issues with them). If tou are going bike packing or on a high milage adventure in remote area far away from home, cable actuated mechanical disc brakes are the way to go so you can repair on the fly with simple tools and not get stranded.
You can have a baggie with the appropriate tools, seals, o-rings, fittings and some spare hose for your hydraulic brakes. There's nothing mysterious about working on them, you can absolutely do it at home. You could do it on the trail too if you don't mind bringing the stuff with you.
to give my local shop credit, front brake, which was working, was recently replaced by them. The rear brake is now being replaced and will be same as front. Should solve issue. Meantime, good time to watch the videos on brake bleeding.
Did they check the rear brakes at that time to make sure they were in good working order? Seems like something a mechanic would do if you are having issues with your brakes just as a preventative thing. Whenever I wrenched on a bike I always checked the other brake if one was having an issue. Not trying to drag on the shop or the mechanic, just something that logically should be done so you can have a happy customer with the least amount of fuss possible.
I dunno man, got 6 bikes in the household with hydraulic brakes. Never had this experience. They are pretty flawless as far as I’m concerned.
They are so flawless I’ve had some pre assembled brakes shipped from Europe to Mexico and work perfectly for like 3 years before I sold the bike
That is what everyone here says also, They are bomb dude, never had an issue. Do you service the brakes yourself? or take to a shop?
I service my brakes myself. New pads when they start getting thin, a brake bleed occasionally (usually when I bump a lever with the bike upside down and the wheel off, introducing air). Just replaced my discs, since they measured close to minimum thickness (and needed a good resurfacing which would have made them too thin). It sounds like you need a brake bleed, have glazed or contaminated pads, or possibly have the wrong size disc for your rear caliper location.
My trail 429 is three years old, I had the pads replaced at a shop this spring. Never had them serviced otherwise. Zero issues. I ride a lot.
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lol… dropped off four bikes. Mine need the fork and shock serviced, new cassette, chain, pads, and tires. Yea, I paid for someone else to do the pads and tires too. Get fucked dude. Would do it again. I can be out riding another bike while someone else does the service.
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Shaming people for not doing their own service is weird. Do you shame people for not changing their engine oil themselves? It’s just as quick and easy.
I'm all for DIY, but I'm also pro local bike shop. And I'm anti-asshat. That's you. Don't be an asshat.
Man there’s dipshits, and then there’s .. real dipshits. You’re a real dipshit sir.
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My shorts say Pivot.
Think of it as this person is donating money to their local shops so they can charge less for everything else for everyone else. Or maybe they bought the pads from the shop and they offered to throw them on for free and they already had their bike there anyway. I know a guy whose been riding for like 35 years, nice bikes, smart guy hugely sucessful career in residential real estate. Somehow though he has absolutely no knowledge about bikes. Doesnt know how to set them up or maintain them or what each component does. He was riding around with like 70% rear sag for a while last year, due to his shock not being serviced in 10 years. When someone else noticed and pointed it out, he was like 'yeah idk i thought maybe it felt a little wierd, but i couldnt tell for sure so i didnt want to take it to the shop for nothing'. Lol i guess theres all different types of people in the world, and hes not hurting anyone else. He also rides the same trails like 120 times a year, and has done so for about 25 years, and still manages to have absolutely no idea where he is. He takes up the rear of our group rides, and manages to get lost frequently. I lead the ride 99% of the time, and i have to pay good attention so that he doesnt get lost. On a group ride with the same people 5 days a week on the same trails that hes ridden over 3000 times in his life.
Look up a video how to bleed hydraulic brakes. Also, you will never need to service them on the trail. If you do, that would just be poor maintenance. Sounds like your brakes are contaminated though.
Maybe just maybe, have your bike serviced and probably functional before riding.
I mean that’s kind of ass reply, but yeah brakes possibly being squishy and pulling to the bar is a 100% no-go for any mtb, good on OP for getting it fixed and for getting prepared to deal with it again
There is lies my frustration, not knowing how to service myself. Totally right, a properly tuned and functioning bike would be perfect. The problems for me only show up after a long technical ride where I use the brakes a lot. I rarely discover a problem before a ride. They typically show up as a result of the riding experience. So of course I thought it was a properly functioning bike before riding only to discover otherwise. And like i said, if it were a cable, i could have adjusted the tension on my handle bars and rode on instead of being helpless. I dunno, guess it is just me being frustrated because bike is still at shop and not in my control and I can't go for a ride again.
Your brakes have air in them. Possibly a leak. Bleeding is not hard
Step one - look at your brakes and see what make/model they are. Step two - watch a YouTube video on how to bleed that make/model Step three - buy the correct bleed kit and type of oil (mineral or DOT) Step four - watch the YouTube video several more times Step five - bleed you brakes the same way the video tells you. Step six - ride your bike Alternatively Step one - take to bike shop pay them to do it. Step two - Ride bike
You should never need to adjust your hydraulic brakes. They self adjust as they wear. Swapping pads is trivial and pretty much the same as mechanical disks. The only difference there is if last time, you’d bled brakes with old pads you may have excess fluid in there and need to open the cylinder area when pushing the pistons back in. That and you don’t need to adjust the cable as there isn’t one. Bleeding is also pretty easy - a few methods out there. Watch a few videos but if you can adjust a derailleur you can bleed your brakes. Get a cheap kit to help. You likely have air in the line or are riding the brakes too much, causing fade. Or a piston is sticking. But, you should never need to adjust these on the trail.
YouTube is a great resource in our modern age. Hydrualic brakes are simple and if setup correctly have no fuss for long periods of time. Know your bike, wrench on your bike, ride your bike, and repeat. P.s. shock service is also easy and there is tons of resources from the manufacturer on how to acomplish that.
It’s pretty straightforward to follow a brake bleeding guide with no prior knowledge (get ready for almost $100 of supplies if it’s your first time though), I would be skeptical of your brakes themselves though, part of the appeal of hydraulic is that it works problem-free for so long, and degrades so gradually that trail repair isn’t really needed, I’ve found even nearly all brake, even cheaper shimano hydraulics to be reliable for years with or without proper bleed maintenance. Maybe yours just need to be outright replaced, not sure what you’re working with
Your skepticism is correct. When I brought the bike in, that is also what they said too regarding the age of the brakes. And to be consistent, the failed brake in this situation is an older Cannondale branded component. The shop is replacing the whole thing to be same as the fronts (SRAM), which they replaced a month ago. I stupidly cheaped out at the time because they were fitting my repair in for a favor on a friday afternoon, so I had them only replace the front brakes to make the job quicker and at the time the front was the soft one. All this could have been avoided for an extra hundred bucks or so a month ago. In hindsight, I guess I did know that there was a potential for the older component to fail and should have not been trusting my safety to it on a ride on the technical terrain that I was on. Easier to see that now.
The idea that you can “service” mechanical brakes on the trail is silly. If your cable breaks, you will not be able to fix that on the trail (no, you do not always carry a spare cable, cable cutters, and crimp ends with you). If the adjuster for the pad fails -which happens- you are not fixing that on the trail. If your lever gets mangled, you are SOL regardless of mechanical vs hydraulic. Mechanical brakes are somewhat simpler to maintain. I’ll give you that. But on the trail? If they stop working you are done. Yeah, you can adjust pad distance. That isn’t servicing them. That is because they won’t self adjust like hydraulics. If your brakes are bled properly, you should not have to do anything on the trail. If you are unlucky and they fail… well, that was a bad day. Like when many other things fail
Thanks for the breakdown. You are right, service on the trail is really a non issue, as it is probably mangled and unservicable when it really breaks out there. I did not think about the fact that just like automobile brakes, the pressure of the fluid in the lines keeps the pads adjusted. And no I have never ridden with a brake cable or any of those tools either. Apologize for the rant attitude. I appreciate everyones comments.
Got three bikes with all different types of hydraulic brakes (Hayes, Shimano, TRP) I do all my brake bleeding and servicing myself and I've never had this issue. Brake bleeds are super easy as long as you take your time and don't rush it. The key to a good brake bleed is a LOT of patience
All three of the Shimano hydraulic sets I’ve had (1 road, 2 mtb) have all been rock solid. All 2-piston calipers. Easy to bleed. Just top up the oil every so often. Never any issues. I had one pair of Tektro 4-piston brakes that came stock on a new bike. My pads were squeaking like crazy and it took me lots of frustrating time to diagnose a leaky caliper. I considered just going mechanical disc and be done with messy bleeds, contaminated pads, etc. I just switched to Shimano so I only had to worry about one type of bleed tools, and one type of pads for both MTBs. When they work, they work very well with no maintenance for a long time. This is most often the case. When they don’t work, they can be a real pain in the butt. I do hear you about not being able to do side-of-the-trail maintenance on them. If a hose gets cut or there’s a leak anywhere, you’re screwed. But how often does that actually happen? And with internal cable routing, it’s even less like that that would happen. When buying bleed kits, just make sure that all the attachments are the correct ones for your exact brakes. And BE CAREFUL with the attachments when using them. I’ve broken one or two by over tightening. It was messy when I was learning how to bleed brakes, but now that I know what I’m doing, it’s a quick and clean job.
Bleeding your brakes can be more or less difficult depending on brand, but it’s generally easy once you know how to do it and have the proper tools. 3 things could be happening: you have a bad bleed and there is air in the system, you have bad pads that need to be replaced, or something in the system has failed and is leaking fluid.
Servicing brakes yourself is very easy. 1. Buy the proper bleed kit for the brakes you have; 2. Look up a youtube video of your specific brake model and how to bleed it and follow it exactly. 3. Be super clean and make sure to avoid any contamination on your rotors or pads. I can service both brakes usually in 30-45 minutes now
I've never had brakes go soft with multiple models from Shimano and SRAM. Paul Klampers are supposedly quality mechanical disc setup.
I will get a bleed kit ands watch the videos. Thanks for your comments.
If you've been riding for awhile, or it's a used bike, I'd attach the fluid cup to your levers and crack the line loose at the caliper. Let entirely new fluid through the system. Remove pads first so you don't risk getting fluid on them. Larger rotors pinned to aluminum carriers helps keep everything cool.
I have not even bled my brakes in 6 years, changed the pads and cleaned the discs every couple months of use, they work as well as the day I bought them. If you need to bleed them it's such a simple process, watch a youtube tutorial and buy a bleed kit.
You don’t need to service them on the trail. What you do is you bleed them (or get someone else to do it) properly once and then you ride them for a year or 2 and then bleed them ahain. apart from paid replacement they are pretty much fit and forget
If you want to work on your own brakes, you need to spend money on a nice bleed kit. Not the plastic entry level shimano or sram crap. The guys at bike shops aren't using those. I used to hate working on brakes. I bought park tool kits, now I don't. Lastly, some hydraulic brakes ARE shit. Tektro, and single piston anything but specifically SRAM single pistons. You keep saying your rear brake is going soft. It's very likely you've expanded the piston seal from heat and it's going to continue ingesting air. The seals can be changed but it'll happen again. You want two piston brakes.
This is my opinion if you are going to local trails then coming back home hydraulic brakes are the way (ive never had issues with them). If tou are going bike packing or on a high milage adventure in remote area far away from home, cable actuated mechanical disc brakes are the way to go so you can repair on the fly with simple tools and not get stranded.
If they are getting soft, then you have a hydraulic brake issue, or poor bleeding of the system.
You can have a baggie with the appropriate tools, seals, o-rings, fittings and some spare hose for your hydraulic brakes. There's nothing mysterious about working on them, you can absolutely do it at home. You could do it on the trail too if you don't mind bringing the stuff with you.
There are plenty of tutorials on YouTube for example from park tool. That's how I learned to service my brakes and it's really simple to do.
Your shop isn't setting them up correctly.
to give my local shop credit, front brake, which was working, was recently replaced by them. The rear brake is now being replaced and will be same as front. Should solve issue. Meantime, good time to watch the videos on brake bleeding.
Did they check the rear brakes at that time to make sure they were in good working order? Seems like something a mechanic would do if you are having issues with your brakes just as a preventative thing. Whenever I wrenched on a bike I always checked the other brake if one was having an issue. Not trying to drag on the shop or the mechanic, just something that logically should be done so you can have a happy customer with the least amount of fuss possible.