[Harry BarnOwl]

Hi,

Hooked up my juicy levers to some pre 2011 code calipers (old style ones). Very familiar with the bleed system and confident that I've bled them as well as can be bled, and when they bite they feel fantastic, lots of power and great feel. The problem is, there's a lot of dead lever travel/throw before they bite, and I really like my brakes to bite quickly (short stubby fingers).

They're juicy seven levers with bite contact adjust, and for the bleeding I always have the contact adjust all the way out (as per avid's instructions), but I was wondering if it had something to do with this?

Anyone got any ideas of things to try?

Cheers

 

[Downhillbiker23]

Any possibiliy there is air in the lines? Maybe just a small abrasion in the hose thats allowing a little bit of air to seap in. happened on a quad I had with hydro clutch

 

[DhDork]

If the bite is good and the lever throw feel smooth and solid, not spongy, it would not be that you did an improper bleed. If what you are trying to achieve is less lever throw you need to increase the amount of fluid in the system. Sometimes to do this, you need to ditch the bleed block for the last part of the bleed. With the syringe still on at the lever, you need to add a small amount of pressure to the line with the syringe, and slowly squeeze the lever. EYES OPEN! What this is going to do is push the pistons in at the caliper. In the piston's settling position (finger off the lever) the pistons should be no more than ~2mm moved between the two of them. Be careful not to push these pistons too far as they will pop out, and that is a much bigger hassle. Finish bleed as normal at this point.

 

[Harry BarnOwl]

Yeah I had a chat with a guy who knows his sram stuff inside out and he said I need to maximize the volume of the system - the one way that I wasn't was by having the pad contact wound out. So I bled them again with the pad contact out and they feel much much better.

dhbiker23 I'm pretty sure there's no air getting in anywhere - as DhDork says the bleed is fine as the bite is rock hard.

DhDork, that's a solid idea, thank you very much. Only problem I can see is the discs rubbing but no harm in trying! My other idea was to have a small bump stop to stop the lever retracting all the way to the extended position, but that would be fairly bodge.

 

[samnation]

DhDork, that's a solid idea, thank you very much. Only problem I can see is the discs rubbing but no harm in trying! My other idea was to have a small bump stop to stop the lever retracting all the way to the extended position, but that would be fairly bodge.

With brand new pads I think that would be an issue but once the pads have lost a bit of surface and are effectively smaller I don't see a huge issue with doing it this way. The other thing you will want to watch for is that all 4 pistons move the same amount I have had code troubles with one piston moving faster than the others.