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hayes lever adjustment question

konahucker43

Monkey
Jul 18, 2004
437
0
central NY
i've seen people who have their hayes levers really close to the bar and the second they touch um they contact? is there any technique to do this, i've tried doing the lever adjustment screw, and i've tried using worn pads. how is it done?
 

Rik

Turbo Monkey
Nov 6, 2001
1,085
1
Sydney, Australia
I think the trick was to find something marginally thinner than your rotor, slip it between the pads, and pump the lever... being that the pads will always retract a set distance, so you'll bring them closer to the rotor. But this seems to be mainly luck, in my experience.
 

CBJ

year old fart
Mar 19, 2002
12,861
4,154
Copenhagen, Denmark
I find that the problem with adjusting the breaks that way is the pads will be super close to the rotor so if you bend the rotor a little the pads will start to drag.
 

narlus

Eastcoast Softcore
Staff member
Nov 7, 2001
24,658
63
behind the viewfinder
BMXman said:
it's all in the bleed...D
any specific tips? i've had middling success getting the brakes like this (where i like 'em)...sometimes i've had to resort to purging a bit of fluid from the line after a full bleed...but you always run the risk of getting air in and having to redo it.
 

toodles

ridiculously corgi proportioned
Aug 24, 2004
5,479
4,719
Australia
I run my levers very close to the bars with a minimal throw. You've got to remember that lever throw (distance from free to brake lock) and lever reach (distance from bars to lever) are different. You can't use worn pads to get your lever closer to the bars because the lever resting position will still be too far away.

I actually bend my levers using a couple of spanners to get them closer to the bar and leave myself some throw adjustment. To keep your throw distance down, run new pads and make sure you bleed them perfectly. Braided lines will help marginally too so it's worth investing in those if you need new lines anyway.