[RideMonkey]

Today we attempted to put a longer hydraulic housing on my hope disc brake. It was squishy at the lever after we were done. Likely we just need to bleed it again to get the air out but it could be something else:

1. We changed from DOT 5.1 to DOT 4
2. The housing is almost a foot longer than stock.

Could these things affect feel at the lever?

 

[Orvan]

Originally posted by RideMonkey
Today we attempted to put a longer hydraulic housing on my hope disc brake. It was squishy at the lever after we were done. Likely we just need to bleed it again to get the air out but it could be something else:

1. We changed from DOT 5.1 to DOT 4
2. The housing is almost a foot longer than stock.

Could these things affect feel at the lever?

the DOT rating won't affect the feel..it's just the boiling point tolerance between the two..

A foot excess??? Dude, cut it down to atleast 6"... And from my Hope experience it won't make a difference... but I can't say the same for the C2.. the rear on my C2 feels a bit mushier than the front..so what I do? After a proper and air-free bleeed. I fill the bottle with the lil hose with fluid and place it on the bleed nipple (I said nipple..:devil: ). Open the nipple ( I said nipple again) with the 8mm wrench and squeeze the bottle hard to pump a lil fluid into the caliper and while squeezing the bottle close the nipple (he he he) shut... The reason why you don't want to over fill it is that you don't want your system to pump up too soon when it's super hot.. You're basically putting a bit more fluid to fill some void between the caliper and master cylinder so whatever fluid is already in the line will travel faster (less mushy). Experiment with it... I usually prefer DOT4 fluid (especially for dhilling) it breaks down a lot less and does not get saturated with moisture (water) like the 5.1..

hope this helped Helius...

 

[scottishmark]

1. changing from 4 to 5.1 (or vice-versa) wont change the feel of the brake, only how it performs when it gets hot (4 expands more than the high performance dot5.1)

2. kinda, obviously having more hose is giving air bubbles more places to hide but it really shouldn't make much of a difference (think of the length of the hoses in cars)


I've recently realised the best way of bleeding Hopes, its very leisurely............just fill up the top cap, open the bleed nipple, and allow the fluid to run through the system, topping up the resevoir as required. for some reason (probably cause you're not actually trying to force the air out) this seems to work really well.

patience is obviously required though

 

[Orvan]

i've been doing what scott said on the bleed part...but I also push the fluid up and out through the caliper and topping the master cylinder out.. If you can look closely at the pool of fluid on the master Cylinder (have Jojo squeeze the bottle at the caliper), you should be able to see lil to big air pockets coming out if you still have air in the system. This procedure is better because it requires a lot more force to pump the fluid out from the caliper's end rather than the other way..gravity.. I've had luck with mine and I have the first generation DH4s from 2 1/2 yrs ago..
If this is your first Hope...
Keep these in stock (u can call Hope directly..but you knew that)
1. Seal Kits (2 diff size o-rings)
2. Steel Springs for the plunger
3. Brass nut (this is the break away mechanism)
4. C-clips
5. Dust boot/cover

get the c-clip plyer from Sears, if you don't have that and you plan on overhauling/servicing your Hope, life will be miserable.
If you see puddle/wetness around the plunger area..you're seals are toast... easy fix..if you know ahead of time.. also..over time, the pistons on the caliper won't retract fully back and thus make the pad drag on the rotor. The fix: Take the wheel off..take the pads off..get a cardboard (or 4 business cards) place in between the pistons and squeeze the lever fully extending the pistons....generously spray WD40 on them to rid of muck build-up around the sides of the pistons which makes them drag and prevent full retraction...

 

[Brian HCM#1]

Originally posted by RideMonkey
Today we attempted to put a longer hydraulic housing on my hope disc brake. It was squishy at the lever after we were done. Likely we just need to bleed it again to get the air out but it could be something else:

1. We changed from DOT 5.1 to DOT 4
2. The housing is almost a foot longer than stock.

Could these things affect feel at the lever?

Sounds like a bad bleed, Hope now uses dot 3, 4 fluids in all there brakes. I have run 4 in mine and found no difference between the 2 fluids(5.1-4) on heat expansion. If you are bleeding the rears manually the brake line MUST be totally vertical. Hope makes a power bleeder which works awesome, I personally use an automotive type brake bleeder with perfect results and does not require to have the brake line vertical. Just works best to have a helper to make sure the resivour stays full, cause if it goes dry you gotta start all over again.