[oldfart]

OK I have short stubby fingers and I prefer that my brake levers engage the brake when they are about a centimetre from the grip. I had that on my XTR brakes in the summer but now that it's cold, the levers are sitting about 2cm away. I have recently moved the levers in too so I can one finger them. My index finger is about 1cm shorter than the middle finger. I have bled them and they are a bit better and the lever blades have both been "manipulated" i.e. bent to bring them in closer. Last time I hade the lever blades off I noticed that the thing that the lever reach adjustment screw threads into has a fairly long threaded hole. Maybe 7-8 mm long. I was thinking that I could drill out an extra couple mm so that I could thread the lever reach screw into this barrel further which would probably give me the range I need.

Anyone done this?

 

[Lelandjt]

To understand why your XTRs feel different in the cold read the end of this thread: http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=583327

 

[oldfart]

Cold in North Vancouver is a little above freezing. So if there is water in the system, it can't freeze. The oil might be thicker but it doesn't explain how the warm bike from inside the house that went into the relatively warm car had tight brakes as soon as I got out and started to ride. Bike had maybe 3 minutes to get cold and as I said, temps were probably around 3 or 4 C. I did a bleed though and it helped somewhat. Brand new though the brakes did not have enough reach adjust.

 

[oldfart]

It worked. I drilled out about 1 -2 mm worth of threads in the barrel and it's all good now.

 

[johnbryanpeters]

Drilled and tapped, I presume...

 

[oldfart]

No just drilled a couple of threads and screwed back on fine. I thought I might need to screw it back on backwards where clean threads exist and the screw adjuster would easily engage and chase the threads that way but they engaged just fine.