[punkassean]

My coworker has had a recurring problem of late with his Juicy Seven's. Every so often and not really during any particular riding situation, his rear brake lever gets incredibly firm and the braking becomes ineffective. Typically he can pump the lever a few times and get it to soften up again but recently it caused him to crash and he wants to solve it for good.

I have seen the opposite plenty of times where the lever goes flat on account of a bad hydro line or air bubble in the system, and can be pumped back up to normal as a tempoary band-aid but I've never heard of this problem before. Anybody got ideas?

Thanks in advance.

 

[kidwoo]

Sounds like the lever is stuck before it gets in far enough to engage the fluid/plunger.

 

[binary visions]

Good thought on the lever. I was going to suggest checking for some kind of blockage, either in the lever assembly or maybe down by the calipers in the lines?

Just thinking it could be something that's blocking fluid from being pushed into the calipers, and pumping the brakes forces it to give, either some kind of loose debris or maybe a problem with the line/caliper itself.

 

[punkassean]

I think both of your ideas are very possible. A blockage in the line that slightly impedes flow at times while completely halting flow at other times could very well be the cause. I hadn't thought of Kevin's suggestion but that could also easily do it. I've seen Hayes with a sticky plunger many times, maybe it's something similar.

My first suggestion to him was to put a new line on because my experience with discs has shown me when there is a phantom problem, a mini-overhaul is often the solution. Otherwise you often end up replacing things one-by-one, ending up having to bleed and re-bleed over-and-over when you could have just replaced all the likely suspects and been done with it.

Anybody else got ideas?

 

[kidwoo]

Anybody else got ideas?

cobras!!!!!!!!

 

[binary visions]

cobras!!!!!!!!

Muthaf**kin' snakes in his muthaf**kin' brake lines?