Bleeding the brakes...WTF am i doing wrong

[MrWasabi]

Ive been having a spongy feel on the brake lever for a while now, sometimes bad enough that the lever reaches the bar...

I installed new pads the other day and had to push the pistons back so make room, after i did this the lever was rock solid and with just a thought of pressing the brakes i found myself stopping quite rapidly.

This feeling slowly went away over the weeks and now is back to its spongy self. I bled the brakes, one side at a time but no air bubbles came out. I stapped the lever down to the bar and left it over night, this gets some feeling back but shortly goes back to spongy after a few days.

Ive checked the lines and cant see any fluid coming out from anywhere, the line actually look brand new (bike has only done 12,000km). fluid is topped up from a new bottle.

one thing i didnt do is bleed from the top nipple on the MC, ive never done this before so should i bother? and if so, how do i do it?

[MadKaw]

Yes you should, and you do it the same as the bottom ones..

[Mad RS]

Definately the top MC nipple need bleeding. I just fitted new calipers and bled the brakes but I forgot about the top nipple (first time bleeding a bike brakes). Brake lever felt real spongy until I bled that top nipple. Instantly got a strong and solid brake lever.

[Maccarocks]

Yes the master cylinder nipple MUST be bled...!!

You should start at this top nipple, then when you get the air out of that, go to the furtherest one away from the MC being the left caliper nipple... bleed that one, then the right caliper nipple, then back to the master cylinder nipple and it should be firm as..!!

You dont have to bleed a huge amount of fluid through it, and make sure you have the cap off the reservoir so you can see the level drop and keep it topped up..

This should work for you..


Macca..

[MrWasabi]

thanks guys, after playing with the nipple it got my lever hard... sorry had to be said...

never had radial MC before and it all looked scary...but its just like another caliper, thats what you get for overanalysing things

[Blurr]

thanks guys, after playing with my left nipple I got my lever hard.

Imagine what you can do with the right one at the same time