New bike, but....
Discussion
...the brakes are the wrong way round!
It's a lovely 2015 Mondraker Factor RR, and I'm in Malawi so can't pop to a bike shop for any bits. Can I swap the cables without any mineral oil or olives on standby? Brakes are Shimano M396.
Thanks
P.S. If I need parts to do the swap they'll be at least 3 weeks away so I may have got used to them by then...
It's a lovely 2015 Mondraker Factor RR, and I'm in Malawi so can't pop to a bike shop for any bits. Can I swap the cables without any mineral oil or olives on standby? Brakes are Shimano M396.
Thanks
P.S. If I need parts to do the swap they'll be at least 3 weeks away so I may have got used to them by then...
No, you'll need to re-bleed them after pulling the hose from each lever.
You shouldn't need to change the olives but there's always the "buggeration" occasions - like when I had a problem where the hose wouldn't come free from a caliper (same interface as the lever). The olive had crushed so much, it would not come free even after sacrificing the hose, sticking the caliper in my vice, and pulling on the hose with all my weight (until the hose stretched). In the end I had to cut the hose, carefully drill out the olive, split the caliper to ensure there was no contamination, and rebuild/refill.
That almost never happens though.
The compression nut is relatively soft aluminium so be careful when tightening up again. When you buy a bleed kit for a specific type of brake, you often get a new compression nut and compression ferrule (I think that's what it's called - it's a barbed fitting that pushes into the hose and has a rubber ring for sealing into the lever or caliper) however I tend to try and reuse the existing fittings if they came free without too much hassle.
But, even if you don't need any other parts, you will need to re-bleed. For that you *may* need some fluid, at least one syringe, a couple of hoses and (depending on what brakes you have) a bleed nipple. Some Shimano brakes you can get away with nothing more than the fluid itself - you keep the reservoir filled and pump the fluid from the reservoir through to the caliper. For this though, you need to remove the caliper, remove the friction pads (and put them somewhere where they won't get contaminated), suspend the caliper higher than the lever/reservoir, and then follow normal bleed technique.
You shouldn't need to change the olives but there's always the "buggeration" occasions - like when I had a problem where the hose wouldn't come free from a caliper (same interface as the lever). The olive had crushed so much, it would not come free even after sacrificing the hose, sticking the caliper in my vice, and pulling on the hose with all my weight (until the hose stretched). In the end I had to cut the hose, carefully drill out the olive, split the caliper to ensure there was no contamination, and rebuild/refill.
That almost never happens though.
The compression nut is relatively soft aluminium so be careful when tightening up again. When you buy a bleed kit for a specific type of brake, you often get a new compression nut and compression ferrule (I think that's what it's called - it's a barbed fitting that pushes into the hose and has a rubber ring for sealing into the lever or caliper) however I tend to try and reuse the existing fittings if they came free without too much hassle.
But, even if you don't need any other parts, you will need to re-bleed. For that you *may* need some fluid, at least one syringe, a couple of hoses and (depending on what brakes you have) a bleed nipple. Some Shimano brakes you can get away with nothing more than the fluid itself - you keep the reservoir filled and pump the fluid from the reservoir through to the caliper. For this though, you need to remove the caliper, remove the friction pads (and put them somewhere where they won't get contaminated), suspend the caliper higher than the lever/reservoir, and then follow normal bleed technique.
Herman Toothrot said:
Just learn to ride right hand rear it's the best way anyway on a mountain bike as you should rarely need the front.
Forgot winky smiley there. Most (60%?) of your braking should be with the front of course. But yes you should be able to use them t'other way round.
richardxjr said:
Forgot winky smiley there. Most (60%?) of your braking should be with the front of course.
But yes you should be able to use them t'other way round.
Not really the case, use the rear to control speed by dragging it not locking up - how does steering fair over wet off camber roots when you pull the front brake for example?, front only for when you've gone in too hot or actually want to stop. Make the rear your predominant brake when mountain biking and you'll have more control over your steering. Mountain bikes a very different animal to say a motorbike which is where right rear comes in even more as rights where the predominant brake for a motorbike is, just in that case it's always the front. So if you ride motor bikes and mountain bikes you use the same hand. In low grip situations controlling where you are going is the most important thing not braking efficiency. Ask your self if you were put at the top of a steep gradient downhill course if you could only have one brake which would you want? Front only would just result in loads of wash outs and over the bars incidents. Rear as long as you don't build un controllable speed you'll remain in far better control. Also I bet cable routing is better right rear as that's how bikes are all designed. Nice sweep right hand leaver to brake mounted on the left so less rubbing in the head tube.But yes you should be able to use them t'other way round.
Edited by Herman Toothrot on Thursday 20th November 16:26
Agree to disagree did my 1st downhill race in the late 90's and these days still fastest downhill on my hard tail than the 30+ others I ride with. On the last few visits to Cwcarn etc strava usually puts me in the top 10% and have the odd KOM DH so think I'm doing something right :-)
Edited by Herman Toothrot on Thursday 20th November 23:45
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