Any tips for new disc brake user?
 

Dear all,
I got my project one Domane. Comes with disc brakes, which is new for me.

In the store, they told me that there is no issues when positioning the bike. In other words, wont cause issues with the hydraulic fluid. However, many people have told me that bikes with hydraulic disc brakes should not be placed up side down.

Also, any other issues I need to be watching for? For example, leaks of the fluid?

You're not supposed to invert it. There is air in the reservoirs in the levers; if you invert the bike, air bubbles may work their way on to the other side of the cylinder. You don't want bubbles between the calipers and the cylinder because it can give you squishy or downright unresponsive braking. That said, you don't need to be hyper vigilant about it - if the levers feel mushy, flick the them rapidly for 10 seconds and then give them another good squeeze; they should firm up.

Pay attention to the braking early on - the brake pads need to bed in to the rotors, and the braking may not be great for the first few rides. In my experience, metallic pads are far worse out of the box; resin pads are pretty good when new, but will still improve a bit.

Leaking fluid? Shouldn't happen unless it was a piss poor install job. I wouldn't think about it unless you notice the brakes performing really poorly.

Despite the parroted warnings frequently found online, hydraulic discs are very, very low maintenance. Learning how to change your pads, center your calipers and flicking your levers as needed will take care of 98% of the issues that you're likely to encounter in the next few years.

Oh, if you take your wheels off, keep the orange spacer pads handy - you don't want to actuate the levers when there's nothing between the pads or you might have to scramble to find something thin enough to wedge the pads/pistons apart.

ThNK YOU SO MUCH!
This is very helpful.

How about positioning the bike horizontally?
Can be tough to have the bike always upright in real life.

Also, should I have received the spacer? I did not.

Vertically? If you hang it by the front wheel/the hoods are up, I would think that it would be fine.

This is what you're looking for, one for each wheel, obv -

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/6I8AA...bCc/s-l640.jpg

Oh - spacers and bleed blocks come with all of the Shimano hydro sets. If the shop didn't include them, I would ask for them - they probably have a bunch in boxes. If not, they'll have some for you the next time they build up a disc bike. Another thing that was included with my Ultegra kit was a yellow blocking bit that slides under the levers - they keep both the brakes and the shift levers from being actuated. I hadn't seen them before, and I haven't used them, but they seem like they'd be handy for transportation.

Congrats!

I'll add that something you can do to help bed the pads is just run up and down the street, get going pretty quick, and do some max braking efforts. Maybe do this a half-dozen times or until braking improves. It should help accelerate the bedding process. It will also give you a good idea of your available braking performance and how it will feel.

I also experience (on my MTB at least) with resin pads, occasionally they will glaze over and I have to remove the pads and knock off the glaze with some ~200 grit sandpaper. I know I need to do this when the brakes get both ineffective and very noisy. You may never experience this, but just FYI.

People worry about this stuff way to much. Hanging it upside down, sideways, vertical whatever it doesn't hurt anything. At worst you have to pull the lever a few times to get them to feel right again.
Bedding in happens whether you do anything special or just ride the bike. Yes it is better to do it but your brakes should work great even brand spanking new. If they feel like crap bedding them in isn't going to magically make them awesome, something is wrong.

If you think that people here are worrying about this stuff way too much, you're misreading the room. That said, you're wrong about both your worst case scenario and bed-in.

Worst case scenario is that a bubble works down the line and behind a bend that acts as a trap in normal orientation, particularly with the rear brake. Lever pulls alone don't always remedy this and you often need to resort to orienting the bike so that the brake line has a constant upwards slope. After that, you can commence with lever flicking and brake line tapping to work the bubbles back up. When you're trying to get out of the door for a group ride, this isn't something that you'd want to dick with.

And metallic pads on brand new rotors suck. Like, worse than rim brakes. They could get you in to trouble if you don't account for the increased braking distance and could be disconcerting for someone new to hydro brakes that's expecting them to be world-beaters.

My new bike has hydraulic discs and I'm also new to discs. I wasn't warned about inverting the bike. If that's a problem I'm screwed. I invert to do anything - change tubes, lube chain, replace components, adjust components, etc. I mean how are you supposed to change tubes in the wild without inverting the bike? Or at home if your like a typical city dweller and don't have space for a dedicated bike rack?

Keep one with you on rides in case you get a flat.

if I take a wheel off for a procedure, when I put the wheel back on I compress the caliper before tightening the skewer. this centers the wheel

I hope you love your Project One as much I do mine. I've really enjoyed riding it since I picked it up the first part of Feb.


For the most part I almost always use the brake spacer except the time I didn't. And inadvertently compressed the brake lever
while the wheel was off.:troll:


Found an 1 ½" putty knife worked great for spreading the pads back out.

Good idea about carrying one with you in case of a flat. I've got extras and will through one in my flat kit bag.

Can you explain to a disc brake noob? I flatted on my 3rd ride. Changed the flat as I normally do on my rim brake bikes and it seemed to work... is this wrong?

Inverting the bike for repairs and changing a flat shouldn't be an issue. Hanging it upside down from a ceiling may be. Only way to find out is to try.
Bedding in pads. Yes, to the repetitive hard braking thing. But no to stopping completely when you do it, just come nearly to a standstill, so heat from the rotor doesn't soak into the pads. Also good practice when you are stopping from high speed to a complete stop, don't hold the bike when you are stopped with the front brake, use the back. I learnt the hard way, I've burnt pads on my touring bike, cooked the paint off 'em and made them like teflon.

Yep, was gonna add this is what I've read. The reasoning had something to do with the rotor getting pad material evenly embedded in it, which coming to a complete stop during the bedding-in process could potentially mess with.

That works fine, as long as the lever doesn't get pulled all the way to the handlebar.

I think in both cases, he was implying the bike is upside down (I've changed tubes this way on front rim wheels with bike resting sitting on the ground, resting on the saddle and handlebars); unless you're implying it's the time the bike spends inverted (a few minutes for a tube change vs. overnight or days in storage)?

I hang bikes in the shop as storage before and after repair. By hanging I mean I have single hooks on the wall or above me. I hang one wheel by the hook and let the bike dangle.

Hydraulic bikes that I hang this way don't like to be hung with the levers pointed down. Air creeps into the system. Levers up has never caused a problem. Levers down has led me to have to bleed the brakes to fix them. Road and mtb levers.

this is my experience as well

Psimet2001 BTW, how’s mom?

Hmmm... sounds like steep descents could cause braking problems.. :D

Just knowing this has been enough for me.

Not well as all. They are ending acute care ready to put her on hospice. We are having her transported back up to Indy so family can come visit. They are saying 4-6 weeks. Life is life. Thank you for asking.

I’m sorry.

I was expecting better news.

yep, it's the time thing. Longer it's upside down the further bubbles can go, harder to they are to get back out.