Bleedin' hell, Hayes brakes are Sh*te

corblimey

Got myself a Norco Fluid 2 back in November and been enjoying it ever since. It's fitted with Hayes HFX 9's and they seem very capable stoppers. A few months ago I noticed the one of the pistons on the rear capiler was not moving out to meet the rotor as much as the other and consequently the rotor was being deflected toward the duff piston during braking.

I thought I'd strip down the rear caplier, clean it and rebleed it. I've spent many years riding and maintaining motorbikes and I know that bleeding brakes is not a hard job for an amateur mechanic.

I brought the proper bleed kit and followed the "reverse" bleed procedure that's documented on the Hayes site.

The bleed kit consists of a tiny bottle of brake fluid, a very small length of hose, a couple of 1/2p adapters and a poxy polythene bottle all for the princely sum of £15. What a rip off; they could at least included a syringe.

The bleed procedure is a freeking nightmare to do sucessfully. I must have attemped it at least four times now with varying degrees of minimal success. The biggest ploblem seems to be the polythene bottle, it's simply too flexible and incapable of providing enough pressure to force the new fluid through the system. Blah, blah , blah..... I'm sick of trying!!!

Following the documented procedure was getting me nowhere fast so I tried to think of another method more akin to what I was used to i.e. filling a header reservoir and then pumping the brake lever whilst opening/closing the bleed nipple.

I took the fluid bottle and attached it to the lever and attached the drain pipe to the caliper (the reverse of the the hayes instructions) and then started to pump the lever as I opened the bleed nipple at the beginning of the stroke and closed it at the end.

Bob's your uncle... it appears to work very well and only takes a couple of minutes.

Why don't Hayes instruct you to do it like this?

Is there a reason why I shouldn't use my techinque?

How do you guys bleed your Hayes?

I need all the help I can get before a take a very large hammer to my bicycle!

Thanks in advance

Glenn