I swapped my caliper after the bb200. During the end of the bb200 they'd gone from squealing like a pig, to really squealing like a pig and losing pressure and grip. Stu had suggested (when the original squealing happened year or so ago) about the micro leak thing. Anyway, swapped to a new caliper and everything fixed. Front (or whichever I haven't changed yet) was just bled but still squeals but grips again for the mo. Hopefully that'll be sorted once I swap that out too and rebleed.
Anyway, that's my suggestion, to just swap the calipers Phil. If you want my old ones to experiment and explore then just let me know and I can send em out to you in the name of research and forward growth
I'm trying to avoid that but funnily enough there is a trace of oil on the Jones front caliper - this brake is working fine!
When I went for the bb200 both were working fine (except the squealing in certain conditions) but had been a touch spongy after being hung by the front wheel for a while. Pumped em both and got working but by the time 2nd day of the ride came it was scary downhilling (just final 10 miles) with lots of forward thinking braking
I dunno what you lot are doing with your Shimano brakes!
I've had multiple sets on various bikes and had no issues with them. I'm currently running XT 4 pots on my enduro bike, Saints on my fat/not fat bike and GRX on my gravel bike, my wife has the basic two pot MT 200 type on her ebike and I used to run XT 2 pots on my 29er hard tail and previous fat bike and had a pair of MT 200s on my Ramin when I first bought it. I've bled them when required (usually after disconnecting a hose for some reason) changed pads multiple times, freed up sticky pistons and have never had wandering bite point or sponginess issues. FWIW, I bleed top down using a syringe from an Epic bleed kit, prior to having that I used to gravity bleed using the Shimano cup thing. I've tried bleeding from the caliper up (and see the logic in doing this) but haven't really found it to work any better for me. The only issue I've ever had has been the brakes feeling wooden, squealing and lacking power after prolonged storage (this has just happened again when I rode my enduro bike for the first time since last August). I put this down to pad friction material oxidation, it's easily sorted by riding through a muddy puddle or smearing mud on the rotor which abrades the pad and returns the brakes to normal.
Maybe I've just been lucky (but I doubt it given the number of different Shimano brakes I've had).
I like Hope brakes. Good parts availability, easy to work on and always reliable IME.
I had some of the rubbish Avids that faded and failed (many moons ago) and I've been averse to any of their hydraulic brakes, possibly irrationally, ever since.
What Shimano's I've used have been fine other than operator error with a set of Deores on an Orange Sub5 even more moons ago.
Always back bled but never had trouble with Shimano, no issues with the Formula's on the packing mule but don't mention Sram only changed the pads and turned into a right you know what
The newer Shimano brakes, where you can screw a bleed funnel into the lever housing, are an absolute doddle to bleed.
Even the older type, where you have to take the cover off the lever housing, to expose the reservoir, are reasonably easy.
Bleed up, from the caliper, and take your time, for good results.
The bigger issue - with more recent shimanos - seems to be leaky calipers. Keeping my fingers crossed, on that one
I've had 3 sets of low-end Shimano calipers develop micro leaks. With no seals easily available, they're pretty much scrap which is something I really don't like. However, I also have a pair of XT which I bought SH 6 or 7 years ago and they've not given me any trouble at all.
I have a pair of Hope Mono-minis that must be 20 years old and I've not touched them at all in that time aside from pads and new fluid every few years. BB7 have never caused me any grief either and as I don't have Hope money these days, they've become my default when changing brakes.
I've run BB5s, BB7s and Spyres and thought they were all decent tbh. BB5s get bad press but I didn't have any issues with them and adjustment and maintenance wasn't that bad. I think comparing them to rim brakes rather than hydraulic disc brakes helps though.
PS, all of these were on my gravel bike which doubles as a winter road bike so they were exposed to salt and general road crap so didn't have an easy life. They were always washed post ride though.
Whilst less powerful I suspect they emergency stop quicker than hydraulic as mine ( on a road bike ) lock up far easier than a mates BB5 .
Mine are more powerful but not sure how much of that power is usable tbh ( esp in an emergency)
The other not cheap option, if you want a mix of Hope reliability/serviceability, is to use Hope RX4 post mount shimano caliper (mineral oil) on a shimano mtb lever, which apparently works well. Costs £85 but not likely to have a micro-leak and you can get spares so the caliper should last donkey's. I know it's complete brake money, but if it's about reliability it might be better in the long run...?
My Shimano brakes tend to do this when I leave my bike hanging vertically on the wall for any length of time. I assume it is some air stuck somewhere in the system that bleeding can't find. It's a bit of a pain but a few decent pumps of the lever before setting off seem to sort it and (so far) it doesn't recur during a ride.
Just by way of a follow up to this, finally set to on the Jones and did a bleed on the back brake. Annoyingly I failed to source plutoline oil as I dithered over whether to get their dedicated oil for hydraulic clutches or the 2.5wt fork oil - Alpinum!
Anyway I thought I would at least flush the brake out and get rid on any air. Caliper off mount and dangling so theoretically no spot for air to get trapped. Funnel into bleed port on M/C, push pistons back into caliper to pump oil and any air out of the M/C into the the funnel. Remove this as it was black and then fill the funnel with clean oil, attach syringe to bleed nipple and suck. Now the first thing I noticed was that it took a lot of force to suck oil back through the system (thinner oil needed or something knackered). Then I noticed a constant stream of air bubbles out of the caliper. This went on for several cycles (pushing and pulling the syringe) until I decided that air was actually getting sucked into the syringe tube from the bleed nipple. Made sure all air was out the pipe and then pumped a load of oil up the system into the funnel (no air bubbles observed doing this, removed funnel and syringe, buttoned everything back up and then pumped the pads back onto the disk. I then found a couple of other issues - the pads were down to the rivets and one of the pistons was lazy - I pumped this in and out a few times and gave it a good clean and it seems to be OK. So wondering if the lazy piston was part of the problem.....or.....
Anyway sorry for the ramble but this is making me further want to ditch shimano brakes. If this was my motorbike I'd take the caliper and M/C to bits, clean everything up, fit seal kits and hammer it all back together again. I kept a pair of brakes on the suzuk going through several winters doing this, despite them being well corroded. As shimano don't supply seal kits there is nothing much you can do if anything is suspect other than bin them, which is crap in this day and age of trying not to chuck everything into the tip. Looking hopewards again....
There are ebay sellers with seals for Shimano brakes. I've not tried them but tempted to give them a go if I get around to contacting Shaf about his brakes
Got to be worth a punt at that price. Will see how the brakes do this weekend (now also done the fatties back brake, albeit also with normal oil but so far so good) and then give them a go if they are still playing up. I see you can get master cylinder pistons and seals too.
Then I noticed a constant stream of air bubbles out of the caliper
This is surely just the classic 'pressure release' - happens on bottles of fizzy pop, volcanoes etc. If pressure is reduced, fluids expand and gas bubbles form. The rubber pipe is larger bore than hydraulic hose - it's why it felt hard to 'suck from below'. Did it feel resistant when pushing fluid through from the calliper?
I bled the front brake on my 'hipster hybrid' after changing the forks, by pushing fluid from the calliper - seems to have worked perfectly first bleed #fingerscrossed
only changed the pads and turned into a right you know what
