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New bike day yesterday. I’ve got tonnes of lever travel on the front brake before it bites. Back brakes fine. These are new sram g2 rs, which don’t have a bite/contact point adjustment. Might a Bleed help? Is there any other adjustment to make? I have a bleed kit and like DIYing my maintenance. Could also just give the bike shop a call.
Yes a bleed might help. Also pumping the brakes a few times, or leaving it on with a rubber band overnight.
If it's a new bike, I'd simply go back to the shop and ask them to sort it out.
Better to get it properly fixed but the old skool bite adjustment procedure is to take the wheel out and give the lever a squeeze part way. That should move the pads in a bit. Its a trial and error method, not enough try again, too much, push the pads back and try again.
the old skool bite adjustment procedure is to take the wheel out and give the lever a squeeze part way. That should move the pads in a bit.
You wot now? OP - do not do this.
Either bleed the brakes or get the shop to do it for you. There's evidently something wrong and you need to get it fixed.
You wot now? OP – do not do this.
Why not? As brake pads wear this happens naturally anyway.
Got a new bike with sram db8 brakes which also have no bite point adjustment and did exactly as nickjb...all fine since
Try the hope centering method. All that happened is the seals are dry and therefore sticky. Work the pistons in and out a few times to get them moving might also work
I did what Nuke recommended to my SRAM Guide brakes without bite point adjuster. Worked fine and I'm still alive. I do like itr as soon as I pull the lever though. But yeah also a vote for checking none of the pistons are sticking as my Guide's seem particularly bad for this.
What nickjb says, it's just advancing the pistons a bit and has been perfectly normal practice for as long as I can remember
Nickjbs advice makes sense to me. I think though, in the first instance, just ride it a bit more and see if things free up and settle in. The brake is fully functional I just have to have the reach further out than I’d like in order to have the bite occur long before I reach the bar. I have small hands so I’m asking for a closer bite than is perhaps normal.
They haven’t improved despite a good hard ride with some long descents (although the pads have bedded in nicely and they bite well) so the bleed kits about to come out…
Which means I’ve opened up the service manual which says “if the lever throw is excessive” then take the pads out, slide in two disc rotors and squeeze the lever. Repeat as necessary. If that doesn’t do it, proceed to bleed. Basically a version of what nickjb said. Cheers!
They’re fixed!
For future reference, the above process didn’t fix it.
So I opened up the sram bleed manual (it’s its own document now, not just part of the service manual!) and step 1, before bleeding:
“If the lever reach is excessive…” the pistons may not be advancing to account for pad wear. (Mine aren’t worn but they aren’t advancing). wind out the lever reach adjuster all the way for maximum reach and squeeze the brake lever HARD 5 times. This is way beyond the force required to lock a wheel. Sorted.