Timeline for Why did the hydraulic disc brake stop working when riding down a steep mountain?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
19 events
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| Jul 15, 2016 at 6:53 | history | edited | andy256 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Add wikipedia link, since 99% of people haven't heard of it and think it's a typo.
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| Oct 4, 2015 at 5:00 | comment | added | Criggie♦ | DON'T change fluid specification without getting professional advise from your bike shop or the maker of your brakes.. The newer blends of brake fluid will eat rubber gaskets and seals that were perfectly happy with the older grades of fluid. Also consider adding brakes to your trailer - this can be done with an overload connection like a car trailer, where a piston is actuated by the trailer trying to overrun the tow vehicle or you can use a third brake lever on the front with a really long bowen cable or even have the brake lever on the back for the passengers to apply on your instructions | |
| Jul 18, 2014 at 5:44 | comment | added | rooby | Yes, the water in the system lowers the boiling point of the fluid. If the fluid boils into vapour it becomes more compressible, reducing brake force. The fluid will have a dry & wet boiling point. The wet boiling point is that of the fluid with some specific amount of water in it. | |
| Jul 18, 2014 at 0:55 | comment | added | DWGKNZ | It's not just the DOT fluid that boils but the water in the system also which increases the gas/air in the system. | |
| Jul 18, 2014 at 0:43 | comment | added | rooby | Also, while 5.1 fluid is generally superior, you can get some super dot 4 fluids that have very high boiling points and are quite good, usually at a lower price than the 5.1 if price is a concern. | |
| Jul 18, 2014 at 0:38 | comment | added | rooby | I don't think you can definitely say it is the fluid that is the culprit, however it is probably the cheapest thing to check first. Use a fluid with a higher boiling point and make sure to change it regularly, like every 6 months or so. If that doesn't help you could upgrade your brake pads. The discs themselves can also be part of the equation and some discs will be better at heat dispersion than others so that is another avenue you could purse if pads alone don't help or if you want to upgrade both discs and pads at once. (my experience is with car brakes but the same rules apply.) | |
| Jul 17, 2014 at 12:20 | comment | added | Emyr | Depends whether the air was contiguous, how much of it there is and whether it's all at the lever-end of the system. | |
| Jul 17, 2014 at 12:07 | comment | added | Daniel R Hicks | If there had been air in the line the levers would have gone "mushy" rather than simply having no resistance at all. | |
| Jul 17, 2014 at 3:07 | comment | added | DWGKNZ | Yes, that's the one. I knew the concept and couldn't think of the word. A quick google gave me hydrophobic which kind of looked right. Thanks. | |
| Jul 17, 2014 at 3:06 | history | edited | DWGKNZ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jul 17, 2014 at 2:40 | comment | added | Batman | A better term to use would be hygroscopic for DOT3/4/5.1. On the other hand, for DOT5 (which is incompatible with the rest), I'd probably use hydrophobic. Avid Juicy use DOT 3/4/5.1 - running 5.1 is probably the best choice. | |
| Jul 17, 2014 at 2:21 | history | edited | DWGKNZ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jul 17, 2014 at 2:20 | comment | added | DWGKNZ | That is a factor but I don't think it would prevent it from happening again with the trailer, it may depending on the amount of water in the system but I wouldn't trust it. I think the brakes are simply not suitable for that amount of weight. | |
| Jul 17, 2014 at 2:04 | comment | added | erik | Ok, thanks for this explanation. So if I refill the brake system with new brake fluid, I wouldn’t experience that problem again, you mean? Well, maybe I should replace the brakes by stronger ones anyway. | |
| Jul 17, 2014 at 1:59 | history | edited | DWGKNZ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jul 17, 2014 at 1:58 | comment | added | DWGKNZ | no hydrophobic, I didn't explain it well. Once water is in there it stays as water in a droplet and doesn't absorb. | |
| Jul 17, 2014 at 1:53 | comment | added | erik | hydrophobic? You mean hydrophilic, as it loves water and attracts it, didn’t you? | |
| Jul 17, 2014 at 1:50 | history | edited | DWGKNZ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jul 17, 2014 at 1:39 | history | answered | DWGKNZ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |