How often do you bleed your brakes?

[crusoe]

Hey guys, just wondering how often everyone bleeds their hydraulic brakes? I've got a pair of Hayes HFX 9's and I've ridden maybe 80-90km and they already need another bleed. I was riding today, and by the end of the 18km ride I could pull the levers all the way to the handle bars I have already had to completely rebuild one lever's internals (as soon as I bought the bike, before any use. Seller lowered price )

It should be noted that I don't see any fluid leaking anywhere from the brakes...at all. None on the discs, none on the bolts connecting the lines to the calipers, none from the overflow holes on the levers.

I'm thinking it's just from the hard braking that I do? I usually cruise around 50-60km/h all the time, some street, lots of trail riding with largely differing grades. Any input from the community would be great!

[DAND214]

Two years later and still no need to bleed them. Shanimo deore with 203 rotors frt and raer.

They are great for normal riding matbe not constant blasting from turn to turn on a race track. But are great on the road and trail.

Dan

[Kirk]

I've never had to bleed the brakes on any of my four trikes. They are all equipped with SRAM Avid BB-7s. I change the pads once a year because they are cheap.

[Ricky_nz]

I have never blead my Hayes HFX9s 3Years+
Avid Elixer R hasen't been blead since installed on the bike >1year ago.
I would only bleed them if there is an obvious problem.

The poster above would need a hydraulic press to blead his mechanical brakes

[crusoe]

So I've found the culprit! The fluid transfer port, where the two halves of the caliper make contact (metal on metal), had many small knicks in the metal, somehow. Even after brand new orings, I still had the problem.

1. Hack solution, used an elastic band "gasket" as a temporary fix and it's held up so far
2. called up our local gasket supplier and they're going to karma me a piece of 1x1ft piece of scrap, oil resistant, 1/32" thickness gasket sheet, so i can cut out my own gasket. I"ll be sure to update the thread after a few weeks of riding to let others know if it's a good long term fix.

Hopefully I won't have to drop $200 on a set of new brakes!

[ZOMGVTEK]

On my $60 6 piston Gatorbrake set, I 'bled' it once, after shortening the hose. My method of bleeding them involved quickly smashing the lever for 30 seconds. It takes extremely little travel to lock up the front, its quite firm, and its never really changed after a year or so.

It really looks like the smaller brakes take much more effort to bleed, since my brake was dumb easy to bleed with literally 0 tools in seconds. I could see tiny bubbles come out of the fluid in the reservoir, and I stopped when they went away.