A customer in Portland made me question my whole brake bleed routine

Tbh, this older guy watched me bleed his hydraulics and asked why I was chasing bubbles instead of just replacing the hose from the start. He was right, I've burned 2 hours on old lines this month alone, has anyone else switched to just swapping housings on high-mileage bikes?

1 comments

1 Comment

the_vera28d ago

My buddy Marco owns a little shop in Tucson and he told me almost the exact same thing last summer. He had this old Giant Trance with 2016 XT brakes come in, customer said the lever felt spongy. Marco spent a solid two hours flushing it, tapping the lines, the whole deal. Finally he just said screw it and swapped the hoses for new ones, took him maybe 40 minutes total and the brake felt perfect after. He said he did the math on his labor rate and realized chasing bubbles on old lines was basically throwing money away. Now he tells every customer with more than 3 seasons on their brakes that hose replacement is part of the job, not an upsell. It just makes sense when the rubber gets hard and brittle anyway.