When You Get A Puncture, How Do You Go About Making The Repair?

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screenman

Legendary Member
I have never thought about the price and the 3 bikes I have with hydraulic brakes have never required them servicing in any way at all.
 
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Lovacott

Lovacott

Über Member
I have never thought about the price and the 3 bikes I have with hydraulic brakes have never required them servicing in any way at all.
I turn in my slave side cable disc pad a fraction of a turn every couple of weeks or so (200 miles).

It's a two second job with the biggest pain in the arse being the tiddly locking grub screw.

I like my brakes to bite just after I start to pull on the levers so that I know I have a bit of room for emergency braking power.

I've never tried hydraulics but what I can say, is that cable discs are a million times better than rim brakes (IMHO).

All of the bikes I am looking to buy have hydraulic discs.
 

pawl

Legendary Member
I have Ultegra rim brakes and don’t have any problems with braking.Don’t like the look of bikes with disc brakes

As regards punctures I am off an age where I can stand by the side of the road looking haggard and pathetic and hope a kind cyclist 🚴‍♀️ takes pity on me.😥😥😥😥
 

screenman

Legendary Member
I have Ultegra rim brakes and don’t have any problems with braking.Don’t like the look of bikes with disc brakes

As regards punctures I am off an age where I can stand by the side of the road looking haggard and pathetic and hope a kind cyclist 🚴‍♀️ takes pity on me.😥😥😥😥


I have a bike with Uletgra rim brakes and must they work fine but not as good as my disc braked bikes, which also have fatter tyres on though. I like the look of disc braked road bikes enough to make me feel that a major expenditure is on the cards soon.
 
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Lovacott

Lovacott

Über Member
I have Ultegra rim brakes and don’t have any problems with braking.Don’t like the look of bikes with disc brakes

As regards punctures I am off an age where I can stand by the side of the road looking haggard and pathetic and hope a kind cyclist 🚴‍♀️ takes pity on me.😥😥😥😥
I never knew that disc brakes existed on bikes until five years ago.

Up until then, I'd been using rim brakes.

They were easy to maintain but they don't match the sudden stopping power of a disc brake (invaluable in traffic).
 
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Lovacott

Lovacott

Über Member
I have a bike with Uletgra rim brakes and must they work fine but not as good as my disc braked bikes, which also have fatter tyres on though. I like the look of disc braked road bikes enough to make me feel that a major expenditure is on the cards soon.
Amazon have a Clarks full front and back cable disc set for £17.99 (the seller is actually Clarks).

Halfords flog just a single Clarks disc brake for £30.

Clarks on Amazon

Clarks from Halfords
 

pawl

Legendary Member
I never knew that disc brakes existed on bikes until five years ago.

Up until then, I'd been using rim brakes.

They were easy to maintain but they don't match the sudden stopping power of a disc brake (invaluable in traffic).


I can see your point about they are useful in traffic.I am retired so do not commute.If I did I would consider a disc braked hybrid
 

Sharky

Guru
Location
Kent
I'd phone the butler..........if I had one :rolleyes:
I phoned my daughter once. I punctured three miles from home and I knew I had a spare wheel hanging up in the garage. It was pitch black, so making a repair would have been troublesome. So a call to my daughter, who was visiting and she brought out my spare wheel, so I could finish my ride home.
 

Drago

Legendary Member
If I get a puncture, seveal things happen.

The moment I roll to a halt one of my footmen, who will have been jogging behind, rushes up with a footstool and light refreshements. Once I am suitably rested i am lifted into a sedan chair and taken back to Schloss Drago.

Meanwhile my butler will have repaired the biycle and paid some local peasants a few groats to take it back to the servants quarters, where it will be cleaned, polished, and pressed before being hung back up next to the Rolls in the stable block.
 

Drago

Legendary Member
I have never thought about the price and the 3 bikes I have with hydraulic brakes have never required them servicing in any way at all.
That day will inevitable come. Even mineral fluids are hygroscopic, and will one day go all soft and floppy on you, a bit like Rudy Giuliani when Borat leaps from the wardrobe. If all goes well theyll flush and bleed back up ok, but there's a 1 in 4ish chance they wont and between bouts of cussing youll be wishing they were cable brakes.

Forestall this moment. Like you would in a car, change the fluid before its required - don't wait until you have problems as by then the fluid will have aged enough to start damaging internals and seals, and then you will be in a pickle.
 

screenman

Legendary Member
That day will inevitable come. Even mineral fluids are hygroscopic, and will one day go all soft and floppy on you, a bit like Rudy Giuliani when Borat leaps from the wardrobe. If all goes well theyll flush and bleed back up ok, but there's a 1 in 4ish chance they wont and between bouts of cussing youll be wishing they were cable brakes.

Forestall this moment. Like you would in a car, change the fluid before its required - don't wait until you have problems as by then the fluid will have aged enough to start damaging internals and seals, and then you will be in a pickle.

10 years too long? I have bled bike brakes before when building bikes up changing/upgrading calipers etc. Just never on my own bikes.
 

Brooks

Senior Member
Location
S.E. London
Prior to covid I was a volunteer at a charity bike repair place. The instructor would not be happy if you turned a bike over to repair a puncture. Cosmetic damage to the bike he would say and he's right IMO. Once the wheel is off lay the bike carefully on the non drive side and deal with the repair. Personally I put a new tube in and when I get home put a patch on the old one.
 
Prior to covid I was a volunteer at a charity bike repair place. The instructor would not be happy if you turned a bike over to repair a puncture. Cosmetic damage to the bike he would say and he's right IMO. Once the wheel is off lay the bike carefully on the non drive side and deal with the repair. Personally I put a new tube in and when I get home put a patch on the old one.

I've turned the bike upside down many a time - but only on grass or carpet. Never on an abrasive surface like concrete.

And always a new tube and maybe repair at leisure at home if you feel like it.
 

Drago

Legendary Member
10 years too long? I have bled bike brakes before when building bikes up changing/upgrading calipers etc. Just never on my own bikes.
That is a bit of a long time. Shimano recommend changing the oil when it becomes discoloured which after a decade it definitely will be. 2 or 3 years of regular use has the oil looking tired, never mind a decade.

SRAM (Avid) recommend a year.

Anything with DOT fluid I would do annually, 5 years on anything with mineral oil (Shimano, Tektro). It costs pennies and takes minutes, so I can see no compelling reason not to do so - if they go wrong they cost pounds and take a lot of time.
 
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