Bleed Kit for Sram Hydro's

Spangle12

I've just bought a second hand CAAD 10 with sram rival hydraulic discs. Not received it yet but it's in the post.

Firstly does anyone have any guidance or recommendations on how often to re-bleed the brakes? Coming from mountain bikes (this is my first proper road bike) i'm more than familiar with mountain bike hydraulic brakes and bleeding them. On my mountain bikes i don't touch them unless there is something noticeably wrong and they feel spongy. In my experience periodic re-bleeding when they still work is a bit of a waste of time. Is this also true on the road bike brakes?

Bringing me onto the second point. Physically bleeding them. The avid bleed kit with all the fancy nipples, syringes and gadgets is £40. Again coming from mountain bikes i've bled hydraulic brakes many times before without the "official" bleed kits. Its a little bit more fiddly but not that difficult if you've got some syringes, tubing and a bit of patience. Looking at the SRAM guide for bleeding these it looks like a different method to what i'm used to. Has anyone successfully bled them without the official bleed kit?

Finally, what does your local bike shop charge to re-bleed them?

Thanks

ugo.santalucia

Same as your MTBike, don't touch them unless there is something wrong...

veronese68

As Ugo said don't touch them unless you have to. If you must, look at Epic Bleed Solutions. I know they do MTB kits but not sure if they've done road yet.

Spangle12

Thanks for the responses. I figured as much on the rebleeding for maintenance sake.

I have just looked at epic bleed kits. They're listed as an MTB kit but it does seem to be exactly the same as the road kit so if i have to i'll just go for that. £15 including the brake fluid. Job done. Evans cycles charge £25 per brake to bleed. Sod that!