I fucking did it again, just a few minutes ago. This time on a bike. I had the old brake pads out, i leaned on the handle bar to stand up and get the new ones because I’m old and managed to bump the brake handle against the wall with my body weight. The caliper piston shot out of there and mineral oil is all over the place, all over the rotor, all over me. So now i need to order a bleed kit for a bike, which I’d need eventually anyway but I’m just annoyed because I made this mistake years ago on a prius.
I was changing a lug stud, they need to be in the 12 o’clock position to come out but I had the car in park and only jacked on one side and the caliper was already hanging by a bungee cord. As I went to put the car in neutral I pushed the brake without thinking and I hear a thunk followed by a metallic rolling noise. I shot the caliper piston across my driveway. So as soon as it happened on my bike I fucking new exactly how I fucked up. Typing this out has calmed me down, lol. I use arch btw.
“They” keep trying to sell us disc brakes as being better, but I believe it at little bit less every time I have to change the pads on those hateful fuckers. Frankly, at this point I want my damn rim brakes back!
You can still buy rim brakes, they are just aren’t very good at their primary function. Also if you find disc brake pads harder to change than rim brakes I think you are doing it wrong!
“They” are the market because we actually prefer functional brakes on our machines.
Plus, disc pads are super easy to change.
The cantilever rim brakes on my old acoustic utility bike are perfectly capable of locking up the wheels, and they almost certainly dissipate heat/resist fade better than the disk brakes on my e-bike do. The only actual advantages of discs are when you’re riding a mountain or cyclocross bike in muddy conditions or if you’ve got fancy carbon rims that you don’t want to be a wear surface; otherwise, there’s nothing wrong with rim brakes.
Also, trying to change the disc brake pads without removing the wheel can be tricky due to the tight fit, and removing the rear wheel of an e-bike with a hub motor so the rotor isn’t in the way is even more of a pain in the ass.
You forgot one small advantage: braking lol
Anything can be designed poorly, that’s not the fault of the concept.
At least you didn’t try to open the bleed valve via the righty-loosey technique my neighbor tried on his near-new N series Elantra the other week. Snapped that sumbitch clean off. Bailing him out of that one was fun.
Bikes are dead easy to bleed; you don’t need any kit. You should be able to reach the bleeder nipple and the lever yourself without outside assistance which is all I’ve ever needed. Unless this is on the rear brake of a 'Busa with a 27 foot long swingarm installed on it or something. Pro tip: Loosely put the cap on the reservoir when you pump it, otherwise the master cylinder (especially for the front) tends to act like one of them ornamental fountains.
Hose that brake fluid off of everything right away because it’ll eat the finish off of just about anything that’s not bare metal. You probably also want to make sure both the piston and its bore are real clean before you put them back together.
