Many thanks to the Nelson Cycling Club and all the volunteers who continue to put this great annual event together.

With this guide, you’ll learn to bleed your brakes and clean up your brake pads and rotor to remove any contaminates that might have accumulated from oil/brake fluid, road grime, or glazing. After this your brakes will feel much better and will be ready for some serious vertical!

First gather the tools we’ll need to bleed the brakes:

• A bottle of mineral oil
• 7mm wrench
• Philips screw driver
• 10mm Allen key
• 4mm Allen key
• A small section of tubing
• Plastic bag with elastic band

Shimano recommends you only use their official mineral oil when bleeding their brakes. Alternatively a cheaper and slightly better option is Pentosin CHF 7.1 – it’s the same stuff that is used in most European cars such as BMW. You can probably find it at places like NAPA or Lordco. Do NOT use mineral oil that is available in pharmacies. That stuff is sold as a laxative not brake fluid. It is much heavier of a weight then the Shimano or Pentosin at around 30 to 50wt and will lead to slow and sluggish performance of your brakes. If you bleed brakes a lot I recommend using the Pentosin as it is around 25 times cheaper then Shimano. Also, consider using a dedicated pop can instead of a plastic bag to catch the brake fluid to help save the environment. An old spoke can be used to hook the can by its pull tab onto your stem or shifter cables.

Now place your bike in the stand and rotate it so the line you are about to bleed first runs as close to vertical as you can get it without being inconvenient. Next remove the wheels and brake pads, being careful not to touch the braking surface of the pads if your hands are dirty. Set the pads and wheels off to the side well away from any potential spills. Place a clean 10mm Allen key in the caliper where the pads used to be to prevent the pistons from being pushed out. Using the 4mm Allen key, loosen your brake lever and rotate it so the reservoir is parallel to the ground and temporarily retighten it so it won’t move. Using the Phillips screw driver, remove the top cover on the reservoir and remove the diaphragm.

Now place the 7mm wrench on the bleed nipple and attach the piece of tubing with the plastic bag (or can) on the end to the bleed nipple to catch the fluid that will be removed from the system. Your setup should look something like this:

Take your bottle of mineral oil and top off the fluid in the reservoir. Now open the bleed nipple a 1/8^th of a turn and squeeze the brake lever. You should see fluid start to come out and fill the tube attached to the bleed nipple. Do not release the brake lever until you close the bleed nipple again. Doing so will draw air back into the system.

Close the bleed nipple and then release the brake lever. You should see the level of fluid in the reservoir drop after releasing the brake lever. You can usually repeat this process twice before having to top off the reservoir again. If you squeeze the lever without the reservoir having sufficient fluid in it you will again draw air into the system. By doing this multiple times you draw in the new fluid which will purge the air out from the lines. Keep repeating this process until no more air comes out of the caliper or you see the new fluid if you are doing a full bleed. While doing this you can carefully tap the brake lever and caliper to help move the air bubbles out from the system. You can also keep the bleed nipple closed and squeeze the brake lever repeatedly to help remove air from within the brake lever / reservoir itself.

Now squeeze the brake lever while rapidly opening and closing the bleed nipple about four times. Keep the brake lever squeezed as a final test to check for any tiny air bubbles that might escape. If none come out and the brake lever is stiff when pulled bleeding is complete. If the lever is still soft repeat the previous steps until the lever is firm. Top off the reservoir with mineral oil to the point of overflowing and replace the diaphragm and the top cover. Rotate your brake lever back into position and double check that the bleed nipple is tightened sufficiently. Wipe off your brake lever and caliper of any spilled fluid with a rag that has been dabbed in isopropyl alcohol.

That pretty much sums up bleeding a Shimano disk brake. Before you install your pads and rotor again before to check the pad wear and replace if they are looking worn down. If your pads and rotor have been contaminated with oil, or if your pads look glazed and don’t have the stopping power they used to, take the following steps:

Recovering lost performance:

If your pads have oil on them there are 4 common options on how to remove it: isopropyl alcohol, automotive disk brake cleaner, acetone, and extreme heat. Shimano recommends you only use isopropyl alcohol on their disk brakes to clean them. Disk brake cleaner and acetone can eat the material that binds the pads to the backing and can damage the seals of your caliper and other plastics. If you do use disk brake cleaner remove the pads from the caliper and the rotor from the hub to be sure no cleaner lands on anything important, I wouldn’t want that stuff working its way inside my hubs or splashing on my carbon fiber derailleur.

For any of these methods be sure to use a clean rag that hasn’t come in contact with grease or paper towel. For isopropyl alcohol dab a clean rag in the alcohol and wipe down your rotor and pads being sure to get every area. For disk brake cleaner, spray the cleaner on to the surface you wish to clean, wipe off with a rag and rinse with water. If these methods can’t bring back performance you can try burning off the offending oil by using a blow torch, BBQ, or an oven set at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Most likely if you’re putting your pads in the oven its probably just best to buy a new set of pads.

If your pads are glazed because of overheating or improper breaking in technique, place the pads on a flat surface and rub in a circular motion with sand paper or a Scotch-Brite pad to remove the glaze. Give them a rub down with a rag soaked in isopropyl alcohol to remove any particles left over from the sanding.

After cleaning / sanding your pads and rotors they will need to be broken in again. Do not ride to the top of the highest high and scream down yanking on the brakes at the last moment to break them in. This sudden increase in temperature causes the pads to glaze over resulting in poor performance. To properly break in your pads and rotor, select a low gear and slowly pedal around your block with the brakes lightly applied. You should start to feel the pads get more grip as you continue riding. As that happens apply more pressure to the brakes and pedal harder to the point where you can feel you have reached maximum braking power. Once the pads have bedded-in, feel free to rip down that giant hill!

That’s the second time my work has been published. The first time was in Elemental, a art book dedicated to 3d art created with Autodesk software.

I have never liked the cable ends that come on bikes. They tend to come off when they get caught on something, most of them are ugly with multiple crimp marks, or are way too big for the cable they were used on, and will fray your cable ends once you try to take them off so you can’t reuse your cable.
Why would you want to reuse a cable when they are so cheap? One would be the environment, why waste more materials? And two, no need to adjust your shifting once installed because the cable has been stretched already. With a quick wipe down and lube your cable will be good as new. So what is the alternative to cable end crimps? Soldering the end of the cable. Here is what you will need to accomplish this:

• A soldering iron
• Solder
• Acid paste flux
• Steady hands

After you have installed your new cable, cut it to length using a pair of high quality cable cutters. I find the one from Park Tools to be the best. If your cable frayed a bit after the cut, just twist the end with your finger and thumb to place the fray back where it belongs. Plug your soldering iron in and let it warm up. While you are waiting coat the end of the cable in flux. Flux allows the solder to run into gaps and gives a much nicer bond.

Once your soldering iron is heated up it is now time to solder your cable end together. Take your soldering iron and place it on the cable end to heat it up and melt the flux. Now add the solder to the tip of the cable end. It should take between 1-3 seconds for the solder to melt and run through the cable joining the end. You should now see the solder set and go hard.

A good soldering job will be nice and shiny with no large bubbles or spikes. If you have any of these place the tip of the soldering iron on the defect and try to melt it away. If done correctly you should now have a very neat and tidy cable end without and frays, and the tip should be small enough to be rethreaded through the housing.

Hope you enjoyed this guide and found it useful, any questions, comments or ideas for a future guide please e-mail me at justin.wasilenko@gmail.com.

What you will need:

• - About 180 inches of 3/16” heat shrink tubing
• - A pair of scissors
• - A heat gun or soldering iron (These two are optional)

You can purchase heat shrink tubing at most specialty electrical suppliers and online. It is very cheap running about $2 for 4 feet. Most stores carry a plethora of colors; some even have UV reactive tubing that glows under a black light. Another option to use would be expandable braided sleeving for that stainless braided look.

You might need more or less heat shrink tubing depending on how many cables you are doing and how long they are. 180 inches is what I needed to do front and rear brakes and full length rear derailleur housing. Best to measure your cables with a string and tape measure and then add a bit so you have some extra to play with.

I recommend using brand new housing and cables for this, nothing like new derailleur housing and cables to boost the feel of your bike. For disk brake lines you can use your old lines just be sure to clean them and have new fittings on hand as detaching the line from the caliper and reattaching can generate leaks if you do not use new fittings.

Now take your housing and heat shrink tubing and lay them side by side. Measure and cut the heat shrink tubing to the length needed, being sure to leave space at each end of the cable for cable ends or disc brake fittings, typically around 1-2cm per end. Try to cut the ends as square as possible so the heat shrink lies flush with the cable ends.

Now you can slide the heat shrink tubing over the cable housing. If you have 3/16” tubing it will slide easily for the first 12 inches or so and get progressively harder as you have more heat shrink over the housing because of the friction. It is possible with a lot of effort to do a full length cable but I prefer to cut the heat shrink tubing in to 15” sections and slide a couple of sections on. You get no bunching this way and if you have to replace a section you can do it in a 15” length instead of the entire cable. The other option if you have access to a heat gun/soldering iron is to use ¼” tubing and shrink the tubing over the cable. The ¼” tubing will slide on easily but once you shrink it with the heat gun it won’t come off unlike the 3/16” tubing where you can slide it off again and reuse it.

Now all you have to do is reattach your brake lines and derailleur cables and your bike is ready to ride looking better than ever. If you have any questions feel free to e-mail me @ justin.wasilenko@gmail.com

I have slowly been building it up in between partying. I sold the brakes and have some new Shimano XT discs coming in from Thailand, and the rims are off getting painted. To highlight the blue and white theme I’m going for I picked up white heat shrink tubing to cover the cables. It helps to accent the theme as well as should provide some protection from cable rub.

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