How To Change Your Bite Point Or Free Stroke ( Spongy Brake ) Shimano or SRAM Hydraulic Disc Brakes

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[JovanPuyo]

Wow! This tip is heaven-sent! I just had my brakes bled and I still can't get that almost immediate engagement. After watching your video, it only took like five minutes to do both front and rear. Now they're great! Thank you!

[jimmccarty]

OK, I've worked on disc brakes for IDK 25 years? I have every possible bleed kit, and I have never tried this. I took my wheel of and lightly squeezed lever until the opening closer than it was. I put my wheel back and was amazed! what simple fix. Thank You. BTW XTR trail brakes.

[septichank]

bled my brakes 2.5 times and was getting pretty annoyed. This was what was actually the problem. Gained about half the stroke on my lever. Can't believe they don't include this step in the brake bleed vids! Thanks!

[shauntatchell]

By placing 1 or 2 credit cards in between the pads, you take the guess work out of setting the bite point.

[markwaren]

This tip is so good you deserve to be paid! Got my XTR brakes dialed in absolutely perfect now. Much appreciated!

[derekburton]

I do the same action but place a credit card in the gap. the rotors are usually 1.8mm but the credit card is 1mm thick and i squeeze until the brake bites on the card then refit the wheel

[donnyvu]

BRO YOU PREVENTED ME FROM BURNING A HOLE IN MY WALLET. When I got my new bike, the brakes didn’t bite like my old bike so I just thought my brakes had air in its system. I then proceeded to buy a bleed kit and bled my brakes. But after two gruesome attempts of bleeding both the brakes. It still felt the same and I thought my brakes were just defective. So then I was planning to buy new brakes for my bike but then I came across your video on my recommendations. And holy $hit. After I watched the video, I came dashing to my bike and tried it. They felt amazing 🤩 and was blown away on how quick that took. TYSM and I’m glad you made this video!!!

[mattjns]

Oh my god dude. I just bought an entire brand new SLX set, bled it, and was befuddled with the lever travel. I just timed myself using your adjustment method. 2:45 for the front, 4:40 for the back.
You absolute legend. 😂

[morganwheeler]

Good tip, but if you buy a cheap folding feeler gauge set you could extend several gauges that together equal slightly less than the thickness of the rotor, insert them between the pads, squeeze the lever hard a couple times and you have a perfectly reproducible system - say the rotor is 2mm, if you use 1.1mm gauges, you'll reduce the slop by 0.9mm.

[iffy_too]

Thanks so much. You saved me from an unnecessary purchase of an XT 8120 lever assembly. My current Deore 6100 now (after this advice) works the Deore 6120 4 pot caliper (I have 2 pot rear, 4 pot front Deore set up) beautifully. The action & feel on both sides now match and braking performance has been boosted. AWESOME!!

[marcsmith]

I bled my brakes 3 times trying to get the "play" out of my lever and then I found this video and minutes later, my brakes are tight and no play!! Thank you!!

[ragstir]

No idea why this works but im a complete begginer to ebikes & maintenance amd ive just copied your instructions and it worked great . Thanks for the video 👍

[badlose]

Thanks a lot for this video! Was getting pretty annoyed about the prospect of bleeding the brakes on my brand new bike. Did this, did a few adjustments, works like a charm! BTW, I recommend those plastic automotive interior removal tools for spreading brake pads apart, you can find them pretty cheap.

[markpulling]

Fantastic....just done this to my new haibike allmtn 4 as I wasn't happy with the free travel 💯 sorted now brakes bite nice and early 😊

[davidfong]

This a great hack for when you're using pads and/or rotors that still have life left but aren't thick enough for instant engagement.

[Bengy]

I just wanted to say THANK YOU! I hated how far I had to pull the lever before it would start biting and honestly was about to start looking at magura brakes even though I didn't need something more powerful because I disliked it so much and what I thought was the servo wave levers. Now when pulling on the levers real hard they go back as far as the original bite point which is so much better! I thought I had originally messed up the bleed when I swapped to deore levers on my mt200 set but I reblead them 3 times and it didn't fix it, I assumed maybe this was something you could do but with all the "don't pull the levers without a bleed block" I only barely tried it before and just assumed it didn't work so I left it like that for a few months now. Finally got fed up with the feel, now I'm very happy with the feel of my shimano setup. As for why shimano doesn't mention it I bet its because the high end levers have "bite point adjustment" which they can sell as a important feature, when you can do that with all of them just not as easy

[jonnywalker]

Genuinely didn't think this would work that easy. 30 secs. Ideal. Thanks

[scottmack]

Perfection - a scholar and a gentleman. I have big hands and a lot of strength but my best and most sensitive leverage is farther away than average lever designs. Im also stopping 240lbs on a 35lb bike. Another trick I did was to remove the reach adjustment knob to get more threads on the push rod. Luckily the end of the rod had a 2mm allen in it. This allowed me to take up slack in the lever piston and get it to close off the reservoir hole almost immediately and begin building pressure. Sucks that my 170mm fork is limited to 203mm rotors.

[JD-oeuc]

You don't know how happy you made me!!! I had good experiences with older SLX brakes on my former bike and last year build my new bike with a SLX groupset. Fantastic bike, but those breaks....a big turnoff! The bite point was just terrible....annoyed the hell out of me. I thought I did a poor job at installing them/cutting the cables etc, so bled them a second time, but no..still terrible. With your tip I now have perfect brakes again! Really happy with it.

[madched]

I've just had this issue, I extended the reach fully and it raised the bite point also to get the same results. Thumbs up for your explanation.