HYDRAULICS

Many people recoil in horror at the thought of servicing hydraulic disc brakes but as long as you take your time, it’s a simple job… provided you’ve got the right kit and fluid for your system (never put mineral oil in a DOT system, or vice versa, as you’ll ruin the seals). Once you’re kitted out, find a relevant YouTube instruction video and you can start chasing those air bubbles out of your set-up.

RECOMMENDED SRAM PRO BLEED KIT £86

Most hydraulic brake systems have their own bleed kits but none are nicer than SRAM’s Pro option. It comes with a full range of pad-spacing, piston-pushing, rotorstraightening and installation-cap-removal tools as well as spare hose fixtures, ferrules and seals in case you need to shorten the supplied hoses.

BUDGET OPTION SHIMANO BLEED KIT £16.99

Shimano simplifies the hydraulic brake bleed process by discarding the syringes and clips. Instead the Shimano kit makes do with just a bottle of mineral oil and a plastic drain tube for the calliper. It takes care and patience to use this simplified but somewhat fiddly kit correctly though, as there’s potential for things to get very messy.