Unpopular opinion: bled my buddy's brakes by the book and it still felt spongy, so I stopped doing it that way

Logan White · 2026-09-10T12:30:06.134533+00:00

Every tech I know swears you have to push fluid from the caliper up to the lever, and I did it that way on his bike, then again, then a third time, and the lever still hit the bar. I finally hung the bike in the stand with the bars up high, cracked the bleed port at the caliper, and just let gravity pull fluid down while I tapped the hose with a wrench for about 20 minutes. All the air came out in one slow run and the lever went rock hard with zero extra parts or kits. The whole fight ate almost 2 hours of my morning, and the actual fix took less time than the coffee run. I get why shops push the syringe method, but gravity has never lied to me yet. Any of you still doing it the slow way on stubborn brakes, or am I the only one?

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Unpopular opinion: bled my buddy's brakes by the book and it still felt spongy, so I stopped doing it that way | Bicycle Mechanics - Librear