it’s christmas, a time for reflection, introspection and setting things right. so what better time to fix the brakes on my bike.
i absolutely love those four pot hope m4 brakes: they have great modulation, power to boot and being machined from a single block of aircraft grade aluminium they look awesome, too. however, i’ve had some issues with them in the past: the pistons didn’t retract and as a result the brakes kept locking up. not what you want on a bicycle.
the good thing about the hope brakes is that they can be rebuilt fully and cost-effectively. not everyone agrees, though: the guy from the local bike shop i spoke to (i wanted to replace the copper crush washers on the banjo bolts) laughed at me. nobody rebuild stuff any more, he said. you just chuck them in the bin and install new parts, he laughed. the parts he uses can’t even be rebuilt, he explained.
well, i for one don’t like throwing things away when they can be repaired instead and i actually find fixing things very satisfying. in the case of the hope brakes it’s actually not even difficult; it is, however, a messy job with all the rather unhealthy brake fluid splashing everywhere.
the tricky bit is to push out the inner pistons using the brake lever before removing the assembly from the bike. the outer ones can just be pushed through the body with the caps removed. i replaced the pistons (sort of a ‘while you are in there’ thing, they didn’t look too bad) and the seals (i think they were the main culprits for the binding brakes). half an hour work, then another half to bleed the brakes.
they are better than new now. and above all so much better than trowing 200 bucks in the bin. seriously.