Am I the only one who noticed my brake bleed time drop from 40 minutes to 15 after one small change

Wesley Adams · 2026-09-17T07:40:05.894905+00:00

I do all the wrenching at a small co-op in Portland and brake bleeds used to eat my whole evening. Forty minutes per bike, sometimes more if a line was full of junk. The thing that fixed it was stupid simple. I stopped hanging the bike in the stand and started clamping it by the seat tube with the bars turned so the reservoir sits at the highest point. That one move let air actually travel up and out instead of pooling in the caliper. Last Tuesday I knocked out three bleeds in 45 minutes total and the levers came out rock solid on the first squeeze. I keep a rag under the caliper now and only lose a few drops per line. Anyone else clamp a different way to get the air moving, or do you still pull the whole thing off the frame?

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Am I the only one who noticed my brake bleed time drop from 40 minutes to 15 after one small change | Bicycle Mechanics - Babble Community