UKH

My rear brake appears to have a leak - I'd bleed it twice in the last week and it's bottomed out already.

Strange thing is I cannot see any evidence of a leak - I put ~20cc of fluid in yesterday and nowhere can I find any leaking fluid.

It loses fluid standing still so wherever the leak is it must be below the lever. I suspect the tube which has got a few kinks in it.

Anyway...

As they are old, out of production, OEM Hayes Stroker Rydes which aren't anything super I suspect they are not worth repairing and that a replacement set of brakes is the easier ? if worth having a go what do I need and are the tubes all the same?

I quite like the levers I have as they allow me to hold the bars with my index finger and brake with my middle two and I'd like to keep this feature (short levers for index/middle only need not apply).

I'd like suggestions for cheap replacements, ideally that allow me to switch them without taking the grips off (so clarks m2 are no good).

Thanks!

In reply to gravy:

Mine failed in a similar way - but I got lucky and my LBS had a brand new set of Shimano somethings that they'd just taken off someone's new bike when they wanted something shinier.  I'm not precious about MTB stuff,  so I can't tell you what they were, but Andy the mechanic (of the raised 'you've done what to it' eyebrow) was disparaging about Hayes Stroker.

Road bike stuff on the other hand - precious about that though, and hydraulic brakes and tubeless are more trouble than they're worth there

In reply to gravy:

I’d be surprised if the brake hose is leaking - they’re pretty robust. Piston seals are more likely - they degrade with age/use. Losing that much fluid seems bizarre though unless you didn’t bleed the callipers?

Personally I’d go for the Clark’s brakes and a set of bolt on grips. I wouldn’t bother trying to mix and match different levers/callipers as it’s almost certain to cause more hassle than it’s worth.

In reply to gravy: I’m assuming my mtb ? If so, any generation of shimano xt from eBay will be a great brake for the money . I’ve replaced all sorts of stuff with them and they are bomb proof . My sons newly built up but old bike   has a set of almost new ones on it that were £120. I popped the pads out when they arrived and the pads and pistons looked unused even though they were sold as “used”.

In reply to gravy:

I had a fluid leak from a pin hole in my front brake hose once - I suspect a manufacturing fault. Could only see it when pulling the lever and the pressure rose enough to force fluid out and run down the hose.

If you really want to find the fault, try wrapping the whole lot in loo/kitchen roll, or put drip trays/kitchen roll on the floor underneath, and that should reveal the location. Assuming they use DOT4 fluid, you could also look for paint damage.

I assume the bike is upright at all times and it's not dripping out of the header tank when the bike is on end or upside down?

In reply to gravy:

I've had this happen on two different brakes recently. Both were 7+ years old, so I think the seals have corroded. I never lost anything like 20 cc fluid though - that's huge so should be visible. One of mine clearly had a leak on the lever, but a full new brake set was cheaper than the part. The other had no obvious leak but just doesn't seem to want to keep braking pressure up consistently. Very annoying! 

I like Shimano brakes, and pretty much all versions have worked well for me. I don't think you need to go as far up the range as XT (in fact, I think you'll need to go for the low end to get longer levers). Clarks are the best budget option. I've used tektro too and they are very wooden, without much modulation.