Hydralic disc brake lever pull

[Adrian888]

Hi. I have a downhill front suspension bike (Norko Manic 2006), and I just dusted it off after some time in storage; now it might have had this problem before and I was just used to it, but I have been riding a commuter bike for 3 years now and so forget how brakes for downhill are supposed to be.

In the following question, I will mention "easing into the brake", again I am no longer used to hydraulic disk brakes so maybe this is just me not being used to it; but I know on my mech disk brakes i can partially apply the brakes; can I do this on hydraulics?

Currently the front brake lever has almost no pull distance before it applies brakes, and there seems to be very difficult to ease into it. The rear brake lever is about how i like it, a very small amount of play before the brake applies and it seems to ease in a bit more. The problem is right now, if i instinctively apply both brakes I am probably going over the handlebars sense the front brake applies first and more quickly.

My first question is, what do you think the best set up would be? Would it be to bring my rear brake pull closer to what my front one is, and just get used to the quick braking (maybe with my weight behind it landing downhill i will need that power), or should i adjust the front brake to meet the rear brake.

My second question is, how do I adjust lever pull distance on a hydraulic disk brake; I have searched for almost and hour trying to find the answer and the only thing I can find is if there is no response (not enough fluid). I have inspected my bike to try and guess what part does it but do not want to start fiddling around with the wrong things. If you could even just link me resource that would be great.

Thanks for any help,
-Adrian

[DaveM]

I don't know about adjusting the lever pull. But I do know that very grabby brakes are often a symptom of contaminated brake pads. Since it's been in storage, it might be time to replace the pads and see if that helps the brakes modulate better.

[Adrian888]

(08-30-2013, 12:33 AM)DaveM Wrote:  I don't know about adjusting the lever pull. But I do know that very grabby brakes are often a symptom of contaminated brake pads. Since it's been in storage, it might be time to replace the pads and see if that helps the brakes modulate better.

Thanks, ill have a look at them.