Bleeding brakes w/air compressor

[Lane]

I've never done my own brake bleeding on my bikes, but I'd like to start doing more of my own maintenance. I know I can use the manual method, but I already have an air compressor, so I figured I would buy the harbor freight bleeder.

My question is -- will I need any other equipment or adapters for the HF bleeder to get the job done on our bikes?

Or, is something like a Mityvac kit far superior? I don't mind spending some money on decent tools that save time or grief.

There's tons of pages and videos on bleeding the manual way or with the hand pump tools, but I haven't seen much on using shop air.

[1000RR]

Can't speak to the Harbor Freight bleeder... but the Mityvac is VERY easy to use. Harbor Freight can be hit and miss, seems some of their stuff is almost one time use That said, I have had some things server their purpose I've gotten from there.

Anyway, here's a little write up on my first experience bleeding brakes... all went well. --> Bleeding the Brakes - How To

[Lane]

Thanks for the info, much appreciated. Any idea what the difference is between the model you mentioned ("Fluid Evacuator") versus ones like this that are named specifically for brake bleeding?
http://www.mityvac.com/hq_images/MV6830.jpg
They look very similiar and the specs sound the same, so the difference might only be the included hardware.

[Sal_R1]

Whether the fluid is "pushed" or "pulled" through the line dosnt make a difference in performance. Its up-to personal preference.

[1000RR]

Not sure, you might PM TJ over at Rider's Discount. That is where I bought mine.

[moman]

Originally Posted by Lane

I've never done my own brake bleeding on my bikes, but I'd like to start doing more of my own maintenance. I know I can use the manual method, but I already have an air compressor, so I figured I would buy the harbor freight bleeder.

My question is -- will I need any other equipment or adapters for the HF bleeder to get the job done on our bikes?

Or, is something like a Mityvac kit far superior? I don't mind spending some money on decent tools that save time or grief.

There's tons of pages and videos on bleeding the manual way or with the hand pump tools, but I haven't seen much on using shop air.

Does your bike have ABS and do you have a GS-911? I recall the last update I did to my GS-911 including a maintenance function for brake bleeding. It runs the ABS pump for like 30 seconds while you're depressing brake lever.

[Lane]

Originally Posted by Sal_R1

Whether the fluid is "pushed" or "pulled" through the line dosnt make a difference in performance. Its up-to personal preference.

I thought that both of these Mityvac models were both "pull" vacuum units. No?

Originally Posted by moman

Does your bike have ABS and do you have a GS-911? I recall the last update I did to my GS-911 including a maintenance function for brake bleeding. It runs the ABS pump for like 30 seconds while you're depressing brake lever.

I do have ABS, but no GS-911 yet. I've been thinking of getting one, just hadn't pulled the trigger yet. I just bought a bunch of other toys, like a trailer, so... That's a pretty cool feature with the ABS pump, though. Can you stop the pump at any time on the 911, or does it always just go 30sec?

However, I have multiple bikes, so having a tool that speeds up bleeding for all of them would make sense to me.

[moman]

Don't recall if it allowed you to stop pump. Just remember activating it to see what it did. Pretty cool feature I thought.

I guess if you have multiple bikes you're back to using another method anyways on them.

[Lane]

So I got the Mityvac MV6835 Brake Bleeder kit from Amazon (that I linked in my first post) and did my front brakes tonight. This was my first time bleeding brakes, and it worked really great for me. One less thing I have to have the stealer do! I should have done it long ago.

This bleeder kit comes with a "auto-fill" bottle, and I thought it wasn't really going to work well on the small tank on a bike, but I was wrong and it actually worked pretty well. It makes it so you don't have to even think about refilling the reservoir while you're bleeding. Just fill the bottle, invert it over the tank, and keep bleeding the lines without having to stop and refill or worry about accidentally emptying the reservoir and sucking air. You can just look up and see how much fluid you have left as you bleed. It has a valve that you can turn to start and stop the flow if you wish. The only bad things I might say about it is that a) it's another part to set up and clean, and b) I think it might tend to make you use more fluid than you normally would. For me, those issues are outweighed by how easy it made it to do the bleeding. If you have a Mityvac unit already, you can get the auto-filler is a $44 option, and I'm not sure it's worth it. So I recommend just getting it in the kit, it's a lot less expensive (the unit on Amazon without the auto-filler is only $11 less).

[Slim]

speed bleeders for the win