It’s been a couple of weeks since José and I got the new fork cut to length and installed on the bike. In the meantime, I’ve had work to do of course, and it’s just been too hot even to get out on the balcony for maintenance.

The real reason I was holding back, though, was the thought of tackling the reinstallation of the front brake caliper and bleeding of the brake line. And so when I resolved this afternoon to tackle the job, I decided to do that last.

Instead I turned my attention to the taillight installation. SON lights have polarity, which means I have to get the right wire attached to the right terminal. Unfortunately, while the instructions mention this, they’re invariably vague at some critical point. I think I’ve puzzled it out.

While I was attaching the taillight to the rack, I noticed a twist in the 3mm hex wrench. I somehow doubt it was like this from the factory …

The light fit perfectly and I spent a couple of minutes winding the wire around the rack and bike frame and securing it with vinyl tape. With Kuroko’s color scheme, the black tape blends right in.

While I was working, I noticed that the heat had expanded the air in the frame pump, pushing it out to full extension. How embarrassing!

Wiring the taillight to the headlight took some time and effort. The cable was initially about 40cm too long, so I cut it to the right length, turning the handlebars from side to side to make sure there was no binding. And then I set about stripping the cable. The covering material is very good, thick and tough. And the wires inside are narrow and fragile! On the first two tries, after carefully squeezing the cutters a little bit at a time to no effect, I ended up cutting right through the cable. By the time I managed to strip off the cover without cutting through (most of) the wire beneath, I’d removed nearly 10cm from my perfectly sized cable. I ended up rewinding the cable around the top tube to free up some slack.

Crimping the terminals on the fresh wire ends was also more work than it should have been because of the fineness of the wire. The terminals really had to be squashed flat to trap the wire and prevent it slipping through. After all that, the shrink wrap job was a cinch. I added more vinyl tape at the juncture because I didn’t think the shrink wrap would be enough.

One down

That was one job down. (Of course, I’m assuming it’s all going to work. Testing that is for another day.) The next bit was to tilt the handlebars down just a bit, because I’d left them angled ever-so-slightly upwards after the fork installation.

It was finally time to reinstall the front brake caliper and bleed the brake. By this time I was sweating freely in the 37C heat, and I couldn’t tell at times if it was my sweat dripping on the balcony or if it was leaking hydraulic fluid.

With the bike in the stand and the front wheel off, I attached the caliper to the fork loosely (remembering to grease the threads). I was able to coax a brake block between the pistons to keep them separated during the bleeding process.

And then I squeezed the brake lever, squirting hydraulic fluid onto the floor of the balcony. I have no idea what I was thinking. But I took a deep breath and reviewed what I had yet to do: press the barb in the end of the hydraulic line, add the olive and then screw the works into the caliper. With sweat running down my arms and off my fingertips, as well as dripping from my forehead onto my glasses, I somehow managed it. I only dropped various bits and tools about six times in the process.

I have a crescent wrench to fit that brake fitting exactly — somewhere. I made do with an adjustable wrench that’s far too large for this job.

Bleeding fluid

The next step was to add new brake fluid to the system and bleed the brake. I haven’t done this since I originally converted from cable-operated brakes in December 2021. The cup, hoses and bottle of brake fluid have been sitting on the floor of the Workshop in the Sky all that time. I thought a little cleaning up might be in order, but I didn’t expect to find grains of rice in the reservoir cup!

Adding the fluid was all a bit messy. When I checked the bottle I wondered if I had enough (and if there’s a shelf-life on this stuff — it looked OK). I got it all into the syringe OK and then started squeezing it into the port of the caliper. With patience I got most of it into the brake system and not on the floor, and then, just as it was emerging into the cup up at the brake lever, it suddenly became very hard to push any more in. I kept at it, getting another 5cc into the system, at which point I could see fresh fluid emerging into the cup at top. (The fluid already in the lines was clear, while the fresh fluid was pink.)

At that point I closed off the valve at the bottom and set aside the syringe. I rocked the bicycle fore and aft while working the brake lever, squeezing the air out of the system. When I didn’t see any more bubbles, I removed the cup and screwed the top back on. After spraying the brake lever and caliper with cleaning spray, I removed the block and inserted the brake pads.

Finally, I put the wheel back in, gave it a spin, and worked the brake a few times. The results were not immediately favorable. The brake was soft, and yet the pads were rubbing the disc. I continued working the brake lever for a couple of minutes until I was sure I wouldn’t get any further improvement. Then I got to work aligning the caliper so the brakes wouldn’t be rubbing.

I spent more than 10 minutes at this point and ended up with a decided compromise. There’s still a little rubbing, and the brake feel is still a bit spongy. The bike is rideable at this point, but I’m going to have a shakedown ride where I take it easy and see if the front brake is going to firm up a bit and if the rubbing is going to sort itself out through repeated application. If not, I might just take the bike to a shop I’ve been keeping an eye on to have them do the brakes for me, front and rear.

I was feeling somewhat ill when I’d finished exerting myself in the heat, but I tried to take it easy and managed to clean up all the tools and most of the leftover bits and rubbish before heading for a cool shower and cold beer.

Not quite done

During that shakedown ride, I’ll test that the lights are working. If they’re working, great. If not, I’ll probably remove the junction box and directly solder and tape / shrink wrap the wiring instead. One way or the other, at that point I’ll wire in the Cinq5 USB charging stem cap, so I can recharge my phone or accessories while riding.

After that’s all sorted, I have a couple of finishing touches / bling to cap off the project: new bar tape (long overdue) and a handlebar bag to replace the cockpit bag that the TSA took a fancy to.