Hope brakes enquieries

If you mean me, I bought the lever and caliper in this thread,
http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewto ... t=#1036495

The lever I used was a closed Pro with Goodridge hose that was part of a set of XC4's I had on another bike. Just cleaned up caliper, fitted it to Pro lever/hose, bled, fitted open cap, new pads and it is working great. It's on the Super V in this thread,
http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewto ... start=6060

A bargain I think. If it is an Enduro4 instead of original M4, kase1983 thought exactly as I did, that it was M4.

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They look be to the same sort of levers that i have now.
I'm wondering if my calipers will work with these much newer levers?

All I can say is I don't really know, but going by what the guy at Hope said about me using an older Pro lever with an M4, that the Pro lever would go close to bar before they worked, I'd suspect that using the newer Mini lever would result in the opposite, the lever would not move much at all with a much harder feel and more effort required to stop.
If you have a newer lever like in the pic you posted, why not connect them up, bleed it and try it out. If it doesn't work all you will have wasted is some brake fluid, your time will have been put to good use as you and us will have learned something useful.

The part numbers for both these types of levers on Hopes' site don't give a clue as to the diameters of pistons in lever. If they are the same diameter they'll work OK but if different sizes they move more or less fluid to caliper resulting in squishy to the bars feel or hard/harder effort with no modulation depending which combination you use.

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The reason behind my initial question is that i don't seem to be able to bleed my rear brake :?
I've bled it the conventional way, i've forced fluid up from the caliper but after using 500ml of 4 dot the lever still hasn't gone firm :roll:
Is it possible for the lever/master cylinder to have a leak, so that when you pump the lever it is drawing in more air?
The front brake by contrast is superb to the point where i have no misgivings about bolting it to a much more modern project

Re: .

dyna-ti":2zquvhzo said:

Grannygrinder":2zquvhzo said:

I'm not having great results from Hopes customer service people, i think i may have asked them one too many questions

Click to expand...

I think ive also soured relations by asking too much about C2's
They actually called me at home to ask to quit the emails-'We do not repair/replace or service C2's' Thank You'

Try another email address and modify the question

Click to expand...

The best brake they ever made... The best brake available at the time...
And they disown it.
I phoned them up to ask about spares a while back; The bloke got very shirty indeed!
I won't be buying any of their modern rubbish, thanks!

Re: .

dyna-ti":2i5sy2vs said:

Grannygrinder":2i5sy2vs said:

I'm not having great results from Hopes customer service people, i think i may have asked them one too many questions

Click to expand...

I think ive also soured relations by asking too much about C2's
They actually called me at home to ask to quit the emails-'We do not repair/replace or service C2's' Thank You'

Try another email address and modify the question

Click to expand...

haha they love you really!

strange that they get funny about the c2s? why is that?
maybe its because the whole of retrobike own them and always contact hope
:?

Re: .

Grannygrinder":bcpkhu41 said:

The reason behind my initial question is that i don't seem to be able to bleed my rear brake :?
I've bled it the conventional way, i've forced fluid up from the caliper but after using 500ml of 4 dot the lever still hasn't gone firm :roll:
Is it possible for the lever/master cylinder to have a leak, so that when you pump the lever it is drawing in more air?
The front brake by contrast is superb to the point where i have no misgivings about bolting it to a much more modern project

Click to expand...

Are you opening and closing the bleed nipple as you pump the lever?

Like this:

Open nipple, plull lever and hold, close nipple, release lever. Repeat as necessary topping up as required. Also theres a little trick you can do when replacing the diaphram on the resovoir. You have to roll it in to avoid trapping air under it when you replace the resovoir cap.

How-to vids here:

http://www.hopegb.com/page_mep_force_35.html

http://www.hopegb.com/page_mep_force_33.html

Something I noticed when bleeding my Hope brakes last week, if you pull the lever too gently it won't flush out the air, just the fluid. The reason I was being too gentle was when I did it with a bit of force, like you'd do with car brakes, the fluid squirted back out reservoir.
Just need to find middle ground that will move the fluid and the air bubbles, you're trying to force the air down the hose when it naturally wants to rise up to reservoir.
Also, as has been said, getting the diaphragm on without air being trapped is important.

Next time i bleed my brakes i intend to use the syringe method.
I think that because you force it through, it does a much better job of removing trapped air,and cuts significantly cuts down on the amount of new fluid you have to add.
Cleaner too,though my hands are impervious to hydraulic fluid