Brake Bleeding The Lazy Way

This will explain how to bleed your brakes the lazy way. The brake on my Ural was unusually annoying to bleed. It is just one nice, straight length with no high spots, but I couldn’t get any feel in the lever. If you have a lot of time on your hands, this might be the method for you.

I went through the usual routine:

1. clear tube on end of bleeder into container with fluid.
2. pump lever until no bubbles are visible out of bleeder into tube.
3. close bleeder.
4. ensure master cylinder does not run out of fluid
5. pump the lever slowly looking for consistent feel (no pumping up)
6. while squeezing the lever, open the bleeder slightly.
7. close the bleeder before the lever reaches end of travel.
8. goto 4

After going through half a bottle of fluid and still no feel, I started to get concerned. Ok, so the Ural has almost no feel in the lever anyways, but this was annoying.

I checked my motorcycle manuals, they explained the exact procedure I was doing. hmm. I called a couple friends to ask for advice, and they both recommended the same thing. They recommended something so easy, so simple, I couldn’t believe it would work.

Lazy Procedure:

1. after following the steps above through one or two times, try the below.
   
2. With the bleeder closed and the master cylinder sealed, pump the lever a few times and hold.


3. Keeping it held back, strap it back with a zip tie or some velcro.


4. Come back overnight or in a day or two or three.

It sounded silly, but I had some time, so I tried it. When I started it was 5-6 squeezes until “firm”. I left it overnight, and found it down to 4-5 squeezes in the morning. A day later 3-4 squeezes.

Three days later, it worked better than I remember it ever working on the first squeeze. Awesome.