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Speed Bleeders and new brake pads

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Even with all the old cars I've had (partial list -- 65/69 Mustang coupes, 65/66 Mustang Fastbacks, 86 CJ7, bunch of trucks, etc., etc., etc.,) and work they've caused me, I've always been nervous about messing with my brakes. I've always figured that I was OK as long as I could stop, so I've always been nervous about screwing something up. Since I had off Friday, it was raining, and a bunch of new parts finally got here from England (to replace the stuff I bent/broke during my water crossing fiasco), I figured that it was a good day to get my hands dirty and get this stuff done.

I put on a set of speed bleeders (front and back), bled the brakes (front and back), and put on a set of EBC HH (front). I can't believe how easy it all was. The speed bleeders work just as advertised and are as easy to install as the instructions indicate. My wife even joked about the amount of time I spent messing with the bike and the lack of skinned/bloody knuckles I had :-D

I haven't had a chance to bed the new pads yet (thanks to all the rain), but I'm looking forward to seeing if they are as good as advertised.

Bill
 
Howdy,

:tab I just recently put the EBC HH pads on the front of both of our VFR's. It made a huge difference. Very nice. Took a little readjusting to get used to the new feel but once I did, I love them. I also use the speedbleeders. The VFR has seven bleed points on the linked brakes and one for the clutch. Lots of people gripe about the linked brakes, I love them except for when I have to bleed them, then I start thinking regular brakes would be real real nice! Also, to change the hoses to Stainless lines is something like $280!! Whereas, a typical bike runs more like $50-80 depending on the bike :-( Ah well, what are you gonna do? Can't have everything perfect on one bike...
 
I want to invest in some Speedbleeders.

Flushing the brake fluid on my wife's Honda CRV this weekend was a total pain. Coordinating her pushing the pedal with me opening the bleeder valve did not go well. She got frustrated and I think I let air into her front brakes.

I tried using a Mighty-Vac, but it sucked in air through the threads around the bleed valve. It was difficult (and exhausting for my hand) to pump enough to maintain a good vacuum.

The speedbleeder website says they are $7.00 each.
( https://www.speedbleeder.com/order.htm )

Are they cheaper elsewhere like an aftermarket on-line retailer or autoparts store?
 
Howdy,

:tab I believe it is $7 for a pair. When I bought mine, they came two to a pack. I had a total of eight screws in four packs and the total cost was around $50-60. You might call and double check. They were quite friendly and chatty when I last spoke with them.
 
I never even looked anywhere other than the speed bleeder site, but tourmeister is right in that they were very friendly. I think that I had them within 2-3 days of ordering them as well. The brakepads were another story. I went through brakesrus http://www.brakesrus.com/ and it took several phone calls (and several weeks) to finally get my brake pads. They won't be getting any more of my money.
 
Brake Bleeding

If you have a compressor and plan on doing lots of bleeding (that sounds bad doesn't it :eek: ) , you may want to look into a vacuum bleeder that hooks up to your compressor.

I bought one a while back and it was worth the $150 IMO.

The one I bought was similar to the vacula:

http://www.vacula.com/usa/produkte/brake_drain.shtml

It makes bleeding brakes quick and painless.
 
:tab Hmm... I have a compressor... And it sure would be nice to have something like this when bleeding the !$%$# linked brakes on the VFR's!
 
Honestly...I'm not making this up!! In going through our American Experss bill the other day, we found an unfamiliar charge. I finally called last night and spoke to a very friendly lady that sounded like she came from India/Pakistan. She said that there was a computer error and that the charge listed was just a generic title that Amex used. She looked it up and then got very quiet. After a few seconds she started speaking and tentatively said that it was a charge from a company called "Speed Bleeder." We both got a good laugh when I explained what it was :-D

My wife didn't think it was very funny either (she's not from the U.S. either) but I got a good laugh out of it.

Bill
 
The woman you spoke to probably was Indian, Bill. I saw a 60 Minutes story recently that reported on the growing trend of having phone service providers working out of offices in India, since long-distance phone lines are so cheap now. That's a pretty good-paying job over there it seems. A lot of the operators take speech classes to try to make their voices sound more "American". If English is your second language (and you're not a gearhead) references to a "speed bleeder" might cause you to see some pretty awful mental images! :eek: :mrgreen:
 
:tab Man, you could have had some fun with that! "I'm a doctor and this is an important piece of equipment..." :twisted:
 
Yeah, the company I work for has all of the Help Desk lines answered in India. In addition to the phones being answered overseas, the support people are also given "American" names to use (I spoke with a "Chad" yesterday).

What's ironic is that most of them speak better English than the people I work with. :shock:
 
:tab I have found that most people that have learned English as a second language usually write and speak it better than most of the natives here. I wonder if the same is true in other languages in other countries?
 
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