Bleedin' Hayes 9 brakes
Last couple of weeks I've been riding I've noticed the efficiency of my brakes has been slowly getting worse, to the point where the levers reached right back to the handlebars and I could no longer get enough leverage to lock up the wheels. I use Hayes 9 hydraulic disc brakes on my bike and figured maybe they just needed bleeding or something.
It turns out that Hayes 9 have a problem where the adjustment screw that dictates how much reach your brake levers have, slowly undoes itself causing the brake levers to move closer and closer to the handlebars. Once I discovered this I just tightened them up and the braking was back to normal, which is superb, especially in today's downpour.
In fact I had loads of fun in the rain today, listening to the quiet swish of my tires cutting through the surface water on the bike path. I enjoyed locking up the brakes to skid the backend around and generally had fun being soaked to the bone.
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You have no idea how much your post helped me out! I bled my rear-brake three times and couldn’t get the brakes to be any more responsive, then I ran across what you wrote and found that adjustment screw. They’re good as new! I thought I’d have to go buy another set of brakes.
Have you guys thought about using a product called locktight
222ms, this is a thread locker and will stop your screws from coming undone causing this safety issue
www. ellsworth.com/display/productdetail.html?productid=907&Tab=Products
Agreed, locktight is the way to go. An alternative is to wind some of that plumber's tape around the thread which also has the effect of locking it in place.
Incidentally, since writing this post I've ended up with another bike with Hayes brakes, this time the Hayes Solo which are Haye's cheapest model. I actually find these brakes work better than the Hayes Nine and don't suffer from the screw loosening problem mentioned in the post above.
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