To Bleed or Not to Bleed

[GoldenGoose]

Boiled the brake fluid (DOT 5.1) on my Strokers for the first time yesterday and suffered some serious fade right in the middle of a 25% grade with lots of loose rocks. Laying the bike down on loose shale to stop is always fun. 😏 Not the first time I’ve done this to a set of brakes so I wasn’t too worried at first. I’ve heard that this section of trail has a reputation for killing brakes. Once they cooled off, everything went back to normal. Fully functional. Good as new.

However, one thing has me a bit worried.

I noticed that the rubber cover at the caliper bleeder had popped off and it looked like some fluid had sprayed/leaked out. However, when I checked the caliper bleeder, it was tight. Never had any leaks before this. That was the only time it leaked even though I did slightly fade the brakes one more time during the ride.

Think I should be worried? I was thinking about re-bleeding the hoses but I just did this at the beginning of July so I’d rather not have to hassle it again if it’s not needed. I’ve boiled brake fluid before and normally wouldn’t worry about immediately changing it out. What’s got me more concerned is the leak. Is that a normal occurence that I’m not aware of or should I be worried about something internal going on? I wonder if it’s possible that I got the fluid so hot it heated the caliper and bleeder screw up enough to expand the metal and make the slightly leak under pressure? Seems like a rediculous amount of heat would be required to make that possible so I’m doubting it is the culprit.

What do you guys think?

[steve32300]

I boiled my brakes up at the ribbon trail in gand junction one year and they went completely gone,took about 10 to 15 minutes for them to come back,once they came back they were fine for the rest of the ride although once I got back to denver and the changes in altitude they were in need of a complete bleeding,I also changed the fluid too just because.I would think the leaking is because of vaperization when the fluid was soo hot,although that would just be my guess.Of course you could have a bad seal or somthing,keep an eye on it and see if it leaks anymore would be my advice if you don’t want to redo everything.

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