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You have some very svelte, thin yet strong as hell fingers if you can push back the pistons with your finger.
I've always used a tire lever. With codes, doing it from above, there is a risk of breaking the pad pin hole...
to be fair, for the past 8-9 years I have only had magura MT5/MT4 calipers, which I can push with fingers,, ocasionally a tire lever.. these are not finicky as other brands, dont get pushed sideways nor super hard to push.
Since with all these Maven (I have 4 of them on my bikes) piston massage and since none of my old traditional piston press tools fit the Maven caliper, I have started using this type of piston press with ease. $45 is steep but it's made of alloy rather than 3D printed plastic like the cheaper ones.
How often are we supposed to be taking our pistons to the spa for a massage? I thought this was one time out of the box?
Just chop an old rotor in half. Bet you have one laying around in your shed somewhere. Also it doubles as a ninja star if someone tries to break in.
I have always done a "piston massage" as part of my brake bleed routine. Push pistons out, clean with a q-tip and brake oil, repeat 4x or until all pistons move freely. I find this really helps prevent pistons from getting stuck or pushing out unevenly. When SRAM came out and gave it a fancy name in made me chuckle, I just thought that was part of maintaining your brakes. That said, if you are doing a bleed, you should do this. Its wild how much crud you will pull off your pistons.
Sorry for the stupid large images, I don't know how to make them smaller.
And to answer your question @TEAMROBOT you can see my tried and true pad-pusher-back-inner pedros tire lever. That said, I have fucked up and blasted a piston out when pushing a different one in. I should probably get something better but there is some thrill in living on the edge.
My hands started bleeding just looking at these pictures
Not for the faint of heart!
Where'd you get that one? The long red metal SRAM (or China copies) doesn't work as it's for top loading, and the "Laser" style one in Charlie's post doesn't either (doesn't fit right and just bends).
I think it's intended to happen with every bleed.
I'm in the market for new brakes and have been looking at a bunch of different brake options. It looks like a 5-ish minute process per brake but I haven't done it to be able to tell you "this is how long it takes" definitively.
From my own experience, and I have 4 sets of Maven (straight up stock), after the initial massage from brand new, I've skipped the massage during subsequent reset mainly during pad replacements. Haven't had the need to rebleed any of my sets.
https://atlus.bike/?country=US (from this shop). I would advise against the cheaper amazon knockoff as they're made of 3D printed plastic materials.
Am I the only one who just uses both sides of the pad spacer the brakes ship with for the piston massage?
That is the intended use for those things. I just had all ready made a ninja star.
TRP DHR evo lever / Maven Base update. I set these up with maxima mineral oil and Shimano BH90 hose, and just a simple Shimano style bleed cup bleed after pushing oil through the lines. I also did a comprehensive piston massage procedure.
I did one shuttle day on the setup, and impressions are that this combination is quite good. The lever stroke is very acceptable, bite point feels well defined and does not wander or pump out at all, and the maven power is also there. Good modulation, as you would expect from TRP lever. I've got the stock organic pads in there now, but I'll probably switch to metallic once those wear out.
My plan is to run this all summer in Whistler
Update on Maven Silver/Ultimate with the Shimano BH90 banjo/stock XT setup. No leaks whatsoever at the banjos. About ten 1,500ft steep brake heavy descents on them with plenty normal trail and bike park style riding mixed in. (ebike) I’m putting this setup on my trail and park bike here soon so will have every riding situation to report back on this summer.
On another note I’m finding I like an organic pad in the rear and a sintered in the front. The sintered in the rear is so powerful it feels like it’s meant for a DH race bike where you have very defined precise braking points. The organic rear is much easier to scrub speed off without breaking traction. (220 rotor rear)
Any reason to think a Shimano SLX lever with Maven Ultimate calipers (with the freestroke screw installed *on the levers) wouldn't function as well as an XT lever? Got a new bike and can't get these Codes off quickly enough
As long as it is the servowave slx lever, and not the linear one intended for XC 2 piston brakes, I don't see any reason to not use it with the maven caliper.
I can tell you with certainty that slx servo wave levers with a free stroke screw installed are the exact same as xt minus the color and textured lever blades.
I would be curious to see how Shimano BL-M4100 levers fare in a Shaven setup.
After spending too much time reading about Shigura setups this fall, I stumbled upon a German thread in which people were advocating for the cheaper, non-servowave levers for a more linear feel with good power. The more expensive non-servowave, XTR Race levers lack the power to really drive the calipers in a heavier-duty setup, but that's not an issue with these due to long levers producing high leverage.
I now have a few days on a new Shigura setup (BL-M4100 + MT5 + Redline Likewater fluid), and it feels awesome. It has a super light pull with very little dead band, a clearly defined pressure point, easy modulation, and ample power. They could potentially be sweet in a Shaven application if you're looking for a non-binary lever feel, and they can be obtained for a song online.
Question for those who have run Travens:
With maven silver calipers, can you run the TRP hoses and banjos and just connect them directly into the maven calipers? I have full TRP set up right now but interested in trying Travens
Post a reply to: Shimano/TRP Maven - S-tier braking (Shaven/Traven)