I have no idea what generation my XTs are, but they’re at least a few years old.
both of my wet dick bikes (XT M8000-calipers, XT M8000 levers on one, Ultegra R8020 levers on the other) have had persistent issues with the rear caliper. Both stored vertically on a wall… The mountain bike just needs more frequent bleeds, but the road bike has fully contaminated the rotors and pads twice now.
I had the same thought as mander - surely the pressure of a ~1m tall vertical column of oil is less than the pressure of operating the brake (otherwise the rear wheel would lock when I turn the bike vertical). But I suppose hanging with that pressure on the seals for months on end allows for eensy-weensy leaks to end up leaking a lot of fluid.
Never used to have this issue with my old 9-speed-era mishmash of XT/XTR parts (M965 calipers, iirc).
now THAT’S interesting. A coworker had a SRAM caliper leak in the same place - turned out to be a machining error from the factory where the O-ring was supposed to seal.
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it’s weird, mine was also exclusively the rear caliper, on rs785 calipers (the set with the first gen 11s road pull hydro stuff, rs685 iirc)
I think it’s just because I thrashed the bike and rode it through winter after winter, and the aluminum caliper bodies and all the various fittings could only take so much abuse before they just didn’t seal up right
so I got a bunch of the harder o-rings, dumped the fluid, took the caliper apart, cleaned everything out, changed the o-ring, put the caliper back together (tightened it real good) then put in new fluid and did a bleed- feels perfect now, time will tell as a permanent fix, but I’ve had the contamination resurface faster than this so I think we’re good
was a really annoying thing to do tho
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I took a poke through google image search, because I remember all my old 9-speed gear was single-part calipers and only now realized my XT M8000 calipers are split body. Looks like XT moved from 1-piece to 2-piece bodies with 10-speed. XTR 2-pot bodies are still 1-piece. Might be a valid reason to stick with XTR calipers, one less seal to leak.
EDIT: altho i guess the single-part calipers have to have to have that big plug in one side to install the pistons through, huh.
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My parents need bikes. They’re both in their 70’s and mostly use their bikes to drive them to downtown Cincinnati, and cruise around the waterfront. I bet their rides are usually between 5 and 10 miles. They’re both in pretty good shape for their 70’s, but definitely at the phase in their lives where they’ve gotta think about comfort in a little bit of a different way than most folks who I make bike recommendations to.
They’ve been riding Mongoose department store mountain bikes that they bought at a yard sale about 15 years ago.
I’m worried if they waltz into a bike shop that they’ll be pushed onto shitty cruisers. They’re open to paying up to $1000 each, although I think they’d prefer if it was closer to $500.
My first inclination is to get them onto Kona Dews, and maybe have the shop get stems that have reasonable rise to them.
Any thoughts?
Have them get one of these. Or whatever Reser recommends in this category. Reser is a great shop that will hook them up.
https://www.reserbicycle.com/product/roll-c1-city-6305.htm
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Uh duhhhh obviously dogma f10 with 80mm of steerer spacers
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Awesome. I’ll tell them to hit this shop up.
Kona Coco, unless they’re really tall. Something from Electra?
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Kona Dew or Coco are what’s up for sure.
@turpentine, any thoughts on Spun cycles? They’re a Kona dealer in my parents’ neighborhood. Reviews are good, but they seem focused on a young and cool market, so not sure if they’re the right place to send a couple of boomers. (they’re wonderful boomers, but boomers nonetheless)
I live in Northside. Fuck spun.
I don’t know anyone at a bike nerd level that had a decent experience there.
If they don’t need the bike shop experience… I know a guy who can probably send the goods.
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Is it me?
By “goods” I mean a pair of well designed 650b hybrids from a medium sized bike company.
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OOOoooooo. carry on
It’s me.
I own a shop that sells the goods in question.
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SHILL!
Always tryina get rich off the backs of tarck folks.
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If they wind up going mailorder, I’ll hit you up. I’m pushing them towards buying something they can ride first, but sounds like the local Kona dealer ain’t so hot.
Smitty’s was good but I haven’t been there in years. They sell Kona.