Dr Big

Like probably most us, I used to hate bleeding brakes and clutches. I bought one of these cheap brake bleeding kits with a hand vacuum pump.


It was krap.

Rather than throwing it away and getting a more expensive kit with a proper pump I bought a cheap 12v air pump like this.

No I just connect to a 12v battery and the hardest thing is keeping the fluid in the master cylinder topped up. I've used it on my bikes and it worked a treat. On ABS bikes changing brake fluid can be a chore but this made it easy.

I think a proper kit with an electric pump is circa £300, where as this came in at little more than a 10th of that.

I have that same kit and it is a bit of a mess to use, lately have just been pumping the lever the old fashioned way into an old olive oil bottle with a hole drilled in the lid and some old fish tank tube.

The pump sounds a good idea.

This is like the one I bought

https://www.robotshop.com/uk/sfe-air-pump.html

I think an aquarium pump would be ok and they're less than a tenner.

Years ago as an experiment i knocked up this brake bleeder from a some lengths of small-bore hose, a few fittings and an old jam jar!
The vacuum is provided by the motorcycle itself via the carb balancing port on the inlet manifold.
Basically you hook one tube to the vacuum manifold and one (or two as in the pic) to the brake caliper you`re working on.
Start engine, vacuum is provided, open bleed nipple and fluid id drawn down. Fluid collects in reservoir.
It worked very well....

I got an oxford bleeder which is basically just a non-return valve. It works really well actually. I was surprised! https://www.sportsbikeshop.co.uk/motorcy...rod/497591