Tips for When To Replace Brakes on Mountain Bikes

"Other things that you need to replace sometimes, sometimes it is a sign of a system on its way out and sometimes it just happens in a crash or accident. You can see here on this down hill bike, this brake hose has been crushed and has a cut in it. Right now it is functioning fairly well, I rode this bike two days ago and I was having fun. I was slowing down the way I needed to. That's one of those thing where if it is an older brake, you get a cut on the line a new line is going to be around $40 if you are not comfortable replacing it you are looking at around$20 of labor so that?s like $60. You can find a new brake that?s really good for $120 or $130 retail, so that?s something you need to consider. Another thing that you need to consider is that replacement parts and ware parts. This front brake roater is a much older design than this brake here. I can't get new internals for this. I can't get a new clamp body, the fittings for the hydraulic line, they are all different. So if I had a problem with this, like say a wobbly loose brake lever, like I have here. It would probably be more cost effective to at least get a whole new brake lever assembly, if not a whole new brake. As long as we are good to our equipment we flush and re-bleed the fluid regularly and look for things like suspension hardware that pinches stuff. We should be able to get one, two, maybe even three seasons of good use out of our brakes. Anything more than that you are probably going to have problems out on the trail, in the parking lot or somewhere you don't want them. So a little bit of preemptive maintenance can save you a world of headaches."