After leaving my bike outside at work over a couple of rainy days, when I rode it home the front brake needed a lot of pressure at the lever and then was grabbing. Very dangerous as I couldn't modulate the brake, it was either nothing or 3/4 braking, not good in the wet. I realised it hadn't had its normal easy to use feel for a while, but this was serious.
I was getting ready to pull the hydraulics apart when I decided to check the pivot point of the lever, so I dropped the bolt out and although the bush looked OK, the grease in there was old and dry. I cleaned up the pivot bolt and the bush and re-greased it, then re-assembled.
Now I've got my old brake back, working better than ever and it only took 10 mins and $0.00. Cheapest brake upgrade ever!

Wouldn't you call that maintenance really?

Brake levers can make a big difference in how your brakes feel. I had one bike where the brakes felt awful. I could pull the lever slightly, or I could pull it a good bit, but the exact amount of brake I needed in stop and go traffic just wasn't working. I'd pull it so far, and then the brake pressure would spike, it was really annoying. Not an issue with 4 fingers like I'd use for normal riding, but this was just stop an go traffic where I only had one or two fingers on the lever. I thought the brakes needed bled or new pads. I bought some new adjustable shorty levers before I got around to messing with the brakes, put the new levers on, and the problem went away completely, good as new.

Quote from: slipperymongoose on March 04, 2012, 06:57:07 PM
Wouldn't you call that maintenance really?

Yes.