Reach & Free Stroke Adjustment - Shimano Hydraulic Disc Brake Levers - Road Bike Maintenance

[@oohnajra]

Adjusting the reach on my 105's was a real lifesaver. Thanks for a great tip!

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

It can make all the difference 👍

[@gervasebarnes]

Best video on this adjustment i have found

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

Glad it helped 👍

[@kmmntrls]

lovely, the best thing i learned is that you need too turn the freestroke adj screw out before bleeding. my adjustment was zero so the mechanics must have missed this as well.

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

It’s an easy one to forget.

[@JibbaJabber]

@9:26 👈 Finally, the guru has bestowed unto us the knowledge we need 🙏 Shimano tinkerers, these points are life changing - trust me. Took me a fair few attempts to work these out!!

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

It's obvious when you think about it. After all, we wouldn't fit a new rim brake cable, with the barrel adjuster wound all the way out now would we!!! 🤣

[@peterluther9889]

Super helpful! I did not find your video until after I bled hydraulic fluid, which did not solve the problem entirely. This was such an easy fix. The hex screw on my 2021 Trek Checkpoint SL Ultegra was right under the handle up in the “V” between handle and bar. 8:02

[@gxa2yesvolumeisbetternow702]

I’ve wondered about Reach and Free Stroke Adjustment for some time. Thanks for shedding some light on this topic.

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

No problem 👍

[@anonymouskomentar783]

Before watching your video, idk how to adjust my brifter properly, now i know very well, thanks for the video, loved it.

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

Glad you liked it

[@g.fortin3228]

Very well explained ! I need to expolore your other vids very soon ! Thank you :- )

[@FelixRisingOriginal]

Ha! I was looking for a video on how to adjust, and found yet again Ribble Valley Cyclist with yet another perfect video! Thanks for the great video!

[@SofiaLöf]

Thanks so much for this. I didn't know I could lessen the rech, it feels so much better now. Thanks!

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

And this is why I make these videos. Thanks for letting me know it was useful to you 👍

[@davidwong2836]

a very informative presentation freestroke and reach! very well done!

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

Glad you liked it!

[@mikefoster3901]

Nice vdo very useful to know Thanks for sharing Best wishes from Thailand 🇹🇭

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

Glad you found it useful. Hi from the UK 🇬🇧

[@pedalski]

Excellent, logical and methodical video. Thank you!

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

Glad it was helpful!

[@furioustacos]

I only just discovered this channel but I absolutely love it. Keep going!

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

Welcome aboard!

[@billwestervelt2393]

Great explanation professor. Much appreciated.

[@barendandrebooyens937]

Thank you for the detailed instructions

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

You are welcome!

[@steveindorset]

What really great video!! I’ve just bought a bike with 12 speed Ultegra Di2. You give out good information dude! Superb!!😎👍🏻

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

Glad it was helpful 👍

[@Onroulelaboule]

Love your Channel 😍 Thank you very much!

[@2cartalkers]

Excellent, very informative!!! 👍👍

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

Thanks 👍

[@rickbeckner9906]

Great video! Very helpful and well presented! Thanks!

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Adonis-qj1nq]

Thanks so much for this very clear and helpful video. Ever since getting a hydraulic disc brake bike I hated how the bite point felt compared to my old rim brake bike that is easily adjusted with cable tension. Now I adjusted it using your guide and it feels way better. The Shimano manuals do a terrible job explaining the free stroke adjustment.

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

And this is why I do these videos. Glad it helped 👍

[@FGIRAFFE]

Thanks for the video, so if you don't have a free stroke adjustment, you are doomed for some bleeding job, or some minéral liquid adding. Thanks again. Il watch the scary bleeding stuff with avscary name. I'm also convinced to use the presta tool. Thanks

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

Free stroke just gives you a little more adjustment. A well bled and maintained system that doesn't have free stroke, will still work well.

[@garykamieneski9010]

Very nice video. Thank you. I just got a new Canyon Endurace with Ultegra R8170 levers, so reach and free motion screws are where you showed. My right lever travels to close to the bar, although once pumped a couple of times, the braking point starts earlier. I can tell the the piston is entirely to the rear so I thought I would follow your method and turn the free stroke screw clockwise. Results were bad as my 2mm hex head broke off in the screw. The screw does not wish to turn either clockwise or counterclockwise (defective?). The left side front brake lever also has the piston head fully to the rear, yet performs as it should and doesn't go all the way back to the bar. Fwiw, the lever reach screws perform as they should. No problem turning them, Do you think my new Canyon arrived with a fluid problem with the rear caliper, and/or why won't that free stroke screw move.

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

This doesn't sound right to me. The problem you have is that if you force that screw, you may round it off, and if you do, Canyon will most likely put the blame on you. My advice, get in touch with Canyon. As they're a mail order business, they'll most likely tell you to take it to your LBS to get it checked over, and they'll pick up the tab. The LBS will then most likely say the lever is faulty, and then you've got a good case to get it replaced.

[@garykamieneski9010]

@@ribblevalleycyclist Thank you. This screw should turn both ways it seems to me (the reach screw turns easily). I may have forced it trying to turn it clockwise and broke my 2mm bit. But the cylinder inside the window was furthest towards the back of the lever and turning the free stroke screw clockwise should have advanced the cylinder towards the front of the lever when looking through the window. Am I correct on this?

[@garykamieneski9010]

@@ribblevalleycyclist Two things. Canyon has opened a warranty case with Shimano and I finally managed to remove the buggered free stroke screw. Trouble is the screw seems to be proprietary as it is a M4 screw with a 2mm hex socket. I was able to find a M4 10mm screw at Home Depot with a 3mm hex socket and machined the head diameter to fit the cavity. Much easier adjusting a 3mm hex socket screw! Still, neither of my levers show the piston cylinder moving forward in its track when the screw is tightened in. Your video and others' videos show otherwise. Finally, Shimano's own documentation shows free stroke adjustment as affecting the length of lever travel, but the "bite point" for the brakes is in the exact same position relative to the handlebars.

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

@@garykamieneski9010 The tiny hex screw in these levers is a nightmare, 2mm is too small. Combined with its tricky location, they’re vulnerable to being rounded off. Especially when using a ball-head hex tool…… which you would, due to the awkward location! Reach and free-stock are a bit of a nightmare to set up, because although they technically shouldn’t affect each other, they do. Depending on where the reach is will affect the effectiveness of free-stroke. She’s a fickle mistress, that you just need to tinker with to get right.

[@tpoljsak]

Legendary, enjoy so much!

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

Thanks 👍

[@pcmjpcmj6854]

Very informative. Thank you.

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

Glad it was helpful!

[@johnwilliamson9453]

Love your commentary!

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

Thanks, do worry how I come across 🫤

[@LivandTrekGoCycling]

Good video Jon, informative, well edited 🚴👍

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

Glad you liked it. Feels great to be back in the workshop doing how-to videos. Feels like I’ve done nothing but reviews recently 😕

[@antonyharris130]

Excellent video as ususl,please keep them coming,at 1.26/27,as if by magic,the white coffee cup appears by your red bench vice,it just caught my eye and made me smile. Oh and if possible when you unbox or unwrap something on camera could you actually include the sequences please as i'm into ASMR and a lot of your work includes it in the video,maybe your not aware of it,please don't stop doing it as the way you do it is so subtle and more rewarding to listen too.

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

Hi Antony, That coffee cup..... Yeah, I noticed that in the edit. Thought to myself, well that looks a bit silly! Maybe I could make a feature with the cup jumping around from shot to shot 🤣. ASMR..... wasn't actually aware of it until now. Just watched a short video on it. It's actually an interesting concept, and makes the whole experience more realistic for the viewer.

[@ЮрийСурнин-ш6с]

Thank you very much!

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

You're welcome!

[@earling22]

Thank you. sir, Very cogent.

[@patricklawlor7789]

Brilliant - thanks !

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

You're welcome!

[@steppings5645]

Great info.

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

Thanks 👍

[@plumbgray]

Genius Sir 🎩

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

The hat!!! 👍

[@plumbgray]

@@ribblevalleycyclist as in I tip my hat 😁 great tip thank you 👍🏻

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

@@plumbgray Don’t worry, I knew what you meant. Always good to get the 🎩 👍

[@alistairmacfadyen9365]

Thank you very much.

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

You’re welcome 👍

[@alistairmacfadyen9365]

@@ribblevalleycyclist waiting for your review on the Wheeltop system

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

@alistairmacfadyen9365 Not enough time in the day to get it all done. Sneak preview, I’m impressed with it, and have had no big problems

[@freshchemical]

Thank you for the concise and informative video. Super helpful. One question - at 9:30, when you say “positive reach adjustment” does that mean the reach screw has been turned clockwise several times? Or anti-clockwise?

Thank you, very useful

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

You’re welcome 👍

[@lmcg9220]

Just to say the reach adjustment for my Tiagra hydraulic disc brake lever is not on the top or the front or underneath, as shown in this and other videos, but actually on the side. It took a while to find it...

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

You’re right, it is. Like the previous 105 I think.

[@mmt3236]

An excellent video! Unfortunately, I can't find the free stroke hex screw on my Shimano GRX 810 shifter. Could it be a Phillips head screw there, or is the hex screw located somewhere else? I don't notice any effect from the Phillips screw.

[@kenschwarz8057]

Free stroke adjustment did nothing, so I bled my brakes…no difference! Now I understand… Wish I watched this before going to all that trouble.

[@stylgen]

Question: If the free stroke adjustment screw is wound out, then can It be placed back and wound back in?

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

Yes.

[@samanthadecastro7554]

is reach adjustment possible in gevenalle brakes?

[@Naatus90]

If I’ve understood well, I’ve do the bleeding before the adjustment, did I?

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

I would recommend that you are confident your system is set up correctly before tying this. Saying that though, trying this won’t do any harm. If you know how to bleed brakes, and you have the tools, then I would recommend it. This video is worth watching, it’s about brake bleeding kzbin.info/www/bejne/m3jGnZSsqdCif8ksi=7XKrKUetsifdVip1

[@garykamieneski9010]

O.k. you warned us about "rounding off the internals of the hex". Any tips for removing the "frozen" free stroke screw? I assume this could be a replacement part, although I have yet to find an exploded view showing the part. Hex head is rounded and I cannot get any purchase. I've tried a soldering iron to heat and then cool the screw. Last thing I can think of is a screw extractor. I'm convinced this right lever arrived from Shimano with too much loctite and the screw tightened too much inwards. Left lever has no such problem.

[@craigsmith5134]

Is there anything that can be done for a very long bite point on shimano 105 7000? I adjusted the reach but then the brakes don't bite till very close to the bars even after bleeding.

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

Are you confident in the wear levels of your pads? Also, some people apply a small amount of pressure to the brake fluid using the bleed syringe. It is however a bit hit & miss, as too much pressure applies the brakes.

[@craigsmith5134]

@@ribblevalleycyclist Hey, so I just changed my pads for an upcoming trip to the mountains. By no means were the old pads near the replace point but after the replacement there is a definite change to the bite point. I thought these calipers were self adjusting and would advance with pad wear, is that not the case? For now anyway I've got the reach adjusted where I like.

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

They claim to be ‘Self Adjusting’ but I can’t see how they can be. Burping the system with the pads in situ can sometimes help with clearance, as can the pressure trick. Anyway, glad you’re sorted

[@JirkaKlan]

I face the same issue even with brand new levers, calipers and pads of 105 / 7000 series 😢 Brake power is dangerously low. I'm afraid that adding more fluid to the system will cause disk scraping.

[@rayF4rio]

I know you are discussing Shimano,. However, on my Sram Red AXS, my right (rear) lever will not allow any Free Stroke (Sram calls in Contact Point) adjustment. If I apply any FS adj to the lever, the result is draggy rear brake after riding for an hour or so (hot climate). I've read online that this may be due to swelling of the piston which then binds in the lever cylinder. I've tried all the tips you've mentioned, but the right lever has to have zero FS adj to work consistently. In fact, even when fully adjusted out, on long hot rides I can feel contact point of the lever closing up and reducing travel at the lever - just not enough to actually drag. It's frustrating, and likely only solved by investing in the knew Red levers.

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

Contact Point…. A much better name for it, make more sense than Free Stroke!!!! Your frustration isn’t exclusive to SRAM, they all suffer from it. Some models, especially the cheaper/earlier ones have poor modulation, whereby the movement of the lever is equal at the pad. Later/better versions have increased modulation where the pad moves much further, and therefore lifts it well clear of the pad. All you can do is keep it all well tuned and cleaned in order to reduce the issue. My disc rubbing video may give you some tips.

[@bennp2000]

​@@ribblevalleycyclistI've just bought a used Aeroad which came with SRAM Red AXS and after I'd finished needing to persuade the saddle clamp mechanism to move I've moved straight on tov the dragging front brake which wouldn't retract properly. I opened up the lever bleed port, a few drops leaked out and the pistons will now retract further but the bite point is now back at the bars. Contact adjustment or do I need a full re bleed do you think?

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

@bennp2000 Bleed it, then you know it’s done properly. Did one yesterday, was literally a 5 minute job. Link below to my video on how you do it. Remember though, your system uses different fluid and bleed port connectors, but the principle is the same: kzbin.info/www/bejne/m3jGnZSsqdCif8k

[@bennp2000]

@@ribblevalleycyclist it was the absence of DOT in my tool cabinet that stopped me and an impending extended work trip to Adelaide in a week! Do you have a video for sorting out a SRAM Red AXS front mech? That thing likes to throw the chain for fun...

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

@bennp2000 @bennp2000 Don’t have anything on SRAM front mech, don’t see many of them. Front dropping is not always the mech though, sometimes it’s the design/shape/size of the frame. Had a Shimano one once on an extra small frame that kept doing it, even after replacing the whole mech. Had to fit a chain catcher in the end…. Felt like I was bodging the job 😕

[@jc10747]

What about lateral movement of the gear shifting? Getting tired of having to move my wrist to extreme positions just to shift gears….albeit I’m using cable 105 and Ultegra.

[@sbccbc7471]

There's no way to adjust that. Single-click shifts on the most recent STI levers don't have a lot of throw as far as I remember.

[@WowRixter]

When bleeding my brakes, I’ve been told that I should unwind the reach so that when I squeeze the lever I’m pumping and getting the maximum amount of brake fluid in the master cylinder. Is that true or any I wasting my time?

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

Hi, Adjusting the reach adjusts the position of the whole hydraulic mechanism, so won’t have an affect. If you imagined it the other way, if they were correct, applying positive reach would therefore apply the brake.

[@WowRixter]

@@ribblevalleycyclist very true. Thanks

[@boc-tonysyklist2145]

Wish I had seen this video some weeks ago. I bled my brakes myself (done it successfully before) and it did´t work. Had to leave my bike at a LBS. They probably just did what you did here.

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

It's a video I've been meaning to do for ages...... Finally got it knocked out. It's one of those annoying little things, that not everyone knows about!

[@goixiz]

does sram have this feature ?

[@gmivisualsjason3729]

Bloody brilliant..... Free stroke is what I'd like. But I'm 105 😢

[@JibbaJabber]

Can probably fudge (adjust) freestroke by manually increasing/decreasing the brake pad gap and then bleeding. It can be tricky to get right, but it should work if you get the spacing (spacer) right.

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

It does help. However, a well maintained 105 system works very well. I still use 105 7000, and it's great.

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

Good suggestion. Some also apply a small amount of pressure to the fluid via the bleed syringe before closing the bleed nipple off.

[@gmivisualsjason3729]

@@ribblevalleycyclist Agree completely.....

[@gmivisualsjason3729]

@@ribblevalleycyclist perhaps subject for your next video 😁😁😁😁

[@TheOrgil220]

I'm guessing freestroke doesn't work on rim brake?

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

You have the barrel adjuster on rim brakes, has the same effect.

[@MagicshineLights]

🙌🙌🙌

[@robertlorey4605]

I have both Problems at the same time

[@ribblevalleycyclist]

Get them bled first, then check the lever setup 👍

[@RICHARD.WRIGHT1]

Both 105 and Ultegra offer levers for people with smaller hands, thus offering more reach adjustment on the levers. upto 15mm on the 105. BL-R7020/7025 ecc BL-R8020 bla bla bla.....

[@D52318]

The Free Stroke adjustment screw is super fiddly and hard to access and see on my Dura Ace 9270 levers and a pain to use. I prefer this method kzbin.info/www/bejne/qpmqc4qem66UeJo. I find a single pump of the lever gets my free stroke to just how I like it after a pad change or bleed.

[@BenDhover7]

ummm i just brought a new Sram 12spd shifter yesterday because of this. Then this video pops up 🫣