Advice for bleeding brakes with integrated bar/stem

[skuberneter]

So after a few years, its well past time for the brakes to be bled on my road bike (I live in a very flat area, so not much braking round here ). Due to local shops being pretty backed up I was looking into doing it myself for the first time. Does anyone have tips on the best way to bleed these ultegra brakes on an integrated bar/stem? The guides all have you rotating the bar, to achieve the right angles, and clearly that wont work here. On top of that I've got a track stand, so its not _trivial_ to angle the whole bike any which way. I could try to tilt the whole stand, or take off the bar/stem and try to clamp it and rotate it like that. Any other ideas?

[dolface]

I've got a friend who throws a rope over a rafter and hoists the front end of the bike up to get his levers at the correct angle. He does it for his MTB but perhaps it could work for you?

[Mark McM]

Originally Posted by skuberneter

So after a few years, its well past time for the brakes to be bled on my road bike (I live in a very flat area, so not much braking round here ). Due to local shops being pretty backed up I was looking into doing it myself for the first time. Does anyone have tips on the best way to bleed these ultegra brakes on an integrated bar/stem? The guides all have you rotating the bar, to achieve the right angles, and clearly that wont work here. On top of that I've got a track stand, so its not _trivial_ to angle the whole bike any which way. I could try to tilt the whole stand, or take off the bar/stem and try to clamp it and rotate it like that. Any other ideas?

I assume a "track stand", you mean a work stand in which the fork tips are clamped and the bottom bracket shell rests on the stand? Is the stand height adjustable? If so, then maybe you can try this. Place a support of some kind (chair, bench, stack of bricks, etc.) in front of the stand, so that you can clamp the bike into the fork mount facing the wrong direction and rest the BB shell on the support mentioned above. Raise or lower the stand as necessary to change the angle of the bike as necessary for brake bleeding. The chair or bench or whatever the BB is resting on will probably be too wide to spin the cranks or install the rear wheel, but neither is necessary to bleed brakes.