When the brake lever nearly touches the handlebar, what do I have to do to change that? I am very much a friend of short lever throw’s. Brake bleed or are the pads not close enough to the rotor? The stopping power is fine and feels linear.
I just set up Rival 1 hydro on my wife’s bike and got this issue with the rear lever, with the added annoyance that the shifter paddle sticks on the handlebar tape. Despite careful set-up. I’ll bleed the brakes again this morning and see if that sorts it. Pads not the problem on mine, they’re super close. Front lever is fine.
Marc, needs a bleed, shouldn’t have that much pull if set up properly.
How did you go?
Yep sorted it. Hit another issue though - will post in ‘almost pro bike mechanic’ thread 
Mine is back with the mechanics. I only picked it up on Saturday after all.
Took me 3 goes to get the rear bled properly on my Force 22 HRD setup. Bleed port on the rear flat mount caliper is nowhere near the highest point. Ended up tipping the bike almost upside down to get it to be the highest point. That fixed it.
^that’s good advice - it’s basically on the bottom of the caliper on mine.
Yep, thats the one, pretty much hung the bike by the front wheel, so that the hose & port point straight up
Thread revival!
Had a fair bit of slop on my rear brake lever and not much throw for feathering - pretty much all or nothing. Thought bleeding the system would help + wound the reach screw in (pointing the lever out), it did remove the slop but made the lever uncomfortable. Tried bleeding again after winding the reach screw out and now when I try to re-pressure the system from the caliper, it’s super hard to get the level to push back out. When I put the wheel back in, there was even more slop and back to no throw/feathering…
Any tips and tricks?
just FYI you can often improve the throw by doing that thing you should never do, take the wheel out and pull the lever to set the pads closer to the rotor when even multiple bleeds don’t do anything. although slop sounds like it needs more fluid n crap.
So I’ve bled the brakes a couple of times and the sensation is better, however the slop now feels like more of a mechanical issue where something’s come unhinged with the previous owner - like something which retains the lever and limits the forward movement has disconnected or broken off…
Oh that, yeah that’s a thing. Had a couple of older levers through the shop lately that have exactly that feeling. No idea if it can be fixed. Sarrry.
SRAM ® HydroR™ Lever Service
Perform this service if you have forward or backward play, or rattling in your lever.
I get the feeling I need a weekend on page 16-23 of this https://sram-cdn-pull-zone-gsdesign.netdna-ssl.com/cdn/farfuture/_4MldhWdEehFueSOZDSKDNgrkxCn4dYw2AOco-_6AxI/mtime:1501622447/sites/default/files/techdocs/gen0000000005217_hydror_rev_b.pdf
On that note how much space should be left between lever and bar?