I hate brake work – well, at least when someone brings me some neglected vehicle that hasn’t had any scheduled maintenance in ages. Any kind of brake work – whether it’s something episodic like replacing a failed brake pipe, or periodic maintenance – means bleeding the brakes.

Hah. You try turning those minuscule, 7-mm hex-head bleeder bolts after they’ve marinated in road muck for a generation. They’re made of fairly soft steel (probably so the tapered valve seat at their inside end has a chance of sealing properly against the hard, cast-iron seat inside the calliper), and that means they round off easily.

First rule: Use a ring spanner or six-point socket to break them loose.

When they do round off, the first thing most people try is to grip them with vice-grips. Nope, see above for discussion of soft steel. If you reef down enough on the vicegrips to get a good purchase, the soft steel (ditto) bolt, which is hollow, will collapse and break off clean at the surface of the calliper.

To avoid the collapse, I fill the hole in the centre of the bolt with the shank end of a twist drill, choosing one from the drill stand that just barely fills the hole. It keeps the bleeder bolt from squashing flat, and because it’s smooth, it’s easy to extricate later.