I'm relatively new to brake bleeding, but heard about the gravity bleed technique for Shimano brakes and thought I would give it a go with my brand new brakes. What a farking disaster. After completing the gravity bleed technique I was left with levers that pulled back to the bar and what I can only presume was a 50:50 mix of oil and air in the lines based on how many bubbles were coming out of the lever at the top end.
I'm now in a sunk cost scenario, where I have spent so much time doing the lever mini bleed technique trying to get the bubbles out of the system from the top that rebleeding the system would be admitting defeat and unacceptable for my delicate ego.
Retrospectively I'm thinking a gravity bleed is a great idea to flush out old fluid, but that a syringe bleed from the bottom makes more sense for a brand new set of brakes with no oil in the system. It seems like the gravity bleed technique is like trying to fill a bottle of water from the top and expect the extra air to somehow go out the bottom of the bottle, when filling from the bottom would allow the extra air to float to the top as nature and physics intended.
Am I a total numpty here?