Changing Hydraulic hoses

[EdoardoBianchi]

Howdy, I'd like pimp my bike a bit and change brake hoses to white braided...is this something my LBS can do or should I find a specialist (any recommendations?)

[kosmonooit]

Bike shop might be pot luck, but any skilled bike tech should be able to do the plumbing. Where are you?

[Thug]

I bought a braided hose kit from CRC and did mine myself. Relatively easy.

[javadude]

I bought a braided hose kit from CRC and did mine myself. Relatively easy.

 

Other than the bling, was there an improvement in braking?

Edited December 27, 2011 by velo

[Thug]

Other than the bling, was there an improvement in braking?

 

I've never been in a situation where I've had brake fade from boiling fluid, so to be honest, very hard to tell if there has been has improvement or not.

 

Unless your a downhiller, I'd venture to say most people would be hard pressed to tell either way.

[kosmonooit]

I bought a braided hose kit from CRC and did mine myself. Relatively easy.

 

 

Cutting that braided hose to fit and fitting the olives/connectors can be challenging if not tricky.

[Capricorn]

I've never been in a situation where I've had brake fade from boiling fluid, so to be honest, very hard to tell if there has been has improvement or not.

 

Unless your a downhiller, I'd venture to say most people would be hard pressed to tell either way.

 

what has boiling have to do with braided hosing? The inner tubing is still some rubber compound, so the heat dissipating characteristics of normal braking hosing versus that of braided hosing is for the most part, the same.

 

If you brake drag, or have to brake often, the fluid will heat up irrespective of the type of hose. I'd hazard that if you didnt feel a difference, then either your system is perfectly bled before and after the change to braided hosing, or you still need to bleed it properly.

Braided hosing is supposed to firm up the feedback when braking, because its not supposed to expand as much as a normal brake hosing. Some say they feel the difference (firmness in the lever when braking) immediately.

[EdoardoBianchi]

Thanks for the replies. I popped into CL (Fourways) & Northcliff Cycles... They can do it but both are out of stock :/ guess I'll wait for the new year.

[The Drongo]

Cutting that braided hose to fit and fitting the olives/connectors can be challenging if not tricky.

 

Apparently finding ones way around a cycle park can also be tricky.

[kosmonooit]

Well I am generally quite a technically capable person, but did find fitting the Hope olives over the bare braiding very tricky. Probably didn't have the technique 100% since I don't do this every day.

 

You have to trim back the outer plastic which exposes the braiding. The olive is a very close fit over the braiding which tends to fray out when you try fit the olive over it. What I ended up doing (I have done his a total of 4x ) is open up the olive with a flat so there is more clearance, then push the braided under it with a much smaller flat and close up goggles so you can see what's going on. Try, and try again until you succeed.

[The Drongo]

Well I am generally quite a technically capable person.....etc,etc,etc. Try, and try again until you succeed.

 

No harm chap. I am sure you did a sterling job, and that one of your fortes is NOT getting lost.

 

My comment was largely generic.