Braided Hoses

Braided brake hoses - any recommendations? Anywhere particularly cheap/good?
There seems to be plenty of scope for a shop to screw up by sending
the wrong length with the wrong angled fittings.

 

Goodridge.

I had some for the 9R made up at the Ally Pally Show a few years back
but you can buy them as a ready-made kit:

http://www.motorcycle-road-and-race.co.uk/catalog/motorcycle-braided-bra
ke-hoses.php

 

Seconded. I know it's not a bike (no, really) but I got a set for my
series Land Rover. Perfect fit straight from the box, good quality,
very well made. I forget his name, but the guy on the end of the
phone at Goodridge is really helpful too and knows his product
backwards. Recommended.

 

160 quid for a set for the Turbo - f*cking hell!

*thinks* That's 5 hoses as opposed to the usual 3, so about 30 quid per
hose, the last set I bought was about 45 quid for all 3 (and it was only
about 3 years ago)

 

Thirded.

Goodridge, HEL, even M&P own brand have been fitted to various bikes of mine
over the years.

As soon as someone comes up with a kit for the 650A, I'll be fitting some. I
put them in order of personal preference. I couldn't tell the difference in
braking performance between the brands as they have been on different
bikes, but something about the Goodridge and HEL kits strikes a chord with
me. Dunno what it is but I'm so fucking stubborn I'll stick with the above.

Also worth looking at Venhill Engineering.

 

Thanks for all the advice. It looks like Goodridge is the one to go for
but on the other hand HEL is available in more colours.

 

<fx: narrows eyes>

what's wrong with stainless?

Not another one coming out, is it?

 

Depending on if you can be arsed to do a bit of 'messing about', you will
probably have a hydrolic workshop somewhere about that will easily make up
any hose you like - and generally at a fraction of the cost. But if you
want multicoloured ones, and don't want to tale off the old ones so that
they can measure them up at the shop, buy a kit.

Simon.

 

Don't go for the coloured anodised alloy unions though, eh?

 

Let me know the length needed and we may have a set of front hoses (2)
sitting in the garage which are looking for a new home.

They're gay as **** pink and came off Ogdens 7R but are marginally too
short to fit Adies 9R.

 

Nothing that a black aerosol won't fix.
--
Dave
GS850x2 XS650 SE6a

Teach a man to fish and he and his pikey mates will have the
river cleaned out in a day.

 

Thanks for the offer but they may be a little too pink for my taste.
You could put them on ebay.

 

So I finally got round to ordering some braided brake pipes
from B&C Express, HEL pipes in carbon-look black with black fittings.
They look very nice. Unfortunately one is almost exactly 30cm too short.
Good job I didn't remove the original before checking.

So that's a big recommendation for B&C.
Next time I'll listen to the FOAK.

 

Beware. Bleeding the brakes on the ABS model Bandit is not a simple
task. Get the manual and follow it to the letter.

 

When you say "black fittings" - these wouldn't be alloy, anodised
black, would they?

 

I'm not a metallurgist but I think they are stainless steel
with some sort of coating.
http://www.bandcexpress.co.uk/cgi-bin/bc_page.pl?cat=BR-BLINES

 

Aye, looks like it. This is a good thing, as there are ISSUES with
anodised alloy fittings - brittleness, fatigue cracking, snapping in
half under pressure - that sort of thing. Allegedly. The sort of
thing you wouldn't really want on the road in a hard braking sort of
situation, like. So I'm told.

 

Got the manual and the ABS supplement. I expected the ABS side of things to
be more complicated. Happy to report expectations dashed.

 

I'd be very surprised if this wasn't a case of 'some' alloy fittings
cracking under pressure rather than it being a case of anodised alloy
is weak iyswim. I can think of plenty of cases (1) where decent alloy
is anodised for extra strength as well as protection and no problems
occur.

(1) Everything apart from karabiners used for roped access in both
industrial and sport use is anodised. They stand up to a far higher
load in lots of different directions than a poxy brake fitting.

We anodise a lot of alloy mountings on our machining equipment to
protect it from knocks and scrapes and it gets absolutely hammered on
a daily basis.

 

May I point out that B&C Express couldn't even get it right after I sent
them the original Suzuki brake pipes to measure and copy.
Third time lucky?

So, as irony doesn't work in ukrm,
Don't buy any brake lines from B&C Express.