my 5 quid barginous braided hoses (for those of you who have been offering advice, thank ye all) are crap and gay.

I have concluded, 4 olives and barbs, and about 3 inches of hose later, that the hose is too small, perhaps an old style hose, which would explain the cheapness, and therefore dont fit curent shimano standards.
possibly miss sold, possibly a confusion on my end with the STUPID shimano “part numbering” system (why do parts need numbers? whats wrong with words?)
either way;
chalked down to a 20 quid mistake, bin em.

I have kept the old hoses intact (i learnt to no destroy old parts, the hard way, several years ago) and have refitted them.
back to spongey brakes, but working brakes.

question is, do i quite while im at a mere 20 quid loss.
or
persevere, and spend 20quid an end on a new setup?

(by spongy, i mean, standard XT feel, not “spongey” but im a fan of the feel of hayes, wooden)

I’d recommend a round one instead.

That spongey feel is probably more to do with effective lever ratios than the hoses that you’re using. Unless your hoses are pretty crap to start with, the biggest difference you’ll notice is probably the result of bleeding fresh uncontaminated fluid through the system.I’ve never noticed Shimano brakes to feel particularly soft unless they have air trapped in them or the calipers are misaligned.Check both pads are hitting the disc perfectly square and at exactly the same time, then(front first because it has the straightest run) level the lever, take off the cap and keep pulling the lever with a flicking action. If any bubbles come up through the fluid then air is the problem, carry on until it stops(watch out for humps in the rear hose as they can trap air pockets), hopefully you’ll end up with a solid lever.