Got a pair of the cheap HFX's from CRC, but the hoses are on the long side.

Has anyone had much success with shortening at the lever end, reusing the fitting and not needing to bleed?

Yes, no problem but in an ideal world I'd still fit a new olive unless you're in a real rush to do it.

Clickety
You will need the special Hayes hose end. It's not an olive; it's more complicated than that. CRC have them in stock and it'll make your life much easier. They form around the hose end and I wouldn't like to try to get one off.

Hayes experts recommend cutting the hose at the caliper end, and using a 8mm ring spanner to undo the fitting without rounding it. They are very soft!

will see about new fittings then, but i got the impression from the manual that the caliper end was a permanent fitting so shouldn't be cut off…

on the matter of bleeding, I can muster up my own bleed kit easily enough i think, but can anyone who has one post a photo with scale or tell me more about the fitting to plug into the reservoir?

Cheers

it's been posted before that you can use the red hose off a can of GT80/WD40 to push into the reservoir (not tried it myself).

it also been posted before for general hose shortening: remove your pads, pump the pistons out (without allowing them to pop out), remove the hose and shorten, then plug it back into the reservoir (maybe refill this, by removing the cap) then push the piston back into the calipre, this should push the air out of the top of the hose… no need to bleed!
(no idea if this will work with Hayes to be fair)

With those Hayes "end" fittings you need to make sure the hose is completely seated into the fitting before tightening it up. If it isn't then it won't grip the hose and when you try the brakes it'll pop off and spray fuild everywhere… not that I've done that of course, oh no 😉

Hayes tech guy recommended pushing it on by pushing it against the side of a bench and leaning into it – which worked for me.

thanks guy, will give a go at some point

very easy, but yes, get the new brass olive.
use a very good, sharp, blade. no need to worry about pushing pads back and forth – the olive has a barb which goes down inside the tube, so you usually have a surplus of fluid anyway.