Just bought some of those Shimano M775 XT brakes from Ribble cycles in their current bargain sale. All good stuff so far…

A quick question about shortening the hoses though… Will I have to buy new olives and inserts in order to shorten and then rebleed the brakes, or can I get away with what's in there already? And if I can get away with reusing those fitted already, how do I go about it?

Anyway, great product, great price, I'd just prefer it if they'd actually sent them totally unset up as I'm more than happy cutting my own hoses and bleeding my own brakes from scratch.

you can't re-use the olives.

they're about £2 per hose 'end' – you need the hollow pin aswell as the olive.

correct new olives and inserts required.

and maybe very obvious to you and the experienced but i found out the hard way that trying to bleed brakes with the calipers on the bike after that mad must get them fitted is not posssible – take them off and drop them to the floor

i'm sure someone will be along with a tip based on syringes and/or blow jobs shortly

Cheers guys, will go buy some new olives.

antigee, don't worry, been a fully paid up member of the "reverse bleed with a syringe" method for many years now. Quite simply it just works… Brake on bike, attach syringe and short section of hose to the bleed nipple on the caliper, open the bleed nipple by 90 degrees or so then squeeze the syringe until you get bubble free brake fluid in your lever reservoir (about 3 whole seconds!). Then close nipple off, fit the reservoir cap, clean it all up, pop some brake pads in and go riding…

http://cycle.shimano-eu.com/publish/content/global_cycle/en/nl/index/tech_support/tech_tips.download.-Par50rparsys-0004-downloadFile.html/Brake%20Hose%20Installation.pdf

If i pump the lever a few times (no disc in of course) can i then shorten the hose and fit it back to the lever, open the reservoir cap, push pistons back in – thus alleviating the need to bleed the brakes?