Hello, just looking for some advice on this please. I have Shimano brakes which came with the bike I just purchased however the back break is on the right and the front on the left however I prefer them the other way round. All searches on the net have just led me to shortening the hose and you are advised that you need an olive to insert into the hose when shortened. I don’t need to shorten the hose and was wondering can I just pull it out and stick it into the other lever and bleed them then ? Any help is appreciated

just as you say really, might not even need to bleed them afterwards if you’re careful.

Perfect thanks

You shouldn’t need to bleed them, but will need new olives and inserts, the olive is essentially crushed inside the lever to stop the hose pulling from the lever.

If you remove the hose to swap the levers over they’ll need replacing.

I’ve just fitted new XT and spare olives/inserts were included.

Simple job to do.

I have happily swapped them without new olives in the past

new olives are only included for shortening the hose, they can be switched as all international bikes come with brakes that way around and it’s just a case of switching the hoses and job done, occational bleed which is a P.O.P.

I’ve swapped loads of Shimano brakes. I reckon on a 95% success rate of doing so without any bleeding and 99.9% chance of not needing new olives.

Check that left hand hose is actually long enough to reach the right hand lever….
I didn’t.
Doh!
Now I have to buy new hose before I can do this.