I bolted on some new brakes today, everything went fine except the hoses are too long,

i’m thinking that it’ll be easier for a bike shop to do it, and wash my hands of it, (do all my other servicing)
they would presumably have to bleed the brakes aswell, something i don’t want to do!
so the question is;
how much roughly would I get charged for such a service?

i was in the same boat but tomorrow im gonna buy mineral oil some tube and grab my spanner and knife and give it a go. Shortening and bleeding then i will be able to do it myself everytime.

Give it a a go mate.

yeah i might be tempted
but at the same time if the price isn’t too much then i’ll let my lbs have the work,
yeah saw ur thread, and would need to buy kit etc and dunno if i can be bothered with it, dunno how much of a faff it would be,
not really into faffy jobs 😆

Depends on the brakes as to how tricky or otherwise it is to bleed. Never had problems with my Hopes, but some Avid and Shimano can be a pain in the butt

they are hayes el caminos,
dunno how hard or how easy they are?

im erring more towards lbs, to be honest

just wanted to know a rough price so i know im not being ripped off 😀

I shortened both of my Hope hoses yesterday and with bleeding and a bit of faffing the whole job took less than an hour.

The only consumable was a small bit of 5.1 fluid.

So, it should take your LBS Professional about the same amount of time or less.

What do they charge an hour? £40?

Take the wheels out, press the brake lever a couple of times so the pads nearly touch, pull the hoses out of the levers, chop to length, install new olive / end, stick it in the lever, tighten up lever bolt, push pads / pistons all the way back (to get rid of any little bit of air from the chopped end….and away you go. Takes about 5 minutes.

Although you might want to come up with an excuse in order to return the brakes as they are shi’ite.

To shorten and bleed, i’d be looking around the £25 mark for the pair. It’s always worth giving it a go yourself and learning something useful, it’s not particularly difficult and if something does go wrong you can always go back to plan A and visit the LBS.

Walleater,you get my tip of the day award.I’ve never thought to do that and always end up having to bleed the brakes.

My LBS standard rate for a bleed is £10 each. Add a bit of extra time and an olive or two and coatesy’s £25 looks about spot on

thanks dunno why i didnt just wait until this morning for a ring around,
instead of cluttering up the board! 🙂

anyway the cheapest place I found has been £24,
cheers then

Takes about 5 minutes.

someones telling porkies!

if your careful you won’t have to bleed the brakes after shortening the hoses…

bomberman – Member

Takes about 5 minutes.

someones telling porkies!

Well maybe 10 minutes but I guess it helps to have a workstand (I’m a mechanic…). If it takes a mechanic an hour to chop a hose, tap an end in and screw it into the lever then they need sacking!

Forgot to mention that once done, put the bike on it’s back wheel so the levers are vertical. Pump the levers. If there is significant air in the reservoir then the levers will move closer to the bar and you’ll need to bleed.

Giving the lever a gentle squeeze as you put the hose back into the lever helps avoid air bubbles too, you rarely need to bleed IME. Just don’t squeeze too hard as all the oil will piss out the reservoir!

well i took it into a lbs
after a lot of ringing around to see what the best price was and settled on somewhere that said they would do it for £24 front and rear (i stipulated that a few times)

went back in to collect the bike and the guy said that it’s £24 per end,
so it would be £50 including the olives 😮
after a nice friendly discussion he agreed to try and hide the paperwork from his boss and charge me the original amount
only fair me thinks,

not much point to this post, not even a mild rant or pearl of wisdom to share,

the end