Bleeding brakes for first time at weekend and was thinking if transparent cables would help in checking no bubbles left inside. I realise that you wouldnt be able to see any bubbles in the main brake (lever) body but thought it would look kind of nice! Any reason why they cant be transparent so we can see oil? Or is it a very thin tube so it wouldnt be worthwhile seeing? Just wondering

I’m sure it could be done, and may be useful for spotting air in the system … not sure aesthetically though, and would be no good for braided hoses of the likes available from Hope and Goodridge …

I’ve patented the idea if anyone is thinking about doing it btw!!

Not do-able as the hoses have to be brained with somethign, so the best you could end up with is translucent (maybe kevlar braided into a clear plastic with a PTFE liner?) but I think transparent would be impossible as it’s a composite hence has different refractive index’s?

Transparent fuel lines are handy for sorting out air lock problems with diesels.

However, I’ve only ever seen clear pipe used for low pressure applications and it seems to degrade quicker in sunlight than black pipe, so it’s not suitable for brakes.

Speaking of braided hoses 🙂 , can you bodge them to fit with standard olives and fittings ,or do you really need to buy the adaptors ?
I was given some braided hose for free at the weekend ,so was going to give it a go.

At the risk of being called pedantic, they’re hoses not cables, and are made up of several layers.

I had so been resisting posting “hoses not cables” so I am glad someone else has done it.

^^What he said^^^

The pressure would be too high under braking to have clear plastic hoses with no reinforcement.

I was resisting the obvious pedantry as well, although I can’t resist pointing out that they are translucent, not transparent.

I like the idea. If I had clear hoses and put a pinch of glitter in my brake fluid it would sparkle in the sunlight and move when I applied the brakes 🙂

I like your way of thinking Rubber Buccaneer, gold fleck would be nice, but it seems like a no-go idea, shame!

Even cooler would be coloured brake fluid.

But I can’t see why this wouldn’t/couldn’t work. Braided hose is just normal hose with a metal braiding around it to reinforce it, right? So why not make the normal hosing see through, then although you would have a diamond pattern to it, you would see through it.

But I can’t see why this wouldn’t/couldn’t work. Braided hose is just normal hose with a metal braiding around it to reinforce it, right?

Yes, but it’s like the cotton on reel rather than rope on a drum, it’s lots of very fine filaments wrapped arround the inner overlaying each other, some clockwise others anticlockwise, so the result looks like the crosshatched effect you get on a cotton reel, rather than the spiral you get winding rope onto a drum, so there should be no gaps. Its the fineness of the filaments that give it the flexibility and strength, big thick filaments would allow bigger gaps between them, but would be inflexible.