No I am not trying to sabotage someone, Ive just never bothered trimming my brake hoses from the stock length that they came with and my rear hose has enough length for 2 bikes!!

So I have Avid elixir CR's, I have the avid bleed kit, but I dont have the tools to snip the hoses and I am also lacking in another major factor.. the bottle to do it!!,

What is the worst that can happen? The LBs wants to charge me £35 to shorten them so i thought I would have a go first. I can always stump up the £35 if I balls it up.

Any guidance on the procedure and necessary tools appreciated

I used a new stanley knife blade (won't work on braided hoses, clearly!) and ran it around the hose rather than just trying to cut straight through.

Any sharp knife will do it – I often use a very sharp wood chisel

Dont the hoses have some kind of metal interior and does a stanley go through that OK?

Just use a Stanley knife and take your time. As long as you get a nice straight cut you're fine. If you've got the avid bleed kit then it really is a piece of piss to do. If you trim at the lever end you may get away without bleeding them anyway – as long as you don't spill all the brake fluid on the floor. Go to (ahem) Bikeradar (ahem) and download their avid bleed guide as it's better than the one on the SRAM website.

I use one of these…

…not for braided hose though.

run up + samurai sword. or a stanley blade.

the best thing to cut brake hoses with is a brake hose cutter.

but a fresh, sharp as hell stanley knife works well.
nice square, clean cut.

braided hoses are have a metal jacket, but inside they are normal, and normal hoses are just fabricy kevlary stuff….

The A2Z hose cutter is only a tenner. The Avid bleed kit costs more than your LBS is charging, but I'm sure the collected wisdom here will have a cheaper option.

I just used cable cutters – worked fine.

Buy some cable cutters for about £10. You can then also use them next time you want to cut gear cables and outers

The brake fluid thats left in the syringes, can that go back in the bottle or does it get binned?

Is my best bet to trim the hose at the lever end, re-attach, then bleed, or do I bleed 1st?

Last job – bleed

I used a new stanley knife blade (won't work on braided hoses, clearly!)

it does work fine!

Buy some cable cutters for about £10.

I tried a Park cable cutter and it made a right mess of it 🙁

£35 bloody hell! Is that normal or is this LBS overcharging?

I have done it myself can't remember what I used to cut the hose, probably a knife – sure it took me less than an hour, a professional should be able to do it much quicker and there's no parts needed (maybe an olive?) so that price sounds steep. Pretty easy to do, may take a few goes, just remember to remove pads so they don't get contaminated.

remove the pads? I thought you just shoved in the red pad spacer thingy?

remove the pads? I thought you just shoved in the red pad spacer thingy?

You can do if you have one and you're neat and don't get DOT everywhere. I remove them and bung a 10mm allen key in there.

The A2Z hose cutter is only a tenner

or only a couple of quid at your local PC parts shop

is it a common thing to have to cut down hoses? the front one on my elixirs is huuuuuge!

is it a common thing to have to cut down hoses

I always cut hoses to fit rather than leaving them long

What's wrong with a sharp knife?

A disgruntled ex-wife has been known to do the job for free! 😉