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HI, I am about to build up a hardtail for the winter and the next job now I have fitted the forks and headset is the internal disc hose routing for the rear brake. I have a pair of Shimano M445 disc brakes and they are currently set up for euro style. I am going to switch the hoses for uk setup and was wondering when I switch them will they be in a state to be threaded through the frame with regards to oil leakage. I have never opened disc brakes so not sure what to expect. I have a park IR-1 Kit to route the cable through with magnet, it has an adapter end that fits into the barb as I understand to make this easier. I have tried to research it and understand that I may need to get a bleed kit also as if I have to cut the hose (I will also need hose cutter) I have sets of barb/olive already?
If you’re lucky, threading the hose from back to front and trying to keep the hose vertical and the caliper lower you might get away with losing little fluid, but you won’t find out until you fit the lever. Swapping the lever over on the front shouldn’t be a problem - used to do this all the time with new bikes going from Euro to UK.
Ok, thanks for the advice. I am more confident that the swapping part will be ok and I have the park tool which i`m hoping will make it smooth ish taking it up through the frame. Can i just slide the olive off before routing it through the frame then reattach when I fit it back into the lever? I am going to try and fit the lever and caliper tomorrow, I guess if it does need bleeding I will need to get a kit sooner than later to get the job done though. I have seen the mineral oil is available on ebay but is different branded? Do I need matching oil ideally if say doing a mini bleed for instance?
The olive won't slide off because it will be deformed having been squashed around the hose. But you can squash it with pliers so it breaks off. You can refit the front without fitting a new olive and barb, but if you have a spare olive you may as well use it.
Cheap eBay bleed kit with oil will do the job.
Ok thanks for the info, I will try and remove the olive then for the rear one, will I be able to use the existing barb still on that though still? Until I try I am not sure whether I will need to bleed, I guess I can try it and then just get a bleed kit off ebay and then if need be I can do a bleed? With the oil (say a 50ml bottle) is there any issue with the brand of this as I assume on a factory fitted Shimano brake lever and caliper it is going to be the Shimano Mineral Oil, the stuff I have seen in the kits is Fast Freddy 🙂 but some of the kits do use Shimano, I guess you gonna send a sufficient amount anyway throught the brake hose to flush the existing oil through and out anyway and replace with the oil you are injecting in right?
If you want to use the same barb, you may have to try to twist the olive off rather than crushing it, as that can crush the barb too.
There's a good chance you'll be ok without a bleed. Certainly for the front. You may get a bit of air in the rear but not enough to make it unusable.
One thing to look out for, your current rear hose may not be long enough for the new frame. I went from a non internal frame to internal and it was too short so I needed a new hose 🤦
Yes, its all a bit uncertain at the moment. Good shout on the hose length too, that could really make an even bigger job and more to buy. I have done my best to calcualte it as it is a 1500 length but if it does run short then its a no go no matter how the switching and routing goes until a new hose is fitted which means doing the job in full right away.
Its the top part of the frame that looks on the tight side I guess to give a good fit with the cable running into but to send it through I am sure I will need to remove the olive as mentioned before. Thanks a lot for the help, I would have rather got some better brakes but the rotors I have also only run resin pads so in the future depending on how it runs and performs I may look at an upgragde but just want to get it up and running.
After a good go at getting the olive off first (which I had to hacksaw off) it was a no go for re inserting a new olive back over meaning its going to have to be cut off and new barb/olive installed. I was trying to avoid this as there is very little cable (its only a 1500 length piece) It would have been just ok as is but with another 2cm off I think its a no go most likely which means getting a new hose, I had hoped to take it out this week with a few days off but now its going to be on hold for a bit now.