Brake hose advice needed – 2cm short!

Hi everyone,

Right, so I have recently upgraded my entire bike (including extra fork travel). And my front brake hose is literally 2cm to short, they fit but there just a tad tight and hug the fork stantion. They are goodridge hoses which cost £25ish new so its just a bit of a waste to buy new ones

Is there any way to get a little extra length? not sure if theres something i could do on the level and caliper to gain a few cm’s

Thanks!

Chop 2cm off either side of your bars.

Longer hose. That’s it if you want to concentrate on the brakes. You haven’t by any chance got an extra 2cm or so of travel have you? Would swapping your brakes over make the right difference? It might make for exciting riding though.
You could drop the stem?

‘shorten the bars’ very good thinking daveyboywonder. It might even start the next “narrow bars” fashion.

you can re-use the fittings on goodridge hoses, and the hose itself (ie not the whole kit) is £8 for a metre at CRC. (or £6.39 for pink!)

move the brakes further inboard?

Flip and slam your stem?

If you reduce the pressure in your front tyre it will have the effect of lowering the bars, you won’t gain a full 2cm just at the bottom but if you could lose 1cm all round that would total 2cm as you’d lose 1cm from the top and 1cm from the bottom.

With the bars being 2cm lower this will have the effect of lowering the bars by 2cm and make up for the hose length shortfall…….probably 😉

/\ I SO love that 😆

The hose would make a more direct, and therefore shorter, routing if you pass it through the spokes of the front wheel. That will assist with the braking too.

haha lower the tyre pressure…………

Ye moving the levers inboard would help, im at the limit though! (ie two finger braking). Im thinking lower the stem……..

shorter travel forks 140 – 120

Larger rotors – so moving the calliper closer to the bars

Swap your levers around.Front on the right as it’s a more direct line to the caliper.
Can I sign your cast?

Stuf – I am still rocking 160’s, i thought larger rotor’s would make need for a longer hose? doesnt it move the caliper horizontally, closer toward the cranks?

Swapping levers around! Never thought of that! hmmmm would take some getting used to…….

Video the first ride and we’ll split the £250 you’ve been framed money.

I’ve got some spare braided hose…. I’ll measure it for you…. how long a piece do you need?

Scape goat – I can check later and let you know! cheers

Letting all the air out of the fork should do it ! 🙂

I’ve got two pieces of Clarkes silver braided from a bit of a disaster, one piece is 75cm and the other is 155cm.

However, if you are currently two-finger braking you could move the levers inboard another centimetre….. have you already got them onboard of the shifter? Are the calipers inline connectors or banjos?

As said above, just fit a new bit of hose with the old fittings. About eight quid.

I will measure up tonight Scapegoat and let you know. I really wanted to get around replacing the hose as the goodridge hose’s are so sweet.

Inline connectors or banjo’s? I have no idea, how could i find that out?

Goodridge hose is about eight pound per metre. One metre is ample for most front brakes. You reuse the fittings. Little pot of brake fluid from halfords and the whole job is about a tenner.

salome33 As Onzadog says, there’s no way round buying and fitting a longer piece of hose. The question is simply whether you buy Goodridge or my spare Clarkes. It looks pretty similar, and Clarkes retails from a bike shop at £6 a metre. The fittings are reusable.

What make and model brakes are they? Some brands come with inline connectors which can’t be tweaked to find a more direct route, whereas banjo connectors can be.
The connector in this photo is inline, ie screws straight into the caliper body. A banjo connector looks like a banjo, and can be loopsened and rotated to better suit hose routing.

cheers for this info guys.

I have Shimano SLX’s and pretty sure they are inline connecters!

there are a number of ways to get the slack, like lower the stem etc.

Just was seeing if theres any kind of connecter which would go between the caliper and the hose to buy a couple of cm’s!

But im just gonna buy some new good ridge hose i think!