SANGER_A2
Super Member
I bought and fitted these ages ago. I also posted about them being rusty ages ago here. This is the background to my shiny new brake lines:-
Basically, I wanted to improve my braking. Especially my front. When I bought the bike it was amazing, then I adjusted the angle of the lines when changing my bars & got some air in the system. After rebleeding about 3 times using various methods & it still not being good enough I thought I'd buy some braided lines to help sharpen it up a bit.
Okay then, that seems easy enough right? Loads of people make them for our bikes. WRONG! I have ABS! I love it, but it then limits me to having lines custom made or the only manufacturer that seem to make them - Galfer. The part numbers are FK403C640R and FK403C640R by the way. I searched around the net and found about two sellers in the US that sell them. That was all! Problem is I live in the UK. So I just searched for Galfer lines and found that Calsport were a distributor. I had bought my Hyperpro lowering springs from them (most of you will remember my post about them, but if you can't remember, check my site link below).
I'd had good experiences with Calsport ordering something specialised for my bike & having to contact them about the springs. If I ever bite the bullet and buy some ASVs instead of my cheapie chinese levers I'll probably buy from them too. So after several emails to Jamie there I found that they could get them sent over specially for me. Awww! It took months - unlike the Hyperpro springs that were sent the next day. Obviously hard to get! Anyway, after I paid my £90, I waited around and finally the day arrived when they were delivered.
When I got them I was a bit disappointed at first, they were so tiny! Then I realised that is because the ABS system uses metal tubes for part of the system. You will be able to see pics of this when I post up pics of the lines proper. Probably tomorrow. The main problem with buying these ABS lines is that one end is a banjo fitting to go to the calipers & the other uses some special connector to join to these metal pipe things. That's the expensive and hard to find bit.
The fitting wasn't too bad. I didn't need the Haynes manual or the instructions. There were two issues that I had to solve. The first is that the stock bolts on the ABS brake line connectors are like the rest of the stock bolts - as strong as butter. The spanner just rounded them. I had to use locking pliers. That worked fine.
The second issue was bleeding the brakes well enough to get all of the air out of them so they were firm. They're still not great, but I found that the best results were found when I bled with the engine running now. It's probably just an ABS thing. A neighbour suggested it after seeing me go though loads of brake fluid and I was surprised to find it actually worked!
I bled the manual way. By using just a normal tube on the bleed nipple, pulling the brake lever in and holding it and then loosing and tightening the bleed nipple. I also spent quite a lot of time banging the different parts of the brake system with the rubber end of a screw-driver to get all the bubbles to go up and through the master reservoir.
Luckily, the braided lines gave me more free space on the handlebars - especially after I routed them a different way to stock and I was able to use my SW-Motech 30mm Bar Risers with my Renthal High Road bars. Here you can see where the line is routed down:-
Here you can see the risers and the bars together. I have since covered the bolts with black alloy covers. I will probably paint the stock bar cover black and mount it to make it all look sexier:-
Here are the lines from a distance:-
Instead of using the stock line holder thingies, I just used loads of cable-ties and it worked brilliantly. The lines follow the stock configuration due to the ABS and go from the ABS connector down to the right caliper and then over the fender to the left:-
Here you can see the line joining up to the ABS connector:-
Here is the line where it joins up to the left caliper:-
Basically, I wanted to improve my braking. Especially my front. When I bought the bike it was amazing, then I adjusted the angle of the lines when changing my bars & got some air in the system. After rebleeding about 3 times using various methods & it still not being good enough I thought I'd buy some braided lines to help sharpen it up a bit.
Okay then, that seems easy enough right? Loads of people make them for our bikes. WRONG! I have ABS! I love it, but it then limits me to having lines custom made or the only manufacturer that seem to make them - Galfer. The part numbers are FK403C640R and FK403C640R by the way. I searched around the net and found about two sellers in the US that sell them. That was all! Problem is I live in the UK. So I just searched for Galfer lines and found that Calsport were a distributor. I had bought my Hyperpro lowering springs from them (most of you will remember my post about them, but if you can't remember, check my site link below).
I'd had good experiences with Calsport ordering something specialised for my bike & having to contact them about the springs. If I ever bite the bullet and buy some ASVs instead of my cheapie chinese levers I'll probably buy from them too. So after several emails to Jamie there I found that they could get them sent over specially for me. Awww! It took months - unlike the Hyperpro springs that were sent the next day. Obviously hard to get! Anyway, after I paid my £90, I waited around and finally the day arrived when they were delivered.
When I got them I was a bit disappointed at first, they were so tiny! Then I realised that is because the ABS system uses metal tubes for part of the system. You will be able to see pics of this when I post up pics of the lines proper. Probably tomorrow. The main problem with buying these ABS lines is that one end is a banjo fitting to go to the calipers & the other uses some special connector to join to these metal pipe things. That's the expensive and hard to find bit.
The fitting wasn't too bad. I didn't need the Haynes manual or the instructions. There were two issues that I had to solve. The first is that the stock bolts on the ABS brake line connectors are like the rest of the stock bolts - as strong as butter. The spanner just rounded them. I had to use locking pliers. That worked fine.
The second issue was bleeding the brakes well enough to get all of the air out of them so they were firm. They're still not great, but I found that the best results were found when I bled with the engine running now. It's probably just an ABS thing. A neighbour suggested it after seeing me go though loads of brake fluid and I was surprised to find it actually worked!
I bled the manual way. By using just a normal tube on the bleed nipple, pulling the brake lever in and holding it and then loosing and tightening the bleed nipple. I also spent quite a lot of time banging the different parts of the brake system with the rubber end of a screw-driver to get all the bubbles to go up and through the master reservoir.
Luckily, the braided lines gave me more free space on the handlebars - especially after I routed them a different way to stock and I was able to use my SW-Motech 30mm Bar Risers with my Renthal High Road bars. Here you can see where the line is routed down:-
Here you can see the risers and the bars together. I have since covered the bolts with black alloy covers. I will probably paint the stock bar cover black and mount it to make it all look sexier:-
Here are the lines from a distance:-
Instead of using the stock line holder thingies, I just used loads of cable-ties and it worked brilliantly. The lines follow the stock configuration due to the ABS and go from the ABS connector down to the right caliper and then over the fender to the left:-
Here you can see the line joining up to the ABS connector:-
Here is the line where it joins up to the left caliper:-
