New Brake Lines

FLCN72

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Well, I made my first foray into the world of brakes and bleeding them. I ordered from Goodridge brake lines and a Mity-Vac, so when they arrived today I dived in.

These are the double lines with a dark grey coating over stainless steel braid. Kinda looks like carbon fiber.

I'm pretty sure I did everything right. Drained the old lines and removed them. Routed the new lines so they'd have even slack for suspension movement. Tightened everything down, used the spacers as per the instructions. Hooked up the mity-vac as per instructions. Add DOT4 brake fluid. Loosen the bleeder nut and pump the mity-vac.

I know that you are supposed to know when the lines are done by watching for air bubbles. But air seeped into the hose at the bleeder nut threads, so it was hard to tell if things were properly bled. I decided to pump at a pretty good rate until there was definitly fluid coming through and then retighten the nut while there was still vaccum in the hose. Did both sides twice. I did keep fluid up top to prevent it from running out.

I have taken it for a ride and the brakes do have improved feel and power. But the difference wasn't as dramatic as I had hoped. Does this mean I still have some air in those lines despite my best efforts to prevent it? Or is the difference not quite night-and-day?
 
I don't really have anything much to add. I just noticed that I was one post away from 100. So this post makes it 100. Yay! Triple digits!

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Sometimes a tiny bubble of air gets caught up in the banjos near the master causing some squeeze. But if you are lifting the back end up under brakes, that is all you can ever hope for in terms of braking power. The steel lines give you the feel of how hard the brakes are working. That feedback is valuable to a rider to judge how much pull he has left before the brakes lock up and slide the tire. You will notice some improvement when you try braking in a turn. You will have a much better feel of what your tires are about to do to you.
 
Would one of those Russell Speed Bleeder help? Do they even work on the Busa?
 
You may want to double check them by bleeding them again. The major difference i noticed when changing over to steel lines was that there was less sponginess in the feel of the brakes.
 
You know that is a good point. I wasn't thinking about it that way until re-reading the posts above. It sounds like some people who haven't tried steel lines are getting the impression that new lines will improve the amount of braking. It doesn't. It imroves the quality of braking. It gives the rider some feedback from his/her input. Stock line are crappy for that. But stock lines will lock up the tire and you can't ask for more braking after that. Steel/Kevlar lines improve the feel between not braking and locked up.
 
Having had a chance to ride it some more. Oh, and having bleed the brakes again for good measure. I'd like to add that the brakes are better now.

The lever still moves almost as far to engage, but once the brakes start biting the "feel" is much firmer. Hard even. That lever simply cannot be pull all the way to the bars now. As I grow more accustomed to them I'm sure that I'll start to get a better sense of the feedback from the front brakes.
 
Stock brake lines are rubber so they will expand just a lil and thats not always good especially when you ride for a while and the lines warm up and they expand a lil more. Steel/Kevlar are designed not to expand as much if any at all. Thus giving you a better feel.
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