Custom brake lines?

[rgoot01]

I am in the process of trying to do something different regarding the brake lines and was wondering if anyone knows where to get braided ss lines made? I am not trying to just repleace with pre-made ss lines, what I would like is to have something made to go from the banjo on one end and a flare or AN fitting on the other if possible.

[Jamie]

Everything you ever wanted in custom lines and fittings. www.anplumbing.com

I have ordered from them and their stuff is amazing. If you're not sure, you can send them your old lines and they can tell you exactly what you need.

[natemoen]

I would suggest finding a local place that does hydraulic lines and go talk to them. They would be able to cut the lines to the lengths you want and they could put whatever sort of ends on the lines that you want as well.

[crazy steve]

Buy 'component' lines, and you can have whatever you want. Goodridge and Russell (available from J&P and Dennis Kirk, to name two brands and sellers) sell lines in various lengths with female AN fittings on their ends, then just buy a matching AN to whatever fitting for the ends. Banjos, AN to flare or pipe threads, they sell fittings for nearly any combo and any bike, and most are available in chrome. Plus you can get the lines as bare braid or covered with clear or black vinyl.

One thing I've done on other bikes (and am planning to do on my XS) is fab a steel hard line from the front master cylinder to the bottom of the forks (after setting the bars where I want them) and using these lines from the forks to the calipers. This will give you as much improvement in braking 'feel' over just SS lines as the conversion from rubber to SS lines does. Even SS lines have some 'give'...

[Jamie]

Crazy,
That's a cool idea using the "hard" lines down to the bottom of the forks, do you have any pics showing this? I would love to see that setup since I too am getting ready to change out lines.
Thanks
Jamie

[CatatonicBug]

Remember that, to be legal, brake lines must be assembled by a DOT-certified Brake like manufacturer. You can't assemble them yourself or have an "hydraulics shop" make them for you. There are TONS of places that will make them to your specifications though. You pick the ends and the line, tell them the angles, and they can put them together and test them (yes, each line MUST be tested).

[natemoen]

Remember that, to be legal, brake lines must be assembled by a DOT-certified Brake like manufacturer. You can\'t assemble them yourself or have an \"hydraulics shop\" make them for you.

There are a lot of hydraulic lines that need to be DOT certified so if you find a decent shop they will be DOT certified already and be able to do brake lines.

[natemoen]

Remember that, to be legal, brake lines must be assembled by a DOT-certified Brake like manufacturer. You can\'t assemble them yourself or have an \"hydraulics shop\" make them for you.

There are a lot of hydraulic lines that need to be DOT certified so if you find a decent shop they will be DOT certified already and be able to do brake lines.

[crazy steve]

Remember that, to be legal, brake lines must be assembled by a DOT-certified Brake like manufacturer. You can't assemble them yourself or have an "hydraulics shop" make them for you...

It's not illegal to assemble them yourself for your own use; it is illegal to sell an 'assembled' brake line to another party if you're not DOT-certified. That's why most 'hydraulic shops' won't touch brake lines. The Goodridge lines were DOT-approved last time I checked.

I built mine by scratch-building a banjo fitting from 1/2" steel, then fabbing the hard line with common 3/16" automotive tubing. I brazed the line to the banjo (and this is the method used on many factory assembies) and used a standard inverted flare on the other end. Using a inverted-flare 'splice', I then converted to a AN male to connect the line. These fittings are readily available. This was a single disc bike; for a dual-disc, you'll need a 'splitter', either scratch-built or commercially available. For the XS, I'm going to try using either an aftermarket banjo or one off a discarded OEM line, drilled to accept the line. The key here is to make sure your brazed connection is sound; silver solder will also work. DO NOT use 'regular' solder. To ensure a good joint, I drill the banjo to the OD of the tubing, then drill 1/2 of the hole depth larger to allow the metal to flow in/around the tubing. The line will break before the joint fails.

These are brake lines, so unless you're sure of your fab skills, don't try this. This isn't something you can whomp up out of scraps with a soldering iron...

I'll also clamp the line in one or two places to prevent vibration.

[Sojourner]

I'm a fan of KISS, and no, I don't mean the band...

I want to replace my OE lines with black coated braided SS lines. The "fittings" vocabulary gives me a headache. Is there a prefered vendor that just stocks pre-cut, pre-measured, drop-in replacements for a '79 XS11 Special? I want them to look as close to stock as possible (black, and no fancy anodized colors). Anyone got an online supplier, a manufacturer, and a part number?

Thanks, and sorry for the thread hijack.

[CatatonicBug]

There is an ebay seller named coastguard, and there's helusa.com, among others.

[Sojourner]

Thanks, email sent to HEL USA.

[Sojourner]

Sent an email to HEL yesterday. Thought I'd post the response in case anyone else has a '79 Special and was considering the swap...

On Oct 5, 2010, at 5:02 PM, "H-E-L USA" <SALES@H-E-LUSA.COM> wrote:

Hello,* yes we do have the specs for the 1979 Yamaha XS1100SF (which is the Special) 3-line front/1-line rear. The kit # is HBF9656*price is $196.00 free shipping in the USA you can order here by e-mail or call toll free 1-877-443-5872 8a-4p if you have any other questions, just let me know. Deb
*

[natemoen]

Ouch. That's more than I want to spend.

[crazy steve]

Ouch. That's more than I want to spend.

Yeah, that's pretty steep. I think you could do the Goodridge lines (buying the lines and banjos separately) for slightly less money. You'd lose the color options, but get polished chrome banjos instead of unpolished SS and not have any worries about the ends being 'registered' correctly.

But that's just me...