Will brake lines fail? New/leftover rubber lines?

delinking be good time to upgrade. Considering there's like two miles of brake lines on the 5th gen. redoing all the stock lines.... https://spieglerusa.com/honda-vfr-800-fi-front-rear-brake-line-kit-552.htm

 

"Are you Mr. Goodbar?"

"No baby, I go by Mr. Goodridge"

 

You'll get better braking with SS lines. The lines don't "bulge" like rubber brake hose does. You get a better feel and more instant pressure with SS. It's hard to tell unless you ride the same type of bike w/hose vs SS lines back to back. I did this with a friend of mine who also had a 83 Interceptor at the time.

We rode out together on our own bike then switched. His braking wasn't as precise as my SS lined 83 Interceptor. You could really feel the difference. He went with the SS lines after that. Otherwise I wouldn't worry about your OE lines unless they are cracking. It's up to you and how well your braking techniques/feel are.

 

I get this, but then there's loads of factors at play in braking...

Master cylinder condition
Pad type and condition
Disc type and condition
tyres
fluid condition
Caliper condition

SS won't make you brake any harder, as already mentioned. It just stiffens up the lever, I had a 90 and 93 VFR750, rode them one day at a time each to commute, earlier had SS, latter has standard lines. Nothing in it.

 

I was taking the SS performance improvements with a grain of salt. Sport biking books from years ago talked about how braking is maxed out. The forces are massive and the tire contact patch is the limiting factor. So to me it makes sense that on any given brake system, without a design change, the braking simply cannot be improved.

 

^ oh really? SMH once you get the know you know, This could be better on some bikes more or less I can get that, but not sport bikes like ours. Now had the VFR came with brakes say off the 954 maybe not alot of gains in actual braking, but even with that the SS lines made it better in how it felt, feed back is where its at.

 

Actually it will by a tad. The pressure from the mc is going to the pucks directly and energy is not being wasted in expanding the brake line hoses. Hence more pressure on the pucks. This will be in the initial application of the brakes and any modulation there after.

This is not like changing to a larger mc or a more muti puck caliper AKA brake system major upgrade. It will improve what you have by a small amount and offer a lot better modulation (feel) because of more direct pressure on the pucks. Then again you have to have a good feel for brake modulation which a lot of guys don't have. Not that one can't aquire the feel, it just takes time and practice, practice, practice.

When you're running at 80 to 120mph in corners (race track) all it takes sometimes is a nudge of the lever to get your bike to follow the line you want or the one you have to take because of whatever. Your braking will be more precise vs vague. To me that's an improvement. You don't need to be on the track to experience the difference. Just over cook a curve on the road. What do you want precise or vague braking? Again it depends on the rider. Some couldn't feel the difference if their life depended on it, which it just might.

 

The caveat associated with a set of braided lines and BTW usually printed on the container is to take it easy when the braided lines are first installed to prevent overbraking.. This sort of blows the not improved argument out of the water.

Braking by some dudes is affected by the number of hand jobs they engage in. This according to a recent study..

 

"So to me it makes sense that on any given brake system, without a design change, the braking simply cannot be improved."

It may make sense to you but it's incorrect. You may not be able to increase the power of the brakes, but you can increase feel, modulation, and needed pull, all of which improve a given brake system.

 

Grey said "You'll get better braking with SS lines." I took that to mean "shorter distance." My personal opinion is that you are truly stretching the meaning of that phrase if it can mean any aspect whatsoever of the braking system. Aren't red calipers an improvement to a given brake system? (Kind of kidding kind of not.) However, as Dennis Prager says, clarification is good. We need to be concise with our words. So at my fault, I should have replied in kind with "the braking distance cannot be shortened.."


The feel factors are not high enough on my list. I am more of a "stocker" than a "modder." If I wanted a different feel I'd buy a buy a bike with a different feel. I can work with any feel and adjust accordingly. After all this bike has a distinctly different feel from a supersport which has abrupt brakes, and I didn't want one of those.

 

"the braking distance cannot be shortened.."

Not necessarily true. If you have trouble modulating the brakes to keep the tires right at the edge of skidding, then you'll not get the best braking distance. Old spongy lines can keep you from being able to control the brakes enough to stop the bike in it's optimum distance.

But the brake lines are not going to self-destruct, so you can put that off the table. It all boils down to what you want to do. Your bike, your choice.

 

Hmmm, I wonder where this dark dirty "brake fluid contamination" is coming from....

 

Who shit in the brake fluid?