stainless Steel brake lines

Does anyone know of a place to buy stainless steel brake lines? I wasn't sure if I can buy them or I must have them made.

Any information would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Mark

There are plenty of places that sell braided SS lines. store.azmusa.com/ appears to be fairly inexpensive. In addition, there are vendors selling them on Ebay for KZ1000 who you could contact about your application. From what I hear, one of the important things to be sure that they have is a plastic coating because the SS will scratch your paint and chrome.

Go to www.jpcycles.com and look for braided lines. You will have to measure the length on your rubber lines for reference. There are a couple of generic types of lines where you just thread in the fitting on the end. Your bike has 10mm fittings... you will need the banjo fittings. These are available in a wide variety of neck angles and they have some that are identical angle as what is on our bike. Make sure you buy NEW crush washers as your old washers will leak and use teflon tape... I also recommend if you want stainless, to buy the stuff clad in clear plastic so you don't abrade your paint. They also sell colored lines made out of hi-tech stuff that don't scratch and perform as well as stainless. I had some of these on a Vulcan (I used red lines).

Take your stock lines to an industrial/commercial hydraulic hose and fitting wholesaler. They make custom lines all the time. Will cost you a whole lot less than a bike shop or prefabbed kit for bikes.

Thanks for all the information. Now I have some places to start looking. I am not interested in the look of stainless, just the improved performance that I have heard you get.
I had no idea that these lines are so pricey. I have 2 sets of OEM lines, I think I will check them out and get new ones later.
Mark

Post edited by: oldcuda68, at: 2006/01/05 19:28

Here's one I think I got from Ivar:

www.cyclebrakes.com/html/custom_lines.html

... I'm just starting to gather info on this myself, and I'll be replacing my (at least front) brake lines this winter.

I'm hoping that you post your results from whomever you decide to deal with and such.

The way I'm doing it is now that I've torn apart the whole front end of the bike, I'm going to inventory, measure, and document every line and fitting and such, and then shop my requirements around.

I just can't imagine making such an important thing myself (from parts), but I'll never find a kit for a 750B. So, I'm gonna have to talk to some humans and see what can be had that is resonably close...

I like George's suggestion for plastic-coated lines, by the way....

One more thing, if you do measure yours to get the length, measure the entire hose completely to the end of each banjo fitting. I mistakenly thought the measurement point would be basically the center hole of each banjo, but if you measure this way you'll come up about 1/2" short on each end or 1" for the hose and you're all screwed.

as crazy as it may sound i found my last set i bought at a hardware store!somebody told me about this hardware store in omaha that kind of caters to dragracers(who woulda guessed?)anyway he had them hanging on a rack allready made up in differant lenghs i just bought some that were close to the lengh i needed i eliminated the splitter valve and installed a a stainless steel threaded tee in place of it and got the lines to fit it,it looks a lot cleaner than the splitter valve i think!i was doing the front brakes on that bike 75Z1(bought 9-10-01!) when they showed the first plane hit the tower in NEW YORK,i bought it to replace the first Z1 i got when i was a kid but after that i had another reason to keep it!hope this helps.goodluck,happy wrenching!

I agree biquetoast on WG's suggestion. I was shocked at the price of the lines. I may rethink this for a year or two. I will keep you all posted on my progress.

oldcuda,

The brake lines on these bikes are over 25 years old. Even if you have a factory replacement, chances are it has been sitting on the shelf for nearly that long. Would you take your chances on a 25 year old condom? It is my view that replacement of the brake lines on our bikes is a safety necessity. (I do note, however, that I have yet to find anyone who has had an old line burst during a non-competition situation, so maybe I am being a little old lady about this -- but my life does depend on the results, so I get to do that.)

I have found SS braided lines on ebay for my bikes, just by looking at all the metric bike listings, and corresponding with the sellers to determine the lengths. By doing this, I have replaced the lines on both of my current bikes for about $150. The improvement in lever and pedal firmness is dramatic, compared to the old rubber lines. They look good too, but that is less important in this situation.

I replaced the front brake line on my KZ440 with a Goodridge stainless line from Pegasus Auto Racing. It cost about $40. The factory setup on the KZ had 2 sections of brake line with a metal section between 'em, but I just replaced that whole setup with a single line. It may have needed the metal tube in the middle with rubber lines, but the single piece was fine in stainless. Braking performance was dramatically improved. (And listen to RonKZ650 about measuring: the first line I ordered was just a hair too short.)

When I got the Triumph, I didn't think I could afford stainless lines. It's got 2 calipers up front, plus 1 in the rear. The front needs 3 lines: MC to splitter, + splitter to caliper x2. That's about $100 for new front lines alone. Fortunately, I scored factory stainless lines for a Triumph Trophy for $45 shipped on eBay. I would never use used rubber lines, but used stainless lines are fine. The front brakes on the Trumpet felt great to me when I got it, but felt even better with the stainless. I also replaced my rear caliper via eBay; the replacement came with a stainless line. Like Apeman, I found out that the eBay lines would fit by asking the sellers how long the lines were.

Cheers,
-Kit

The lines I suggested are generic in nature and one of the manufacturers or the man-made material lines is Goodridge (I couldn't remember till Kit used their name). The price for a $45 stainless line will be about half that or less for the generic lines. They come in 1 inch increments from about 1 foot long to about 5 feet long (ape hangers?).