Clarks hydraulic compression fittings - what on earth ?

BG2000

Just taken delivery of a Clarks hose kit for Hayes Stroker brakes. 2 things seem odd straight off:

1) There's only one really long hose with banjos at each end. Presumably I'm supposed to cut this to make up the front and rear ? The instructions don't mention this at all.
2) There are no compression inserts or olives, only rediculous looking contraptions with a barbed insert stuck into a long nut, which itself protrudes outward, presumably to screw into the lever. This looks totally over the top and there's no way my existing rubber nut covers will slide over these.

I then did some searching and came across the 'hose cutting and fitting' video on Clarks' website. These hose compression fittings can be seen in the video.

http://www.clarkscycles.com/index.php/h ... -to-videos

Talk about embarassing ! He twists the hose round about 5 times undoing the nut, he can't even cut the hose properly, and then on refitting he again twists the hose round many times, and has a good go at stripping the threads on the lever ! I thought Clarks were a reputable company ?

Anyway, rant over, just wondered if anyone can explain why Clarks don't just use a barbed insert and olive like everyone else. Can I just bin the ones Clarks supplied and fit normal Hayes inserts and olives ?

bikaholic

It isn't too difficult to figure out how to fit the Clark's hoses if you've seen something similar before.

They are similar to the early Hope and current Goodridge fittings, except with design flaws: hoses may be larger in diameter than the ones that they replace. This means that the fittings will be oversized too and that the plastic shroud nut cover on some levers will not fit over the Clark's shroud nut (indicating that you're meant to use the Clark's fittings naked).

Hayes fittings will work if the Clark's hose diameters are the same as that of the Hayes hoses.

stubs

That is shocking the guy in the video is a moron he cant even cut the hose straight and the hose must be like a Curly Wurly by the time he has finished twisting it.

Take the lever assembly off the bar, clamp the hose in a vice with soft jaws put fittings onto hose but dont do the compression nut up tight leave at least a couple of threads showing, this lets you twist the hose to get it fitted to bike properly. Spin the lever assembly carefully onto the hose fitting and tighten the barbed fitting (without tightening the compression fitting) into the master cylinder. Refit to bike and make sure hose is straight with no kinks or twists then nip up the compression fitting making sure the hose doesnt twist as you tighten it.

I have fitted many flexible brake pipes to cars and motor bikes with this kind of fitting, doing it the way that moron does it is totally wrong. Seriously if I saw anyone doing that to a bike of mine I would be inserting the hose into somewhere where the sun dont shine.

mrmonkfinger

BG2000 wrote:

and then on refitting he again twists the hose round many times,

"sometimes helpful to demount the lever, otherwise the hose tends to twist"

understatement!

so why didn't he demount the lever, it would have made the whole video more professional

BG2000

bikaholic wrote:

It isn't too difficult to figure out how to fit the Clark's hoses if you've seen something similar before.

They are similar to the early Hope and current Goodridge fittings, except with design flaws: hoses may be larger in diameter than the ones that they replace. This means that the fittings will be oversized too and that the plastic shroud nut cover on some levers will not fit over the Clark's shroud nut (indicating that you're meant to use the Clark's fittings naked).

Hayes fittings will work if the Clark's hose diameters are the same as that of the Hayes hoses.

Clarks must know that only their own nut covers are long enough to go over their compression nuts, so why can't they supply a couple in the hose kit ? If I do choose to install these rediculous looking lumps of chromed metal, I'll have to run them naked, as you say.

Glad to see it's not just me that thinks the video is dodgy. The other thing he could have done is not fully tighten the compression nut onto the hose so that when he screws the other end into the lever, the whole compression fitting is free to rotate, and not twist the hose round with it.

If anyone can tell me of an advantage to this Clarks fitting, I'll feel slightly better about having spent money on it - which I did because I couldn't find any other hose kit that stated compatibility with Hayes Stroker brakes (even Hayes' own kits don't list Stroker, they're all 'El Camino' or 'HFX-9' etc..)

The Rookie

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Alero-bik ... 3cc8ee4435

No idea how good they are, but just ordered a set from this company for my Shimano 'bitza' assembly (XT, saint and XTR!)