Brake hose reduction

insaino86

Hi recently purchased a set of Clarks S2 brakes.

The cable is too long, do I need to bleed the all of the fluid to shorten the hose or not?

The Rookie

No, but you will need to bleed them of air) after you've shortened them, you'll need a new insert and olive.

(note it's usually understood as bleed air or drain fluid)

insaino86

hi thanks for the reply. How do I bleed the aire, so i need a kit to do this?

windup

Its certainly possible to shorten Shimano hoses without any bleeding - I assume Clarks would be similar. The instructions for Shimano can be found here: http://www.shimano.com/publish/content/global_cycle/en/us/index/tech_support/tech_tips.download.-Par50rparsys-0008-downloadFile.html/02)%20Brake%20Hose%20Trimming.pdf

benpinnick

^ this. If you arent to heavy handed, you can get away without a bleed. You will need new olives and possibly barbs (if they use them) though... although I think the S2 uses a single barb thread arrangement which means you should be able to unscrew it all, pull out the hose, trim it and put it all back together without issues.

jimothy78

The Beginner wrote:

No, but you will need to bleed them of air) after you've shortened them, you'll need a new insert and olive

Mine came with a "hose shortening kit" in the box with the necessary bits and bobs. I haven't used it yet, as I decided to hold off on shortening the hose until they needed bleeding anyway.

Video for shortening (this is the Skeletal brake, but kit looks identical to me):
http://www.clarkscycles.com/dyn_data/vi ... itting.f4v

The official how-to video for bleeding is here:
http://www.clarkscycles.com/dyn_data/vi ... eeding.f4v

and a generic kit can be purchased here (clarks state DOT 4 for S2s, IIRC):
http://www.epicbleedsolutions.com/produ ... ete-kit-4/