How to shorten road disk brake hose?

arturo_belano

Fitting a new set of shimano hydraulic sti brakes to my cyclocross bike - the hose is a bit long out of the box for both front and back. What is the protocol for cutting them down?

The shifter end has the fitting on the reservoir itself, with one long piece of cable running from the caliper. It looks visually like I could just chop 10 cm off it, remove the metal end-fitting and press it on the new end, but I don't have a clear picture of how the fitting works as I'm used to the olives you get on MTB disks. Is this all there is to it [I'd give it a bleed afterwards just in case]?

Nick Payne

Didn't the brakes come with a spare barb and olive? The SRAM flat mount brakes I recently fitted came with spares for use when shortening the hoses.

PhilipPirrip

When I fitted a Shimano set I cut the hoses down with a Stanley blade at the caliper end, inserted the barb and new olive before tightening up and then bleeding.

The hoses are easy to cut and you can get a little jig to ensure you get a clean square cut but as long as your're careful you can cut them by eye.

cooldad

If you hold the end you're cutting upright and work quickly and carefully you probably won't need to bleed them. A second pair of hands helps.

timothyw

I don't know if it's considerably easier to bleed/replace the olives on the Shimano kit than tektro, but my advice would be to coil the hose up and cable tie it somewhere relatively out of sight and forget about it.

Save it for when they need a bleed anyway.

A messy job and not particularly easy the first time.

arturo_belano

Thanks all. The road disks come with easy-joint connections where the olive is not visible, it must be within the fitting. Given that the brakes are new I think it must be fine to just take the barb off the hose, cut, barb back in and then fit it to the lever.

pilot_pete

^ correct