Brake lines - brand preference?
 

Hi y'all,
Winter is coming and my bike needs some love. One of the things I'm going to do is put on some braided brake lines. Checking around I've noticed that Goodridge has 'Carboline' brake lines but I can't find a decent description of what they are - stainless steel? kevlar? carbo something or other? Does anyone know?

http://indysuperbike.com/customer/pr...t=29222&page=1 They are surprisingly cheap, too.

I don't think brand matters much, but maybe I'm overlooking something. Have you put on new lines and what brand did you go with? I would have simply gone with Galfer, but I ran into these Carboline thingies.

Advice/opinions are welcome.

Thanks

They are probably cheap as the fittings are made of alloy. Alloy fittings, including the banjo bolts are not recommended for road use!

Yeah, I wondered about that. Goodridge is a respectable company though, I wouldn't think that they'd produce/sell a product that was 'dangerous.' Curious that they aren't more explicit about what the lines are made of.

checkout HEL USA in FL, he makes the best to order with custom lengths and direct thread-in (no banjo on calipers) no extra charge. Spiegler stuff is pretty good. Goodridge & Galfer are mostly crap and don't use their banjo bolts. Russell was good but has gone downhill. Earl's is hard to find.

I don't recommend Galfer
 

I bought a pair of Galfer's for a racebike many years ago, and like always I was rushing to make it out to first practice but my new brake job wasn't feeling right, so I missed the first practice to re-bleed the brake lines. Two hours and two bottles of brake fluid later, I realized that BOTH brake lines were leaking through the interior hose, but the fluid was being trapped inside the plastic sleeve over the stainless steel braid so I kept pouring in new fluid and bleeding the brakes only to have them go mushy again in a couple minutes. Yeah, I should probably have found the problem sooner, but I swore I'd never buy Glafer brake lines again.

Wow, scary story. Did you let Galfer know? That's some dangerous stuff.

Spiegler

Six or seven years ago I got Goodridge Carboline brake lines for an RC51 and put them on my VTR. They are much smaller in diameter than the stock lines. I bought some cable clips from Home Depot to replace the stock clips that held the brake line to the swing arm. The stock clips were too big for the Carbolines. The improvement in brake feel was significant. I used the stock banjo bolts rather than the alloy ones that came with the kit. I haven't had any problems.