Earl's Brake Line Thread

[Gorminrider]

well done, Nessism..! nice and clear pix. I made a pdf out of the thread! (..anyone else wants to, try Flashpeak Slimjet which does a pretty good job of saving pages this way)

 

[bwringer]

One thing to mention -- if you are anywhere near Indianapolis, you can walk right in to the Earl's store in Speedway a few blocks from the track (the shop address is Gasoline Alley!) and buy off the shelf. An extremely cool place with all kinds of motorsports stuff. Their prices are quite reasonable as well. I always end up buying a few bags of Ty-Rap brand zip ties -- Ty-Raps are MUCH higher quality than the junk you get in hardware stores, and their prices for genuine Ty-Raps are the best I've seen.

They don't have online ordering, and the store is only open 8-5 Monday-Friday. No weekend hours. On race weekends they have people running back and forth to the track as needed but they're not open to the public.

http://www.earlsindy.com/

 

[srsupertrap]

Thanks Ed for putting this tutorial together & sharing with the us. I will reference back to this in the future.

 

[Kiwi Canuck]

Awesome, thanks Ed for the write up and tutorial.

I have used the "other brand" and have had issues with them being too long and making them not sit right.

This solution should work well, the only concern I have would be the fact that you need to cut the coloured jacket back so that it's exposed when installed.

I'll certainly try this product on my next build but will need to use heat shrink and would be interested if the stock wear protector springs would fit without looking funny on a slimmer hose.

David.

 

[jdion81]

I'm wondering if their prices went up recently. I'm at $107 just for 8' of line and the straight non adjustable ends, no crush washers or olives. BTW, do you know if the ends come with the olives? I'm figuring you need to buy them separately based on the line you get. I'll probably end up calling to verify before I order.

 

[Nessism]

The olives come with the hose ends. It's a good idea to have one spare though just in case.

 

[Sam 78 GS750]

So this is for the front... Anybody do the rear incorporating a new steel line? In the middle of doing this now, and was planning on bending a new line and putting a single flare on both ends. Still trying to figure out which ends I would need for both the hard steel line, and the flexible line to join the 2. Was planning on calling Earl's today. Already have the front lines done. I had a bunch of line and ends already on hand for that.

Anyone just eliminate the hard line in the rear, and do a single flexible line from the master cylinder to the caliper?

 

[Nessism]

Yes, eliminate the hard line and go flexi all the way.

 

[Sam 78 GS750]

Yes, eliminate the hard line and go flexi all the way.

Any special consideration needed to eliminate rubbing on the frame etc? Add any extra securing points?

 

[Chuck78]

Thanks for updating this info and posting this, Ed
! This is on my list of definite must haves, I actually have a whole pile of older stainless lines and a few used ones, and enough Earl's stuff to do my bike, but I've been lazy to swap it out...

 

[Nessism]

Any special consideration needed to eliminate rubbing on the frame etc? Add any extra securing points?

The line needs to be anchored in a couple of places to keep it from moving about. A piece of slit fuel hose or similar through the stock anchor points as a cushion works well.

 

[Sam 78 GS750]

The line needs to be anchored in a couple of places to keep it from moving about. A piece of slit fuel hose or similar through the stock anchor points as a cushion works well.

Fuel line's a great idea, much simpler than what I had in mind. I was thinking maybe a few layers of heat shrink tubing, or a plumbing washer of some sort to fill the space from the smaller diameter of the braided lines. I tend to overthink things like this sometimes.

 

[Sam 78 GS750]

Anybody have any pics of the rear done with a single braided line from MC to caliper?

 

[Allie]

Thanks for curating this info Ed! I just did a rear line for my bike, easy peasy! The brake was dragging pretty bad so I went over everything, I was suprised how little crud I got from the MC and especially the caliper. Changing the brake fluid often helps... The return port did indeed look obstructed, man is that thing tiny! I found a guitar string to work well for clearing it... I think I used a .012. I tried dissecting the old hose to see how bad it was with not much success. Maybe a hacksaw....

I did the front like 3 or so years ago, it's doing just fine.

 

[salty_monk]

In my signature... these days I use a Ninja 300 rear master cylinder. Too many rusted out stockers...

Use some automotive hose to pad it out for the stock clips. You can spiral cut it and then thread it onto the hose so it stays put...

 

[Chuck78]

Does anyone off the top of their head recall the banjo bolt thread sizes? I know different Japanese manufacturers use two different thread pitches, I believe Suzuki and Kawasaki vintage stuff were different thread pitches, but same diameter.

I am primarily interested in doing 2 full lines all the way from the master cylinder, using the popular 2-piston sliding caliper Tokico "twinpot brake mod" calipers and a Kasaki Ninja or Concours master cylinder with mirror mount (it's been so long I can't quite remember what application master I have been running for 8+ years, but it was a 2000's Kaw with threaded mirror mount).

Also, perhaps the info is in the older thread, but I recall reading about fittings for use with the twinpot brake calipers, perhaps they needed to be a different angle vs stock GS calipers?


I should add that I definitely prefer the double banjo bolt 2-line setup with full lines going from the master to each front caliper, as opposed to a junction block with 3 additional connection points (aka potential leaks) at the lower triple clamp.

I had the unfortunate experience of having a banjo bolt connection on a lower triple clamp mounted junction block come loose on me, and instantly...no brakes! Luckily it was at 25mph through a grassy camping field with no major hazards present, & I had tools & brake fluid available. The curving flex action of the lines under suspension travel is what caused the banjo bolt on one side to rotate and loosen 4 or 5 years after initial install.
A 2pc line + 1 double banjo bolt setup, either 2 full lines, or the double banjo stacked fitting on the right caliper & a 2nd hose looping from the R to the L caliper, is the more failsafe option in my humble opinion, ESPECIALLY after the leak experience which I mentioned.

 

[Nessism]

Does anyone off the top of their head recall the banjo bolt thread sizes?

Searched and found a post from bwinger where he says the banjo bolts are 10mm diameter X 1.0mm pitch

 

[bwringer]

Searched and found a post from bwinger where he says the banjo bolts are 10mm diameter X 1.0mm pitch

LOL, I was scrolling down, preparing my answer, and you beat me to it...


Yeah, the old Suzukis used M10X1.0 thread in the brake banjo bolts. Normal M10 bolts on our bikes use M10X1.25 threads. M10x1.00 is sometimes called "extra-fine"; M10x1.25 is "fine", and the standard pitch used on Asian machinery, and M10x1.50 is the standard pitch found on US and Euro stuff (can't we all just get along?).

However, other brands and modern Suzukis and aftermarket stuff often use M10X1.25 in the brake banjos, so if there's any doubt it's best to verify what you actually have in front of you before ordering stuff.

Or clean up and re-use your old banjo bolts if they're salvageable; the OEM banjos are very high quality, and there's a double in the junction block.

 

[Chuck78]

Where is everyone buying these Earl's Speedflex -3 lines and fittings from these days?

I was trying to search and find the original thread, but gave up after 45 minutes. I did however find some very negative feedback about customer service from ANPlumbing.com from a member here who had most of his order shipped out, but not items that were out of stock and backordered. Apparently they were looking into alternative sources to procure the missing pieces, but obviously should have contacted this customer/GSR member before shipping anything if parts of the DIY line kit were not currently available. Customer simply stated how he was not terribly pleased with their customer service, and thus received a barrage of nasty emails from the owner's son who runs the shop, eventually saying he was cancelling the rest of the order, and shutting down this customer's account! Nasty...

Anyhow, my wife wanted to just call up Spiegler USA 1hour from us in Dayton, Ohio, & order a custom set of Harley lines for her crashed '86 Hardley FXR dual disc conversion w/ 39mm Showa cartridge fork conversion + Suzuki SV650 calipers & EBC rotors...
They were likely to run us $245+ with 2 metric (double & single) banjo bolts and one 3/4-24 banjo bolt with brake light switch.

Ordered yesterday from AN Plumbing, got email to call them, they were out of the straight adjustable end for the master cylinder end until next week. They substituted a stainless steel version of it and are shipping out this morning.
The woman on the phone was very nice and very helpful, and like most others, I'd say this was a great transaction. Not sure what happened with that nasty exchange of emails with one GSR member who simply, justifiably stated that he was not pleased with their customer service when they did not notify him that half of his brake lines' parts were not in stock & backordered, after shipping what was in stock...
Hoping for the best in the future.

The website was not the best (has one major glitch when you click on the main menu main headers instead of the subheaders), but this was a lot better option than buying from one of the big speed shop online retailers, such as Summit or Jeg's, as all there is on the AN-Plumbing website are parts for hoses and brake lines, much more specialized and easier to navigate.

Will let you know how it goes.

 

[Chuck78]

Pardon me for asking another favor, but if anyone could point me towards the link of the original thread, I just wanted to read a few things that I recalled faintly from that, particularly about the twin pot break mod iirc the proper thread.