Took a while. To bloody long actually. See
. Standard required for brake lines.
The link below the paragraph is the grading of the SS, Carbourn Steel, excetera. Not that it means anything to the average guy, but it does to the quality of components used.
If the Chinese lines use the same grading in their lines they will comply with Aussie standards. Thing is who would know what they use. If they did comply who certifies it.
Aussie standard
From Federal register of regulations
brake tubing and air and vacuum hose, flexible and hydraulic power hose between the ‘Brake Power Unit 31/00’ or ‘Brake Power Unit 35/00’ and the master cylinder or its equivalent must conform to SAA, SAE, BS, JIS, DIN, ISO or ECE Standards, or FMVSS 106 Brake Hoses, specified for flexible brake hoses
https://ficientdesign.com/steel-equivalent-grades/
Couple of links from forums/blogs with discussion on brake regulation standards.
Netrider
https://netrider.net.au/threads/hydraulic-clutch-brake-lines-question-au-manufacturer.260758/
https://www.aussiefrogs.com/forum/i...es-and-adr-rules-power-steering-lines.100497/
https://www.toymods.org.au/forums/t...e-lines-some-information-regarding-legalities
An interesting reply to a Utube vide on stainless brake lines
@AHairyBiker
3 years ago
Spicy... Just watched this video... And you have "missed" quite a few things, still a good video but I thought I should add a bit of my personal experience to it.
First of all my experience. I've been riding bikes since I was 14, I'm 64 now... Fallen off at every race track you care to name except Thruxton... Pushing the limits of bikes up to 750cc in my time, don't do it now I don't repair quite as quickly. Currently ride a VFR 800F and a Black Vtec, you might have seen me on Hayling because, well I live here too. I used to do 30,000 miles a year on my bikes, that resulted in quite a few strange conversations with Insurance companies I can tell you. OK I'm an old fart.
Teacher's head on now....
When motorcycle designers set out the specifications of the bike on paper, or computer screen or whatever they use these days, they design the bike to perform a certain way, build in what they want the bike to do and unfortunately that involves compromises. The manufacturer doesn't know how large the rider will be, how heavy the rider might be, how "smooth" they might be, in fact they build them for a "rider" that fits their parameters not the buyer. I don't know what the average weight of a ride in Taiwan is, or Europe but the bikes are "universal" in design, important fact to remember.
Front suspension is "designed and built" to fit a lot of parameters. Average weight rider, average braking ability, average road conditions, what the tyres they specify for new build can achieve grip wise, wet grip etc.
So the front especially has a fair bit of "Give" in it. There is compliance built in.
Worst case scenario: Your 65-85kg novice rider doesn't have a real clue about how the braking system dynamic works, rides right up to junctions, clamps a hand around the front brake and heaves hard. In the past this might have locked the brake and sent the rider on a path set out by physics, but these days there are ABS and linked systems to try and alleviate this. And hopefully a bit of training.
Moving on. Now your rider is "enjoying the bike's performance" on a fairly narrow country road. Rider aproaches a corner, not familiar with it, clamps the brakes on, the front suspension compresses, the FLEXIBLE brake lines also flex because this was designed in, so that when the bike is being braked the whole of the braking force is being taken through a compromise spring and damping package, via a compromise tyre combination etc, the rear of the bike starts to come up, the steering trail alters etc.
Then your rider see's the "vanishing point" open up and lets the brakes off, the spring expands, the flexible brake lines allow the suspension to move smoothly through it's cycle and the rider is in some form of control.
Now. Your "Braided lines" have a very unfortunate side effect, you rightly say the flexibles will flex, this is designed in, your Brainded lines will in fact go solid and under heavy braking this introduces more resistance to the forks ability to "dive" and absorb the braking forces. In other words a spring is introduced that wasn't designed in.
This time when your rider brakes hard before his corner, see's the "vanishing point", lets the brakes off in the worst case the bike "dives" again because a spring has just been removed from the front suspension and takes longer to react. Might even rebound with a bit more energy, who knows...
The best way I can describe it is, heavy braking for, say the Bomb hole at Snetterton the bike dives, you set the apex, ease the brakes off and the front starts to react to this extra braided spring being taken out of the equation and dives a bit more, the front wheel trail increases just as you are about to lean in, then rebounds with a bit more gusto and suddenly you have lost the front... OK, worst case scenario, but it's why I ran "rubber" hoses on my track bikes, and why I run rubber hoses on my VFR's.
So... Brainded hoses might look fine, but if you ride a "trailie" stay away from them.
Standard rubber hoses it can be argued have more "feel" too. And usually they fit the hose support clips the manufacturer supplies rather than you having to find some way to hold the hoses where they can move with the wheel travel afforded by the suspension without getting caught. Using cable tidies for instance. Bad things to have around brakes those things.
Going forward, the larger area of the rubber hoses it could be argued gives more of a contact area for cooling the brake fluid too, doesn't matter so much in this country, does on race tracks though.
And lastly. If you do decide to make this change for the looks, please make sure the "hole in the middle" where the brake fluid goes through is the same diameter as the original hoses. Because if it's a larger hole, you gain lever travel, if it's smaller you lose lever travel.
The brakes can only work to the level designed, you won't make them "better" by putting braided hoses on.
I would spend the money on getting front springs installed that match the riders weight rather than making the bike look pretty. But it's not my money.
Braided hoses won't make the bike any less safe but they are a "modification" to the braking system and really you should let your insurers know they are installed.
I note you always mention you are quite a large chap height wise, and this is very useful information. Me, not so tall but probably as heavy
