Cafe Racer Brake Lines
It's time to assemble brake lines for both our projects, as we couldn't get any ready kits. On the Triumph, we put a Kayaba fork, but with clip-ons and non-standard 4-piston Spiegler calipers, so the kit from the Yamaha R6 or XJR1300 couldn't fit perfectly. On the BMW, the fork was shortened and the controls were completely rebuilt on ABM adjustable clip-ons, so the ready kit couldn't fit either. The only option in this case was to make customized lines. This allowed us to measure the length, fittings angles and route the lines so that they looked nice on the fork. We were assisted by a specialist from Hel Performance, who came to the workshop and assembled the lines.
Unlike rubber hoses (with a service life of about 5–6 years), braided steel brake lines have no service life limit, and Hel Performance also gives a lifetime warranty on their kits. Plus, reinforced steel brake lines significantly shorten the braking distance. Sets of fittings and tee-joints allow you to assemble any circuit. Hel Performance hoses come with stainless steel fittings that can be bent at any convenient angle, setting the direction of the line. Hel hoses are reliably crimped on a professional machine. The design of the Hel three-groove fitting allows you to turn the fitting up to 90 degrees even after crimping — this is a very useful feature that allows you to relieve torsional stress, if it occurs.
When determining the length of the hoses, the fork must be fully extended — it is not necessary to make the hoses with extra length, this will only bring excess bends. When the circuit is parallel, the left and right hoses must be of different lengths. The hoses must not touch or rub any parts of the motorcycle, or be twisted.
Triumph SX Racer
For this cafe racer we chose the classic parallel circuit with two hoses. On the fork there are factory mounting clamps, which we used to keep the factory look. Hoses can be put through these clamps only with a nonstandard angle of fittings on calipers. There are also technological openings on the triple clamp that we used for the clamps. We lined the hoses in parallel behind the headlamp.
BMW K1100SX
It was a little more difficult to assemble hoses for the BMW. The fork has no clamp mounts, so we had to set the fittings in the direction of the hoses, so that they could not touch the fork. "Racing" zip-tie mounts would not look good on a cafe racer. We had to drill a hole on the yoke and cut the threads for the clamps; we could not do without them, otherwise the hoses would rub against the triple clamp or fork tubes.