As I was adjusting my lap timer on the bike I noticed some cracks in the steel braiding on one of my Goodridge brake lines. Took a couple pics and sent them to Goodridge and I got a new line in less than a week (great customer service). Have any of you guys ever had this problem before with your brake lines? I thought these things last forever? Goodridge couldn't really give me an answer as to what may have caused it
I remember one time, years ago when I was doing NASA/AZRA events, my instructor looked over my car and saw my stainless steel brake lines. He told me that he never uses them because they will sometimes suddenly blow and that he will use the performance caliper and master cylinder with stock brake lines. I didn't think too much about it then. I now race small cc 2 stroke motorcycles (NSR 150cc), and I have blown a stainless steel brake line braking in a straight before a corner. It was scary! I also own a street bike (CPI 250cc), and just 6 months ago I was coming to a stop light and booom, my front stainless steel line popped!! That caught me off guard. I did some research and found that I'm not the only one this has happened too. I now inspect my brake lines thoroughly and if there are any cracks I replace it.
Braided stainless steel brake lines were only recently permitted for use on motor vehicles by FMVSS code, because of their limited life span in applications where they are subjected to repeated flexing. Your SS brake lines DO HAVE a finite life span, the actual life being determined by the amount of flex and overall span. A lot of BMW riders are discovering this, because braided stainless line kits became available for the old Airhead boxers back in the early 80's, and many guys have been continually running the same bike since then. Failures happen, though I would not call them frequent. Remember that there is a plastic hose inside a braided stainless line, and that when you put metal against plastic they bend at different rates and can suffer invisible abrasion. I change mine every five years. By then they have started looking a little shabby anyhow. Another thing to remember is to be careful to prevent an un-coated stainless hose rub against a wiring harness. The hose will chew through the harness until it finds a hot wire, then the current will short through the brake line, heating the line and causing a simultaneous brake failure and electrical fire. Spiegler sells COATED lines, which are non-abrasive to surrounding parts.
It's the same thing as the weakest link in a chain. Steel breaks. Braiding the stands together makes the whole brake line less likely to fail, but all it takes is a couple of the strands to let go for your brakes to break.
I never knew it could be a problem. I assumed that when a product has a lifetime warranty they would last forever, but you know what they say about those who assume. Ill have to start checking the lines every now and then because if one were to blow on the track the outcome wouldn't be too good.
the cracking happened in like 2 weeks with my galfer lines which also rusted after. I then bought Spieglers and have been good since.
I had a set of braided lines blow out on me going into 1 at Barber, it blew out just above the connector going into the caliper. A wicked ride from hell, pavement, grass, pavement, grass, kitty litter, grass, arrmco, grass. It just seemed to go on forever. I had bought the bike used and don't have any idea as to why it blew.
You got a good result. We ran a story on braided stainless lines that broke one time and some marketing guys from the manufacturer called up, said it couldn't possible have happened, demanded a retraction and threatened to sue us. Told them to GFY and never heard back from them. Meanwhile, their customer service department had already sent a call tag for the bad lines and issued free replacements...
