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I've only gone and cut off the old olive and barb while changing over my levers only to find I don't have a silver barb for the BH90 hose spare.
I know that they're generally referred to as non-reusable, but if I manage to cut off the old olive and cut the barb out of the hose, can I safely reuse it (it's the front brake so critical)?
Yes, as long as you don't snap or crush it. I've reused a few, and snapped a couple trying to reuse them...
I have. Crush the olive is the easiest way to remove and the I held the bit left with some pliers and burned the bit of hose of so I didn't damage the barb
Yeah, getting the barb back out is the hard bit.
Just slice the end of the hose to release the barb. Done it loads of times.
What sharkattack said.
I found easiest was to cut off just past where the inner bit of the barb goes to leave the barb and an open ended sheath, stand it on the flat bit and then run a SHARP stanley down parallel to the inner barb. Like peeling a butternut squash, IYSWIM. Then you can peel the other bit off.
I'm not quite sure how I did it bit after fruitless attempts to cut off the barb I managed to clamp the hose in a vice and pull the barb out. It looks fine.
My Wife has also popped into the bike shop close to Her work. They don't have the Shimano ones (silver for BH90) but have a Clarks equivalent which they reckon is fine.
Any preferences for either? I think I'll leave it until tomorrow morning (another quick job that's taken ages) either way as I'm meant to be resting following being knocked off the bike by a car on Friday.
I reuse barbs but I use a new olive
I'd still reuse the one you have, since you know it's right but equally it's not really critical that they be identical, the basic job is the same for all brakes, the hose is a standard size (or at least it is on every brake I've ever poked) and the unions tend to be the same size too so they're all basiclaly doing the same job. I know I have sram bits in some formula brakes, and random unknown olives that I found in the spares pile...
(easiest way is to cut along the hose with side cutters, just cut slightly offcentre- the cutters will bite the hose but slide around the barb and you end up just cutting it neatly up the side of the barb)
As above you can cut the olive and hose of to re use the insert
the hose is a standard size
Shimano have 2 different sizes of hose, BH90 is 2.1mm ID, BH59 is 2.3mm. There are also 2.5mm ID hoses, Tektro, Hayes?
I'll reuse the Shimano barb then, it looks fine.
My hoses are getting a touch short too, so I probably shouldn't have cut any off and just reinserted the hose with the old barb and olive in place. I gather from a question I asked a few days back that this is a reasonably safe approach. I assume that retightening the flare nut will squeeze the old olive into whatever shape it needs to be.