The NC 750X is four years now, and it’s time to change the brake fluid. I’ve also bought a set of steel-braided brake hoses that are ready for fitting. Cost: Half a litre of Liqui Moly DOT 4 brake fluid costs 98 kroner (Euro 8,50), and the brake hoses came to around 1,700 kroner (Euro 145) including all fittings.
There are many brake hoses suppliers; I chose Spiegler brake hoses, which I have also used on previous motorbikes with good results. The set consists of two hoses for the front brake, as well as couplings between them. And the same for the rear brake. Also shims for all the couplings.
I started by removing all the necessary fairing covers, a job I don’t like. It’s all too easy to break something when you don’t know 100% how to loosen the covers. Should they just be pulled straight out, or should they also be pushed forward or backward or pressed up or down at the same time as pushing in one direction? I had to loosen the side covers on the right side so that I could get to all the couplings and connections more easily.
I started with the rear brake. Here it turned out that it was the connector between the two brake hoses that caused the biggest problem. Partly because I was trying to avoid loosening the mounting plate which secures the connector to the frame. Once I’d loosened it, I immediately had more room, making it easy to remove the old brake hoses and the old connector, and fit the new hoses and connector.
With the side covers gone, it was much easier to dismantle the connections on the front brake, and I took a picture just to be sure that I routed the new brake hoses correctly.
I had to adjust the bayonet fittings on the hoses at both the front and rear to get the hoses to form a natural curve without putting unnecessary strain on the fittings. Once everything was laid out as I wanted, I could start tightening the fasteners on the calipers, pumps and fittings. Where I could reach with a torque wrench, I tightened to 21 Nm.
Then it was just a matter of topping up the brake fluid. I chose to pump the brake fluid in from the brake calipers. It worked very well, and I only needed three pumps of the lever before I had firm brake pressure.
I was in no hurry, and I had spent a total of four hours on the job from start to finish. It could probably be done much faster. Not least if it’s an older bike where there’s only one hose per brake and no fairing covers to remove and install.
Now we are ready for new adventures!