The easy joint can make the disconnection process a little easier as the connection point is more visible/accessible. ...But, how often do we really need to disconnect the lines? Rarely.

I got rid of mine when I initially installed my hydraulic levers on my new frame. Yes, you'll need to bleed the system as you are not only replacing it with a new line (with no fluid in it), but that you're inevitably adding air to the system by cutting the hose in the first place.

My Tarmac came with the exact same things, it's called a Shimano J-Kit. I don't think they're designed for repeated disconnecting/reconnecting, more just as a solution from Shimano for the bike manufacturers to easily install the components on internally-routed frames without the need to bleed the whole system again afterwards; as you can imagine that'd be a grade-A PITA for a bike manufacturer turning out thousands of bikes a week. The connectors don't have any kind of valves in there so if you disconnect and reconnect them you will introduce air into the system; you may get away with this once or twice but eventually you'll have to rebleed the system. So basically, they're a useless relic of a lazy bike builder, sitting there looking ugly and adding precious grams of weight and drag to your beautiful bike :D

I recabled mine and ditched them earlier this year for a cleaner look and it was totally worth it. I reused the run of hosing on the rear brake to recable the front and just bought one stretch of new hosing for the rear brake. Make sure you buy the right diameter hose for your levers/calipers and obviously you'll need some new barbs and olives but it's a simple enough job to do by following along with some YouTube tutorials. You will still be able to remove the fork from the frame afterwards (e.g. to change headset bearings) with the internally routed hose, it's no different to doing so with a front rim brake still attached, you just need to ensure that there's enough slack in the cable to do so, which should be fine unless you run it really tight.

Just what I thought, thanks for confirming ;-)


Just what I was planning!



Thanks, with this I am confident to go forward with my re-cabling/hosing plan!

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Great, now everything is re-hosed and looking awesome, but guess what:
When I bleed my front brake, oil starts leaking around the piston!

Rear brake no issues and I can not figure out how I might be at fault here. I didn't do anything violent to that piston. All I did was insert the bleed block...
Quite a few threads about leaky brakes out there. I guess it's beyond non-invasive fixing, so I'll try to get it replaced under warranty...

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Which calipers are you running? Do they have ceramic pistons?

I won't regale you with my dramas on that subject, because we'll be here all day and it'll make you wish you'd never touched it!

The current Ultegra BR-R8070 ones.
Pistons look white-ish, I was assuming some sort of plasic, but I guess they could be ceramic...

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I've not used the 8000-series calipers myself but yeah, that sounds exactly like the ceramic pistons in my RS785 caliper; they certainly won't be plastic because of the heat that disc-brakes generate.

I had major issues with the reverse-side (i.e. the internal, oil-facing side) of those pistons disintegrating on mine; I stripped both calipers down over the first 12 months and found all 4 pistons were severely damaged. Replaced them all and I've been a lot more careful when doing any kind maintenance with mine now. When you push back the pistons it's really important to make sure that they go back square into the caliper body and not wonky, which can damage the edges of the pistons. It's also important to make sure that everything is clean and you're not pushing dirt (e.g. on the edges of the pistons) back in to the seals etc, so always advance the pistons a couple of lever strokes first, clean everything up and then push them back. It sounds like a lot of faff but maintenance like that is only a once-per-year affair.

Ive read some reports of suspected manufacturing faults on my model (RS785) so my initial issues may have stemmed from that and this caution might be a bit over-the-top, but I'm naturally sceptical of people immediately pointing the finger at the manufacturer and think it's far more likely to be (my) user error.