Is braided really better?

[wmhjr]

Dan, I can tell you with 100% certainty that a good braided flex line will expand significantly less than a good rubber line, and that it is more than simply a "crutch" that "dlays catastrophic line failure". I have proven it both from a data perspective (cold hard measured data) as well as in actual use and feel.



Once again, an easy way to show this is when I switched to Progressive Machine brakes on a bike I built. I put a pressure gauge on the calipers using a rubber line and measured pressure using a stop on the lever (meaning that in each and every case the lever was being compressed to the same stop, and with the same leverage). I then swapped nothing but the single flex line, re-bleed, and tested again to the same stop. There was an almost 20% increase in line pressure at peak. Static pressure at rest was equal. The difference increased as lever force increased. It was undeniably a case where the rubber line was expanding. In each case the actual line pressure was perfectly fine. However, it meant that there was more ability to modulate with the braided line. YOU control the pressure. Not the line.

Remember that there is a VERY large difference between strength as measured by the ability to accept pressure without failing, and the resistance to expansion.