(RIP) Mark H
Formerly known as Easyrider5258 (Mark)
Not all that glistens is gold it seems 
HEL Braided Hoses (warning)
- Thread starter Wolfman
- Start date
A very similar thing happened to me with hel lines on a track day on the R1, it burst where the fitting had been crimped on , not happy at all with it being on the front brake and made hell of a mess on the plastic , so changed them to goodridge didnt trust hels after that
Did you tell them? They say it's the first time it's happened
Glad you were on the track and not the road eh!As for the trust thing... I know what you mean...
forest biker
Registered user
Did you tell them? They say it's the first time it's happened
I shit myself was on the 2nd run of the day so had good speed ,hit the brakes and nothing , so yes different outcome possibly on the road
I emailed them after ringing asking for compen for damage to my fairing and money back . But in short they said they had never had it happen before !! and could have been caused by several reasons , incorrect fitting , damaged in post , incorrect fluid and pressures then went on to say they was tested to high standards and all the usual textbook stuff
Heard similar stories and had a line fail on a custom monkey bike, rear brake burst and covered the wheel starting a skid. Same "never happened before" bollocks....
I'll never touch them again EVER, stick with Goodridge...
I'll never touch them again EVER, stick with Goodridge...
Heard similar stories and had a line fail on a custom monkey bike, rear brake burst and covered the wheel starting a skid. Same "never happened before" bollocks....
I'll never touch them again EVER, stick with Goodridge...
Wish someone had told be BEFORE I got them
Never mind eh
forest biker
Registered user
Wish someone had told be BEFORE I got them
Sorry monkeyboy would have told you the experience with mine if i had spotted this thread , for some reason didnt catch my eye untill today when it came back to the top thumb2
motobiker
Registered user
I had no problems at all. HEL went out of my radar after they 1. ignored my emails. and 2. didn't answer the phone.
I wanted to contact them as I required the upper front line longer than standard. And just needed to confirm a price. that was all. Not exactly complicated.
So.. I simply ordered Goodridge online. told them the year and spec of my bike asked for stainless fittings and the upper line to be 50mm longer than stock.. waited a week or so for them to arrive.. and put them on.
They didn't ask for extra over the advertised price. And they most certainly didn't ask for the originals to be sent to them. All this.. maybe 5 years ago.
From Memory they ended up being something like 30p more than the HEL advertised price. not exactly a deal breaker.
12/99 ABS 1100.
I wanted to contact them as I required the upper front line longer than standard. And just needed to confirm a price. that was all. Not exactly complicated.
So.. I simply ordered Goodridge online. told them the year and spec of my bike asked for stainless fittings and the upper line to be 50mm longer than stock.. waited a week or so for them to arrive.. and put them on.
They didn't ask for extra over the advertised price. And they most certainly didn't ask for the originals to be sent to them. All this.. maybe 5 years ago.
From Memory they ended up being something like 30p more than the HEL advertised price. not exactly a deal breaker.
12/99 ABS 1100.
(RIP) Mark H
Formerly known as Easyrider5258 (Mark)
It's been mentioned before, but for standard fittings on your GS / RT etc I can recommend Motobins, they cost £17:00 per pipe plus vat, I have them myself, and a web search found nothing but good said about the quality, recommending only as a satisfied punter
http://www.motobins.co.uk/bmw-parts.php?model=R850 R1100 R1150
http://www.motobins.co.uk/bmw-parts.php?model=R850 R1100 R1150
Wish someone had told be BEFORE I got them
I think a few of us have just 'twigged' that HEL might have been blowing smoke up our combined arses when we have had issues, took this to smoke them out.
Worth a sticky, but probably a legal risk...
Canuck
Registered user
I've used hel several times and never any problems. The crimp (In their tedburn premises) is mechanical so my guess is that something was out of calibration or a newby working who put the bits into the machine wrong. If you ever see the amount of lines they send out a few failures amongst the thousands is, in my opinion, acceptable... unless of course it happens to be you. I'd say poor luck... I always test my lines with some very hard braking... usually from a stand still then barely moving to make sure they are fine. I don't think I'd fit lines then go race... but then again everything works well until it breaks! And I dont race.
Can't agree.
No failure of new brake line components is acceptable - it could kill people.
forest biker
Registered user
I was just typing that matt w and you beat me to it , why should the customer take the risk of testing them on the road or track ?? , they should throughly test them in the factory some how , rather than people like myself have them fitted and 6 weeks later fail on you doing a track day
Could be a temporary 'glitch' but not worth a risk!
Could we have a sticky? Could just be "there have been HEL failures reported"
Take it they are not on the vendors list!
Canuck
Registered user
Show me anything that has 100 reliablility and I'll show you how to make it fail. I believe that even the tightest tolerance in 99.99%... thats why spaceships do not have 100% reliablility. You think... what is he going on about spaceships for... well they cost an absolute fortune and are designed to not fail... but they still do. Its all about probability. You have 1000 parts with a 0.01% chance of failing and after enough tries something will go wrong. Brake lines then, not many parts to go wrong nor are they complex... but eventually something is going to go wrong. Things can and do go wrong... that's all I'm saying.
I don't own Hel nor do I have any particular financial interests there. Just saying that things can go wrong. and when they do it isn't nice but it does happen and statistically speaking it is justifiable given the 99.99% reliability of some components.
Bollocks
HEL try to tell you this is the first time they have had a problem, this is not a random 0.1% issue; but clearly a problem that occurs more frequently and is ignored by HEL.
I'm an engineer - I accept that nothing is 100% reliable.
However I do take issue with any assertion that failure of safety critical vehicle components is 'acceptable'.
From what has been described, it isn't a materials issue but a manufacturing problem. This can be addressed and is not acceptable.
All IMHO of course
forest biker
Registered user
It sounds like one of there crimping machines goes tits up every now and then , just hope you dont get the now and then set 
Read their web site...
Not exactly care into each line
They DO claim 100% reliability
They don't replace (for me anyway) blame damage, fitting or even the bloody postman! Stick it in better packaging then dickheads
Not exactly care into each line
They DO claim 100% reliability
They don't replace (for me anyway) blame damage, fitting or even the bloody postman! Stick it in better packaging then dickheads
Canuck
Registered user
I'm an engineer - I accept that nothing is 100% reliable.
However I do take issue with any assertion that failure of safety critical vehicle components is 'acceptable'.
From what has been described, it isn't a materials issue but a manufacturing problem. This can be addressed and is not acceptable.
All IMHO of course
Is it acceptable... well to the person with the lines on their bike... NO, of course not... but statistically it is due to happen at some point. Was there a manufacturing error... yes, I agree and I'd want it sorted...but you wouldn't really know it was going to go wrong until it does.
By spending a few hours in the Hel shop place I'd bet everything I had on the people working there no knowing how to build, fix or repair the machines they use. THey simply cut the lines, pick a banjo fitting.. and place all in a machine to seal.
If all one is doing is pushing buttons, and one doesn't understand how the machine actually works, and unless the machines (not sure of the correct term here but I'll try) parameters are tested regularily (to be able to guage when things are going wrong)... then something is bound to go wrong at some point. It could be the calibration is out or the device doesn't take into consideration the degredation or 'wear-out' of the squeeze bits, which over time I'm sure much wear. I have no idea how they work either... but ehy seem to get lots of numbers on the computer screen when they are making hte lines up, both during the 'pressing' phase and after they are made in the testing phase. Does one become complacent and not really look at the number... maybe... happens when doing a repetative job.
Is human error for these kinds of job acceptable... I think not... is mechanical error... well all I'm saying is that it will happen at some point.
I have no idea what the acceptable tolerances of the machines they use are...but I can bet the guys using them don't understand why/how either.
Surely as an engineer you'd have to agree that if everything you test with says that something is okay and in spec... and then it catasrophically fails with no warning... that there is/was no way to avoid said fault. Doesn't make it right... but what else could you do?
I'm curious if both guys who had failures with lines bought relatively close together and from the same production shop?
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