...a local Honda Dealer informed me that it was not possible to add inches to the brake hose from the master cylender to the mysterious block at the other end because of the linked brake system.
...Which sounds a lot like the "because of 9/11" excuse we use for everything else.
Dealers won't say you can do anything Honda hasn't told them they can do. What they should really say is, "yes, it's possible, but it would be a custom job which we won't do and Honda wouldn't support."
A very long addition to the the brake line would cause problems, but a few inches won't. The problem will be the fittings, because neither one is something you can get off-the-shelf. The one at the top has a short metal rod sticking out that's used to keep everything properly aligned. You could
probably get away with a standard fitting since you're adding extra length (and therefore some potential slack) to the hose. The "brick" at the bottom doesn't do anything other than serving as a transition point between the flexible hose and the steel line that goes to the ABS modulator. You'll find a similar brick where the modulator line returns and transitions back onto the forks. Non-ABS bikes use the same hose arrangement but have a short steel bypass that takes the place of the modulator circuit.
There are a couple of ways you might get this done, neither of which is plug-and-play:
One is buy a brand new OEM hose, cut it, attach standard fittings to the cuts and install unions and a short extension line between them. I don't know if any of the brake line houses would do that, but you could always ask. I'd definitely want the bike in the shop with the lines off and the risers on to make everything lines up just right. Getting the lengths right is critical because having to deal with too much extra slack could mean parts of the hose hitting parts of the bike they shouldn't or the areas near the fittings getting stressed because they approach at an angle and have to bend in ways they shouldn't. The added fittings would have to be carefully positioned so they don't come into repeated contact with other parts of the bike.
Another would be to mount a
tee with one port
plugged where the original brick was and build custom lines to the master cylinder and ABS modulator with standard fittings. (Or a custom bypass line for non-ABS.) Everything I said above about building custom lines applies here, too.
--Mark
