Any advantage to steel braided brake lines?

[LVDell]

I am getting ready to swap out my stock calipers to big reds and though if I am in there I might as well put in the braided steel brake lines ONLY if that makes sense.

What are the PROS/CONS to this swap? Cost?

Thanks!

Dell

[Costa]

Can't speak for Braided Lines on a 996 but on my bike, braided lines do improve the feel (less 'spongy' on the brake lever) of the brakes (smaller expansion of the hoses).

This feel may not be as noticeable on a 996 - depending on how good the original lines are and how much 'feel' is transferred back to your foot through the brake system.

There is minor drawback for braided lines fitted to a normal road car though. When normal brake lines deteriorate - you can easily tell by a quick visual inspection of the lines - This prompts you to perform some maintenance on the lines etc.

When you have braided lines fitted, you cannot tell if the hoses have developed a problem/started to split etc due to the braided covering. In this case the user should be diligent in replacing the lines when appropriate. In racing this is not normally an issue as lines etc get thoroughly inspected/tested/replaced between races etc. On a street car the owner might not be as diligent and the lines may develop a minor problem over time and this may go unoticed until the problem becomes a major one.

On a bike the brake lines are fairly cheap and always easy to access/view/replace so maintence of these is not such an issue and I tend to replace these components as a matter of course rather than waiting on a failure/problem to crop up.