Radiator hose cleanup

I've been wanting to get black finished hose clamps to replace the stock S/S hose clamps as I felt it would make the hose look a lot better and I was right, it does.

Although I have seen them before, I haven't been able to find any supplier yet that sells black finished S/S hose clamps so I decided to do the next best thing and paint them black.

I took all 4 of the radiator hose clamps off and painted them with a special 1200 high temp paint I have which you then back on at 600 degrees and it becomes very durable and ended up being a perfect match to the color of the hoses and it makes the clamps all but disappear. I also trimmed about 3/8” off the length of each clamp to improve their look.

Since I wanted to change the coolant I went ahead and disconnected the lower hose on each side of the steel connector tube and drained the coolant. I then painted the connector tube with the same color semi-gloss black engine enamel that I have used on most of the other parts on my bike I have painted black.

I also wanted to remove the lower silver radiator hose strap bracket, which I have always though looked pretty cheap looking so I could also paint it black, but you cannot remove it as the 6mm flange bolt that’s faces out against the inside of the frame is too long for it to be removed without dropping the oil pan.

So I applied tape to the inside of the frame and unscrewed the bolt until the head was against the frame, then I carefully took my special little hack saw blade holder and sawed the head of the bolt off and removed the bracket and the piece of screw that was left in the oil pan.

I then took another spare bolt I had and trimmed about 2mm off of its length which just allowed me to fit the bolt back up between the frame and start it back into the hole on the side of the oil pan which still allowed for plenty of thread engagement.

So I could easily install the bracket, I went ahead a did what the factory should have done and that’s slot the hole out on the bracket so that it can easily be slipped back on to the bolt.

It's amazing how much painting that silver hose strap black along with the steel hose connector and the hose clamps improved the looks of the hoses, and it's most noticeable on the left hose which now seems to blend right in with the lower frame member as your eyes are not drawn to the hose clamps and the that silver hose bracket.

Of course while I had the raditor cap off I couldn't resist removing the idiot sticker from the top of the cap and then buffing it to a nice shine to match the rest of the polished billet bits I have underneath the tank.

Those radiator hose clamps have been irritating me as well. I like what you've done to tidy up their appearance. I've been toying with the idea of using a black alloy overclamp to replace the standard ring clamp. The type of clamp which is used over the top of metal braided hoses.

I know the Bandit is a budget bike but Suzuki really let themselves down by having such cheap and nasty looking hose clamps in such highly visible areas!