Hydraulic Brake Compatible Drop Bar Levers?
December 3rd, 2008 by Guitar TedFrom the rumors desk we have a rumor circulating around the industry that a hydraulic brake compatible drop bar lever is in developement now. Fingers are currently pointing at SRAM as the company interested in this idea. My sources are telling me that SRAM is in cahoots with a brake designer in Taiwan and is having prototypes tested now.
Could we be seeing this with hydraulic brake guts in the future?
Why a hydraulic drop bar lever? Well, I believe there are several reasons for it. First off, there is a growing amount of interest in disc brakes for road bikes. However; currently available mechanical disc brakes are just way too heavy for most road cyclist to consider. If a hydraulic system can be developed that could approach the weight of an average road caliper, then the idea may find some merit amongst road cyclists.
Secondly, there is a growing interest in disc brakes for cyclo-cross and touring bikes. While UCI rules and field repairability may be reasons to avoid hydraulic brakes, I still think that this choice will find a home in many cyclists stables for these uses.
Finally, there is a growing interest in drop bars for off roading, be that on “monster cross” bikes or true mountain bikes. Obviously, the benefits of being able to shift and brake effectively with one lever is a great advantage over current set ups.
Certainly there will be lively debate about the merits for and against disc brakes on road bikes if these levers see the light of day. I have been told that by Interbike 2009, they will make an appearance, possibly before that. Stay tuned!
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SRAM? Bummer. That probably means Avid hardware and DOT fluid. The though of bleeding a road lever filled with DOT fluid turns me off. If someone pulls it off, I hope they use mineral oil and make it for both 9 and 10 speed.
Not to worry, Mike. If SRAM makes even a dime off this idea, the other brake manufacturers will follow right behind. Somebody has to get the ball rolling, though.
As for the idea of hydraulic drop bar brakes, it’d be a huge leap for cyclocross riders, especially since the sport is so mud-centric. For road bike, I think it’s a huge waste of time, since no disc brake set-up will ever rival the low weights of the current braking system. Add to the increased brake system weight, stronger spokes, beefed-up hubs, the rotor themselves, brass nipples (increased strength at the rim over AL).
I doubt these will ever make their way to the Tour, but for cyclocross and touring bikes, it’ll probably sell pretty well.
Nothing that I haven’t figured out already and told an engineer about. I am sure that I wasn’t the first guy to figure out how to do this. You could even run flat top levers with the drop levers for cross with my idea.
Aaron: I think a while ago the infamous Leonard Zinn wrote on Velonews about how he sees hydraulics for road racing.
I’m paraphrasing here, but he was proposing wider hubs (since the standard is so old anyway) with small rotors and calipers to match… I think his main point was to disassociate the idea of putting MTB hydro’s on road bikes. Instead more scaled down (and lighter) brakes for the needs of road riding.
Either way, should be interesting to watch.
I sure hope so!! I want discs on every new bike I build, regardless of rolling medium — dirt, pavement, grass… whatever. Bring ‘em on!
I believe it was Santana who had a remote cable-actuated (via road STI brifter) resevoir that then activated a hydraulic rear disc brake on some of their tandem models. Anyone else remember that? That’s the only place I saw it, though I’m sure someone put a couple of systems together for a drop-bar single bike.
After swapping my 29er to hydraulic and realizing how much my road BB7s suck on my CX bike, i can’t wait for this. Just hope it’s available 9-speed, or they (larger manufacturers) start making mountain 10-speed cassettes (something Santana also does -expensively).
Yes, Santana did that. And it didn’t work very well. I replaced one of those with a road BB7 and 8″ rotor on a Santana tandem over the summer. Mountain Cycle also made their Pro-Stop disc brake in the early ’90s. It was a cable actuated hydraulic caliper. IIRC, it was a closed system and the super small volume of hydraulic fluid expanded dramatically and essentially locked up the rear wheel during a long descent on the tandem I had mounted one of those brakes. The Amp/RockShox disc brakes of the mid-90s were also a cable activated hydraulic caliper.