http://www.bikerumor.com/2016/09/28/ib16-prototype-trp-hydraulic-tt-brakes-puts-full-hydro-setup-in-easy-reach/
I’m not super familiar with hydraulic disc brakes. Is that a quick disconnect just behind the lever body? If so that seems like it would be super useful for travel.
If it is like Shimano, then it’s a “quick connect”. Its for quick assembly of the unit. The lever and caliper portions come pre-bled with hose attached and sealed with a thin barrier. You connect to two during assembly and the barrier is pierced with little to no loss of hydraulic fluid. It is not meant for disconnect and reconnecting without a re-bleed.
Ah, that makes sense. Seemed too good to be true. Thanks.
If it is like Shimano, then it’s a “quick connect”. Its for quick assembly of the unit. The lever and caliper portions come pre-bled with hose attached and sealed with a thin barrier. You connect to two during assembly and the barrier is pierced with little to no loss of hydraulic fluid. It is not meant for disconnect and reconnecting without a re-bleed.
I’d agree with that.
It’s looks to just be a joiner with a typical olive and barb at each end. If you were doing a bit of maintenance/changing setup on your bike and wanted to temporarily break a line it could be used for that provided you were careful not to lose any fluid. There is no way you’d be able to travel without it needing a bleed and probably making a mess of your bag with hydraulic fluid everywhere.
I kind of like the idea of having the brake lever slide over top of the bullhorn like this rather than plug into the end. In this case it was probably just done to house the hydraulic hardware, but I think having a brake lever with an “integrated grip” could feel a lot nicer than bar tape or grip tape.
Plus, one of the things that bugs me about my Shimano brake levers is that you have to remove the cable in order to tighten or loosen the expander plug. This kind of brake lever could just have a clap on the end like a bolt-on MTB grip.
Obviously this would only work on straight bullhorns though and even then you could have fit issues if the body of the grip is too long. Interesting idea though.
Hopefully there’s room for their road lever di2 hack.
The new Shimano Metrea brake levers from their ‘urban groupset’ are designed for bull horns, so would (theoretically) work on a tribar setup.
They haven’t been designed with aerodynamics in mind though and present a pretty chunky frontal area, I think.