Looking for some slim line brakes

mcbainia

Afternoon,

I'm looking for some Brake advise....I only have the one wing and run both brakes on the right side of my bar along with 1 shifter (the big ring shifter stays on the left)

At present, I have XT brakes, both mounted on the right but i'm finding it a bit difficult to operate them both at the same time for any length of time....it involves me taking my (1 good!) hand mostly away from the grip to operate both brakes and on steeper falls, it gets a bit twitchy...

The XT brakes are very bulky and cumbersome and I'm looking at replacing them with a brake that has a smaller footprint. I've had a look on line but it's hard to judge just how small these things are from photos....

Can anyone point me in the direction of a set of brakes that are small, effective and don't cost the earth ?

I noticed that some of the Hope brakes can be mounted on either left or right which is a selling point - at present, my rear brake is sitting upside down on the right side of my bar...

Also, not being an expert on the matter, can I just change out my levers and use the same calipers and tubes that I have at present or will I need to replace the whole lot ? It's all factory fitted XT brakes/tubes/calipers that i have...

I think that's enough questions for now....

Thanks in anticipation,

nicklouse

have a look at formula brakes. (their webby is down at the moment) they have a good deal on the Oros at the moment.

allthegearnoidea

not sure if it would work or not but how about something like this??
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ACOR-Carbon-Compu ... 3056060405

mounted so that you could run both levers one on top of the other, one on the bars, one on the mount meaning you could reach both levers with the one hand??

Pauls componants do what sounds idealbut! is for cable brakes,
see duplex
http://www.paulcomp.com/

02gf74

you mention calipers so that menas you have hydraulic brakes. if I understand you correctly you want to operate both brakes using one hand?

have you considered using a T-piece to connect both lines together? You would need to select brake lmaster cylinder and caliper piston diameters so that brakes are biased to the front sincem ost of the braking is done by the front caliper.

Also you would need to ensure that the brake lever travel is not excessive.

Downside of this would mean that you cannot apply one brake on its own.

mcbainia

I have previously looked at using a T-Piece to feed both lines from the one lever...Hope actually make a T-Piece to fit their brakes (apparently)

The only potential down side to this (in theory) is that the ratio would be 50-50 front/back brake and we (myself and local bike shop) weren't sure if there would be enough fluid in the reservoir to feed both brakes ? So we opted not to go down this route....

If anyone knows any more or can prove our theory wrong then please feel free to do so.

Thanks

nicklouse

one lever can be done BUT there are issues. one being when you only want to apply one brake.

now here is a nice solution using one lever to operate two masters. you can also adjust the balance buy adjusting the reach screw to a degree. (think pedal box in a Race car).


now this could be done to any brake with a split bar clamp.

nicklouse

his earlier version.

allthegearnoidea

that was my theory with the extra bar mounty bit, was thinking if it was possible to have a clamp made up that would allow it to do exactly what it does in the pictures!!

a good possiblt soloution!