Giant Defy

hobbo31

I'm from the UK but now live in France and have just ordered the Giant Defy with Di2 and hydraulic brakes fitted what my question is I guess that the leavers will be the opposite way around to the UK so is it easy to change them over

keef66

I suspect it will be set up the 'continental' way. I'd just get used to it. done it a few times on hired bikes and it takes a couple of minutes to get used to it.

indyjones

You can disconnect them and refit. If they are the same as the MTB you will need new olives to ensure it does not leak (though you could be lucky).

The trick is to take your brakepads off and squeeze out the pistons as far as you dare then cut the cables (carefully) and reconnect the other way around. That way when you push the pistons back in (using a plastic tyre leaver) the fluid pushes back up into the reservoir air free.

I did this with my XT brakes on my MTB and it worked great, although I did buy new olives and anti-crush spikes (they are very cheap though).

rafletcher

indyjones wrote:

You can disconnect them and refit. If they are the same as the MTB you will need new olives to ensure it does not leak (though you could be lucky).

Not quite THAT easy. Whilst you could disconnect the existing rear hose from the (in France I assume RH) lever and easily shorten it to fit the front brake with no difficulty (new olive AND hose barb recommended), to allow the current front brake lever to operate the rear brake will mean disconnecting it completely from the lever (so untaping the bars) and replacing it with a longer hose, with all the bleeding associated with a new setup. If I were you I'd just get used to it the way it is, and swap any other bikes around to match the continental set-up - which is the correct (just look how much better the cable run into the front caliper of a bike is that way round) and neatest way of cabling up.

keef66

I'm assuming you'd disconnect both the hoses at the shifter end and simply swap them over. It's still going to be a bit of a faff. They are more accessible on a MTB; on a road bike you'd need to redo part of the bar tape on each side, and you'd then have to bleed them.

You say you've just ordered the bike? Can you not contact the supplier and ask if they can set it up with RH front braking for you??

Cable run round the headtube isn't an issue for disk brakes is it??

hobbo31

Thanks for all that might just leave it and get used to it, can only pull the wrong one a few times before I learn