Shimano BRRS 785 hydro brakes – user impressions?

First ride today for me… Seemed dead easy to set up and bleed. Braking is great from the hoods – surprisingly so, but there seems to be so much lever throw when braking in the drops as to almost force me to change riding style. I have to get my other fingers out the way to clear the levers as they come back towards the bars. I know that I run very little pad clearance on my other road bike, preferring an almost instant contact with the rims when I touch the brakes, but I’m a little disappointed I can’t get close to replicating this. Lever throw screw is all the way in… Clumsy bleeding on my part, or something I’m going to have to learn to ride around?

Fluid needs dripping into the res once you have bled them, also bleed them with the yellow blocks in not the pads.

Bled with yellow blocks… Will try dripping a bit of oil in this evening

Right I know quite a bit about these as had the same issues on two pairs.

Unfortunately even set up and bled perfectly they do run fairly close to the bars.

Like you, I prefer instant bite with minimal lever travel.

What helps is this :

1) do a quick bleed of the lever with the reach adjustment all the way out (longest throw) and wind the pad adjust (little screw under the rubber cover at the Base of the lever) out about 3 full turns.

2) advance the pads slightly. Remove wheel and pump lever once. Check pistons extend equally and then reinstall wheel. This is temporary as the pistons will return to their “happy place”.

What really helps though is to replace the hydraulic hose to slx/xt mtb hose. This stuff is much stiffer than the stuff that comes on the oem brakes. Bh90 hose as opposed to bh59. Because the hose is stiffer, there is less modulation and the lever feel improved for me dramatically.

I had a long reply from shimano tech suggesting the above.

It’s a shame as they are amazing brakes but need a bit of fiddling to get lever where you want.

I will add the shimano tech suggested bleeding after pads installed. Again this helped (I back bled from caliper end up to lever).