[Closed] Hydraulic Shifting for MTB

A chap in the states tried it years ago. Scott Allen fife enterprises if I remember correctly. SAFE shifter I think they were called. Worked really well by all accounts and retro fit to existing mech and shifter. Just suffered from being too far ahead of their time.

The Acros system looks lovely but not at $1999!!!

KISS

Whats the advantage over cables? Must be heavier to have a master cylinder. slave cylinder and a tube full of fluid compared to a cable

Yep very expensive but maybe once more developed or mass produced costs could drop

I think it sounds more promising/reliable than electric shifting

I mean what's happens if you're out on the trail and your battery conks out

TandemJeremy - Member
KISS
Whats the advantage over cables? Must be heavier to have a master cylinder. slave cylinder and a tube full of fluid compared to a cable
POSTED 34 SECONDS AGO # REPORT-POST

I suppose you have a point but.....,

What was your opinion when they brought out hydro brakes

Lighter shifting, less maintenance, no more gritty cables, or linked cables. Get the price down to a few hundred quid and I'm very interested. I think a retro fit system for existing shifts and mech would increase acceptance though. As cogs and chains get more tightly packed, I can see this improving shifting accuracy an awful lot.

Easy for companies like Hope to develop as well

I've been thinking about something similar for a while for my Rohloff.
With two full length cables and a twist grip, in muddy conditions I have got to the situation where I need two hands to change gear.
I was thinking of a small hydraulic pump and reservoir on the 'bars and a small hydraulic motor on the hub.

Hope are already prototyping a remote reservoir for road sti. They just need the slave cylinder and they're laughing. I hope they're reading this.

Must be heavier to have a master cylinder. slave cylinder and a tube full of fluid compared to a cable

The link does not work for me can others see it?

http://www.acros.de/PRODUKTE/SCHALTUNG:::3_134.html

They fiddle the figures by not having a relatively heavy return spring on the mechs, and some rather nice cnc work on everything.

Whoops crap link sorry..... [url= http://www.declinemagazine.com/content.php?itemid=6026 ]TRY AGAIN[/url]

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I like. Except for the two cables per mech (what it looks like).

With a remote dropper, and a remote fork lock out, and two brakes, you're going to have 8 cables running around the bike. Just with 2x10 and a rear brake you will need 5 cables going down top tube or down tube. Think it would look kinda messy.

like. Except for the two cables per mech (what it looks like).

With a remote dropper, and a remote fork lock out, and two brakes, you're going to have 8 cables running around the bike. Just with 2x10 and a rear brake you will need 5 cables going down top tube or down tube. Think it would look kinda messy.

Internal routing..... job done!! 🙂

Or if they were really clever they could combine all the hoses so you could brake and shift at the same time or the other way round

Internal routing..... job done!!

Like the sound of that.

frankers - hydro brakes have significant functional advantages

dont see the advantage been running same cables on my bike for 2 years and never had a problem or needed to adjust more like a solution to a problem that never was

How easy is it going to be to adjust them in the arse end of nowhere when you smack the mech and bend it on a rock though? At least with cable you can usually have a play and get a few gears working alright.

Actually, as there's no return spring, if you smack it, you just position the mechs by hand and they will stay there until you move them somewhere else. Much easier than trying to finish an epic with only one gear!

Hmm, going to have to read more about this then!

I love the idea, really want this and I think it's the way forward. I just don't have that sort of cash. Couple of hundred quid over XTR components and maybe but at £2k, it's not happening for me just yet.

all they have done is buy the german company that already made them, slapped their name on and given it more press, years old this stuff

5roc or something

Good idea but I think electric offers more possibilities and weight savings. Would shat my pants if I came off and had this on my bike... would just make riding my bike too stressful, counter productive

Would shat my pants if I came off and had this on my bike... would just make riding my bike too stressful

???

I'm waiting for Bluetooth mechs controlled by a brain-ultrasound device.

Would shat my pants if I came off and had this on my bike... would just make riding my bike too stressful

Sorry that wasn't very clear... as it is £2000

More shit to go wrong, no thanks!

Less shit to go wrong. Yes please.

very bling but very costly would need to come down massively in price as I see very little advantage over a cable tbh unlike brakes which are much better as hydraulic

TandemJeremy - Member
frankers - hydro brakes have significant functional advantages

How do you know that hydraulic gears don't? Do you have any experience of both systems?

Cable shifting works perfectly well. What advantage hydraulic gives I cannot see. More complex, finer tolerances needed extra weight

hydraulics are great for transferring lots of force - hydraulic brakes make sense.

i haven't really thought about hydraulic gears, i guess maybe they'd cope with grit and water and mud a little better than cables, but at what cost? - discuss...

(and i don't just mean price)

yep - press the hydro shifter too hard and it'll push the derailleur right off the bike...

Hydro shifting has already been obsoleted by electronic. Shimano will bring their Di2 electronic shifting technology over to MTBs. Its already being used in cyclocross and appears to be plenty robust enough for off road. Shifting at the press of a button which can be placed anywhere you want, mechs that trim themselves so no need to adjust cables, sequential shifting if you want- none of that can be done with hydraulics.

I like the idea - no need for 2 cables surely as you could apply positive and negative pressure to the system? As it's not moving a massive force, the cables are unlikely to collapse...
Ican see a grip shift type shifter with a 'screw' effect on the master cylinder?

DrP

As above, I think electronic will remove any need for hydro.

Electronic , what happens when the power dies? Hydro will keep going!!

K.I.S.S

The battery for Di2 is re-chargable and one charge lasts for months. Battery life really is a non-issue.

Di2 seems to be proving very reliable and the battery lasts plenty long enough that you'd have to be pretty deliberately negligent to run out of power.

TJ - as simple as makes sense. Bet you use indexed shifters.

what about running brakes, shifters, uppy downy seatpost off 1 fluid reservoir?
would it save weight?
would heat build up in the brakes mess it up i suppose
also if you changed down a gear squeezed the brakes and raised your seatpost at the same time would the bike implode?

More importantly, has anyone noticed that you shift in both directions with the same paddle, but with pressure applied to it in slightly different ways? Surely this would lead to many shifts in the wrong direction, leading to much frustration, during a race or when generally riding hard?