Electronic & Hydraulic Shifting (Di2, Ui2, customisations)

cross posting this from disc brakes thread;

for all these new integrated cockpit setups; are there any that are actually easy to disassemble the front end? I only ask as last year I bought an orucase (pre-pandemic lol) for travelling with my bike and the front end needs to be disassembled as in the picture below;

i am not super keen on getting a fully integrated cockpit (would also only ever consider with electronic shifting) but wonder if some manufacturers utilize systems which are easier/harder to work with (ie not going through the steerer etc.)

Some companies (Formula and Magura IIRC) make dry break systems for their brakes - you might be able to make one of those work on Shimano hydraulics, which would mean that you could unplug the brakes as well as the cables.

As a hydraulic service technician, I'd say that since Magura uses oil, there's no reason why those nifty little quick couplers wouldn't work in a Shimano system, except compatibility with the hose dimensions might be a headache.

Tell you what though, that's bound to catch on... And shops could upsell them with a service given they'd make future servicing cheaper.

shimano makes them too

shimano makes them too

yeah I have seen these. allows mechanics to swap right/left hand braking over easily. unsure how well they actually work though

Cool! Since when? They weren't a thing when I was a bike mechanic.

Anyone know of one that’s SRAM compatible? It seems a fit with eTap for a bike with breakaway couplings, rather than it being a pain to have hoses linking the two parts when packed down…

I was under the impression that most dry break systems like these (I think sram also had one for a while as well) were ok for splitting the hose but then the brake still required a re-bleed afterwards? I think there are some that are air-tight in order to avoid this but they end up being quite a bit bigger such as No.22 brake-break system

and SJS had one for sale which came from a motorsports manufacturer? https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/brakes/100-dry-hydraulic-coupling-fittings-no-hose-supplied/?geoc=CH.

I also remember a small taiwanese company Zeno who were developing a product called speedlink that did the same thing.

Either way I don't imagine you could squezze any of the bigger connectors into the headtube or stem of an a fully integrated cockpit.

Sram made one that I think was called 'connectamajig' but I think it was mostly use on complete builds so that bikes shops could reverse brakes depending on locality. This thread suggests that they were an OEM only part: https://bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/55567/what-are-these-connectors

Yeah when I looked at this before the connectamajig only seems to be used on dropper posts, which made me wonder whether it would work well with the constant use / modulation needed for brakes…

Maybe I’m over thinking it, I have a travel bike but then should try and avoid flights anyway given climate. Don’t pack the bike down, is the answer!

All these couplers are bulky, don't know how they could fit into an integrated bike. Also, air will get into the system.

Yeah connectamajig was used on the reverb dropper but in my experience you always had to bleed air out anyway so it was a bit pointless.

agreed. i don't think its the way to go. just wondering if any integrated/semi-integrated cockpit setups could introduce enough slack into the lines so the bike can be disassembled as above

I have OEM SRAM Rival 11 with inline connectamajigs, all the AXS stuff has them built in to the levers (not so useful for travelling). The connectors are quite big and the problem with trying to hide them in a frame or stem is the slack you would need in a hydraulic hose. It's not like a Di2 cable which you can just poke back in the hole when you're done. And the connectamajig needs 2 spanners to undo it, so no chance of doing it inside a frame.

I suspect these are hydraulic clutch line dry-breaks.

I think as more and more and more bikes get fully integrated everything, right down to the budget spectrum of bikes, bike boxes/bags will adapt more so that the integrated bar/stem need not be removed a la the Scion Aerocomfort 3, rather than bike manufacturers make bikes easier to disassemble. I know it looks clean up front but I can't even imagine trying to work on a hydraulic integrated everything bike as a 'home mechanic' now. Would properly infuriate me.

Used for brakes on competition cars too. Endurance race cars tend to have dry-break couplings in the brake lines so that if the team has to replace a corner of the car (i.e. suspension, upright, hub and brakes) they can just remove the old one, attach the new one which is already pre-bled, and off you go. Saves having to remove the caliper before switching out the suspension and then refit it once the new suspension's in place.

Audi definitely used them on a lot of fluid lines when they had their incrediballs system for replacing the whole of the back end of the car in a few minutes at Le Mans.

thank you but that DOESN'T help the fact that i spent £500 on a bag last year that I am yet to use and may well be redundant in a few years lol

thankfully the smart people at Giant realise how much of a farce fully integrated cockpits are and the 2022 TCRs still have cables flailing in the air....

Integrated seatposts are totally not farcical tho lol

I know swed I just thought I’d let you know my thoughts on where the bag industry is heading to accommodate modern bikes 🥲

@PhilDAS unless you’re smol like me and can get away with an ISP and still fit it in a bag 🤓

Tell me about it. Bought a bike box Alan a few years ago but now have an Mtb that won’t fit into it.

Speaking of the parts shortage, it remains just about possible to source a full AXS groupset. This took me about a fortnight:

Should add: charger from eBay: £30 iirc

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tweeks has rival axs in stock?!

They did a fortnight ago, at least…

ETA for everyone is sept 2022, any other date I'd assume fake