tigat

I haven't posted here for a bit - probably since the latest one-handed wonder from Trek was finished a few years ago.

y way of background, I am a one-armed rider that Trek has helped out by building several road bikes completely controlled from one side. The latest is on a Domane frame, with DuraAce di2 set up to shift synchronized. The only not off the shelf item (an original and ongoing goal of the project) is the hydraulic splitter in the down tube, with input from the right hand brake lever and outputs to both front and back disc calipers. The placement of the splitter makes bleeding the bike a serious endeavor, and it does not hold the pressure as long as a typical set-up.

I recently started thinking about building a gravel specific bike - the Domane is great on gravel but has a paint job for the ages - and discovered that the Shimano GRX series has a bar top, in line hydraulic lever designed for placement downstream from a conventional drop bar lever. I'm going to match that with a device made by a Korean company named OutBraker that takes a single feed and turns it into two lines. The usual attachment for the OutBraker device is directly onto a flat bar, mountain bike style lever, so it fits perfectly into the GRX lever. It also has a variable fluid reservoir (they call it a power booster but I'm not counting on that feature, so no need to remind me that hydraulic fluids are not readily compressible) that should make initial set-up a bit easier.

With any luck, the end result will be a more accessible and truly off the shelf bike.

If it works, I'll send pictures. If it doesn't I'll let you know as well.

RonInBC

Very interesting information. I didn't know about a DBB. I know that a lot of trikes don't bother braking the rear wheel but I'd like to retain the rear brake. So I was wondering how two front hydraulic brakes could be controlled with one lever. Now I know. Thanks.

Good luck on your build.

Ron

tigat

The pictures below represent a single hand control system on a Trek Domane, a project that Trek started for me, a one-handed rider, some years ago.

Some great bikes resulted, but one of the project goals was to make the adaptation completely with easy to assemble, off the shelf parts. Last week, it happened. The bike uses Shimano Di2 components set up in synchronized mode, so both the shifter on the hood and the climbing button on the bar top engage the full range of gears. Likewise, both the brake lever on the hood and the Shimano GRX bar top in line lever fire the front and rear disc brakes simultaneously with great modulation and very little lever pull effort. The result: full one-handed control of every braking and shifting component from the bar top, the hood/the drop. The device attached to the outlet portal on the GRX lever is a Pro Edition Double, made by a Korean company named Outbraker.

Long story short - this is awesome! I have never felt safer or more in control on a bike.

Please forgive the duplicate posting on several forums - you just never know where you might reach someone who has a friend who might benefit from something like this.





Final bike

Front view

Closeup

Attachment

Brake and climber

mcmoose

Tigat, congrats on your beautiful new Bandit... ride it 'til the wheels fall off!