DIY hydraulic cross brakes?

[Kevin3182]

Hi all,
I saw a pic of some DIY hydraulic brakes a pro mechanic whipped up that were alot more sleek than a black box under the stem But i cant seem to track down the site anyway i was just curious if any WW have come up with a DIY alternative to the big name versions?
Thanks!

[the_marsbar]

DIY hydraulic is not something you just hack together in a weekend. I'd be surprised to see a homemade solution

[ms6073]

Was it The future of cyclo-cross - disc brakes? that describes using the USE converter unveiled at Eurobike in 2011?

[lordconqueror]

Are you talking about that guy from ibis bikes who modified a pair of formula levers so that they were actuated by the cables in the road brakes? i don't remember the particulars, but they had to be cut down to accomodate the setup, but he raced masters singlespeed on them without problem. i think the other odd part of his setup was he was running a carbon tranyn frame with 'cross wheels and tires rather than 26" wheels.

[Privateer]

That USE set-up is beautiful! I doubt it'll ever be available though.

[Kevin3182]

Yup the USE set-up was it! i thought it was thrown together DIY, but anyhow, i'm a fan of those, much prettier than the parabox.
Thanks for the responses!

[Frans]

That USE set up is pure sex, BUT what is the silver bullet which converts cable pull to a master hydraulic cylinder? That's not some off the shelf part from another application. That looks highly specialized for this purpose.

But wow is it sublime :-) I like it.

[yourdaguy]

Santana tandems have had a part like that for years that converts Shimano sis liver pull to hydraulic to operate a rear disc brake. The part appears to be the same size.

[ms6073]

Santana tandems have had a part like that for years

Got a link? I looked at the site and only found references for Avid, Bengal, and Winzip mechanical discs.

[yourdaguy]

My Santana is a 2004 and they used that system through the 2000-2009 era, but apparently converted to using mechanical discs in later years. There were problems with bleeding and adjustment and some tandem owners in my era converted their bikes to Avid bb7 mechanical discs.

http://santanatandem.com/Library/Adjustable.pdf

The first item on page 2. The cable comes in from the left and the hydro hose goes out the right. Santana had a little welded attachment on the downtube right behind the steer tube and it was hydro the rest of the way back. Also the part that stuck out the top was a fluid reservoir and probably would not need to be that tall on something for a cross bike with much smaller caliper pucks. These things were made by Formula for Santana as far as I know. I just went out and looked at mine and it says Formula on it in red. I have an extra one of these that I bought as backup in case ours ever failed if you want to experiment. I would part with it for $150 which is way less than Santana sold them for.

[Frans]

Great manual. I love manuals written by people with:

a) an enducation
b) a good grasp of the language the manual is written in
c) a sense of humour

There used to be more documents like this in cycling before the lawyers took over. I have a 1994 manual that came with a Fat Chance Wicked frameset I bought, bizarrely written.