Russ Roth

My newish cannondale has I.S. mounts for disc brakes and sets of these are popping up on ebay for a reasonable price with I.S. adapters, I'm planning to convert the bike to drops with sti levers that I have laying around and don't want to spend the money on a full hydraulic system, for the cost of 2 new sets of pads that it could use and two travel agents to make the factory V-brakes work well with the STI levers I wouldn't be horribly far from the price of the TRP hy/rd. Anyone used these or is it asking for an overheating mess waiting to happen?

bwebel

I have these on one of our tandems. We don't have any real descending around here, so probably haven't put them to a real heat test, but have had no problems in regular riding. I can't say I notice a big difference compare to the Spyres, which we have taken in serious mountains and didn't have heat related issues, so if I'd think of them instead if you are worried about heat. And you definitely want the largest rotors you can run. We may be converting to a full hydraulic set up and would have either spyres or hy/rds as surplus if you'd like to try them out.

merlinextraligh

We have one on the rear of our Calfee, and just put one on the front of our Co- Motion replacing the cable actuated Spyre that came with the bike.

The Hybrid is a noticeable improvement in stopping power. So far we’ve done 50 mph descents on the Blue Ridge Parkway, and some shorter steeper 20% grades without an over heating issue.


The theoretical problem is boiling the hydraulic fluid, which is in a much smaller volume than in a standard hydraulic brake. We haven’t seen that, and haven’t heard of actual reports of others experiencing that.

For some brake levers, some people don’t feel there is enough cable pull on the Hybrid without bottoming the lever. There’s a simple hack to increase the pull which works (but also increases the amount of hand effort needed) set out in a couple of threads on here.

ive done the hack on the Calfee and it works. Haven’t needed to so far on the Java.

jim_pridx

If you don't mind me asking, would that "simple hack" happen to be an additional spring that's installed on the cable at the caliper? If not, could you share what it may be? We currently have the HY/RD caliper on our front brake, and while it works fairly well for the terrain we ride in, it does come pretty close to bottoming out on the lever. I would definitely feel a little better having a tighter cable pull if it all possible, and it certainly wouldn't bother me to have the extra hand effort. Thanks in advance!

Russ Roth

I just decided to double check this thread before heading over to ebay to pick up a set. I've ditched the flat bar and v-brake levers for a drop bar with some 8sp rsx levers I've got around. I suspect the pull won't be quite right but had also heard there's a hack. My biggest concern was the idea of boiling the fluid but maybe it has a larger reservoir then a typical bike brake? Either way, glad its not a problem since I'd really like discs on this C-dale tandem; kids are asking to do gravel races with me and this thing is a good solution though I need to also get a 250mm stem for them to have a better reach as well.
Next I've got to swap hubs, my Gitane has velocity tandem wheels with disc hubs and a rim brake Deep-V rim while the C-dale had I.S. disc tabs and no disc hubs. Hub measurements suggest it should be a simple swap once the new spoke nipples show up I'll know the truth of the matter.

merlinextraligh

It’s a reroute of the cable on the brake lever arm by cutting a new slot with a hacksaw. Shown on this video. It will increase how far the brake caliper moves for a given amount of cable pulled.

jim_pridx

Thanks! I might just give that a try!

Russ Roth

Nice, giant bag of spoke nipples to swap around 4 hubs should arrive tues, brakes don't have a tracking number but hopefully by fri, looking to ride the tandem with my youngest next weekend.

Msteven 

We had a set of these on our CoMo Mocha. Got stuck behind a slow moving minivan on twisty 2 mile downhill. They both "locked up" meaning the internal pistons stopped moving by the time we got to the bottom. There was just enough left to stop, but they would not really let go. Once safely home, I took them off, and I could not push the pistons back into the aluminum housing. These are designed for single rider bicycles. We run much larger Saint 4 piston hydro system now.

New2Two

You could also try the short pull brake arms....
https://www.amazon.com/JJBP-Short-Pu.../dp/B073CCKD85

I haven't used them, but looked to add them prior to upgrading our brifters.

Alan_F

I'm pretty late to this thread so I'll be brief as I think I've posted about these brakes before in other threads. We swapped from Avid BB7 to Hy/Rd on a previous tandem and loved them. We had to use the cable pull hack to accommodate Campy Ergo levers which have slightly less pull than most Shimano road levers. We pushed them pretty hard on 203mm rims and never had any issues. With the Campy levers the cable pull had to be adjusted just right. You MUST follow the instructions about how to adjust the cable. If you take up slack so that the lever arm doesn't retract far enough then the brakes will not work properly. There is a little screw that you thread in to lock the arm when adjusting the cable to make sure you don't move the arm. Compressionless housing is highly recommended.

ElTorito

Msteven, sorry to open an old thread. Do you happen to know which generation HY/RD you had? I've heard that Gen 1 had plastic pistons, which could melt, and Gen 2 have metal pistons. I haven't been able to independently corroborate that, though.

TobyGadd

Our Cannondale T2 came with Avid BB7 brakes, so I was pretty convinced that I'd need to upgrade to TRP HY/RD or Paul Klampers. But I figured that I should at leave give the BB7s a try before throwing down the money. Much to my surprise, after descending some very steep & long roads including Mt. Blue Sky (used to be called Mount Evans) and Pikes Peak, I decided that the BB7 setup was solid. I'm amazed at how durable the pads have been compared to the Magura MT4 pads I have on our Cannondale 29er mountain tandem.

That said, fully-loaded touring tandems might need something more powerful and heat resistant--or just more cool-down stops. If ever go down that road, I'd probably install Paul Klampers before TRP HY/RDs. The Klampers look amazing, and I've never heard of anyone having heat or other issues with them. Expensive though.

Chilepines

I had the TRPs on a gravel bike and when I could get them adjusted properly they were great. But most of the time they were out of adjustment and I ended up getting full hydraulics which were worlds better.
On our current tandem I started with a road hydraulic caliper - for about 2 rides. On a steep downhill they were not up to the task. Replaced them with Shimano ZEE 4 piston downhill calipers and the difference is obvious.

Rick

Chilepines: I am quite heavy and the TRP Spyres that came on my touring bicycle were not adequate. I have frame couplers so full hydraulic was out. I purchased the HY/RD brakes and installed them. They were better but didn't offer much lever travel when adjusted properly. When the cylinder blew out coming down grades TRP was quick about replacing the front caliper. The limited travel and being able to pull the lever to bottom bothered me so they sit in my tool box. I purchased the Paul Klampers and run Yokozuna compressionless housing and this worked out for me. I didn't know about the JJBP Short Pull Conversion Brake Arm Set for TRP HY/RD then. If I had I would have tried this setup out. There is an instruction video on YouTube and they are on Amazon and ebay for sale. They increase the effort 20 to 30 percent but allow better stopping.

Chilepines

I had the short pull converter with my SRAM road levers and it helped, but not enough. IIRC, the lever bottoming out improved, but the braking action was intermittently sucky. The pads would not always retract when they heated up, they were not self centering properly so I was always fiddling with them. On my current gravel bike I have Hope RX4 brakes, and As I said before Shimano ZEE on the tandem.