Fresh from the Taipei show comes TRP’s new HyWire hydraulic brake lever for road bike or cyclocross drop bars, and they’ve got integrated Di2 buttons.
Retail will be $599 when they come out, but when exactly that will be and other details are forthcoming. For now, enjoy the pics…
From the front, they’re wildly bent for ergonomics, which looks like it provides easy grabs from both the drops and the hoods.
New Di2 has circuitry to prevent hacking from what I gather…huge mistake on Shimano’s behalf IMO. Go open source and let the smart kids play with the stuff. It’s free R&D.
These things look like they just glued a set of climbing buttons to an ugly drop bar lever…nothing really revolutionary here. Definitely a prototype.
I agree, mechanical shifting and hydro brakes would be great, but everyone is jumping on the electronic bandwagon pretty hard so I doubt we’ll be lucky enough to see them anytime soon : (
Additionally, HOLY HELL look at the reach on those levers…not only does it look nasty, it’s a bitch to fit for a safe hands-on-the-hoods riding position. With everyone going to more compact handlebar shapes, it seems ignorant to design a super long reach brake lever that negates the benefits of the shorter bar reach.
