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Shimano Files Patent for Hydraulic Road Bike Brake Levers…Again

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Shimano hydraulic road bike brake lever patent

With the image flying around the Internet of a possible prototype Shimano hydraulic brake system for road bikes, the timing on their patent filing couldn’t have been better for feeding the rumor mill.

The photo above is just one of many included in a February 7th US Patent Application describing a “bicycle component control device (that) includes a bracket, a hydraulic brake unit and either a mechanical or electronic shifting unit.” The rest of the initial description reads:

“The bracket has a gripping portion. The hydraulic brake unit is operatively mounted on the bracket and configured to operate a hydraulic brake device. The mechanical shifting unit or electric control unit is operatively mounted on the bracket and configured to control a bicycle device.”

It’s worth mentioning that all major companies patent all sorts of things that never come to fruition, but what’s really interesting is this isn’t Shimano’s first hydraulic brake patent filing…

Back in July 2007, Shimano filed a patent application for a “Multi Position Brake Lever System With a Converter That Converts aCable Actuator to a Hydraulic Actuator”, shown above. It’s described as “a hydraulic assembly for a hydraulic disc brake system that includes a housing defining a cylinder, a piston received in and moveable within the cylinder, a first lever operatively associated with one of the piston or the cylinder, and a second lever operatively associated with the other of the piston or the cylinder.”

Shimano mechanical to hydraulic brake converter patent application

Here’s a view of the hose and cable entry/exits on the side of the converter. This application was published in January 2009 and would have preceded TRP’s Parabox and the others by a good bit.

Shimano hydraulic TT brake lever patent application

Shimano also filed a patent application in August 2009 for a “Hydraulic Brake Control Unit” that, to us, looks an awful lot like a TT brake lever. Here’s the internals:

Shimano hydraulic TT brake lever patent application

Sure beats the Magura RT6TT to the punch, no?

Shimano Hydraulic rim brake and connector arrangement patent

And then there’s this hydraulic rim brake design patent filing for a “Hydraulic Connector Arrangement”. At first, I thought this was pre-STI based on the design of the brake lever and the hose exit port, but no: This was filed in December 2009 and published in June 2011! Could this mean a hydraulic rim brake is coming, too?

BACK TO THE FUTURE

Shimano hydraulic road bike brake lever patent

At the top of this post are the drawings for the Mechanical shifters with integrated hydraulic master cylinder. Above is presumably the Di2 version as the diagram essentially matches the layout and size of the small electronic shifting controls.

One interesting bit to point out is the higher position of the brake lever pivot. On the standard (mechanical brake) STI levers, the brake lever’s pivot is about where the piston enters the hood. The lever feel could be quite different as a result, but with all the attention Shimano paid to the current 9000 group’s brakes, our bet is it’ll perform quite well.

Where some of the older patents use pretty descriptive names, this one’s simply called “Bicycle Component Control Device”.

How does this compare to SRAM’s upcoming hydraulic road brakes? Without that product being officially launched, no one has hard details, but images suggest some or all of the master cylinder may be placed inside the forward knob given it’s pronounced growth over its mechanical counterpart. If that’s the case, it’s likely because SRAM’s shifting mechanics are larger than Shimano’s, which might have forced the design. Or, they could have been avoiding conflict with Shimano, who’s patent describes the master cylinder as “located rearward of the pivot axis of the operating member.” While SRAM announced their hydro units first, Shimano’s patent is a divisional application of an original patent filing from 2011 that may have spelled out some iteration of this prior to SRAM’s designs.

Subtle but important details that we look hope to confirmed in the real world soon!

JUST FOR FUN

Shimano motorized adjustable height dropper seatpost patent

Shimano Di2 powered dropper post anyone? Thanks to one of our readers (What up, Varaxis!), we got these images of another of Shimano’s patent applications: The “Motorized Bicycle Seatpost Assembly.”

Shimano motorized adjustable height dropper seatpost patent

The diagrams show the computer control unit under the saddle (26) and the battery inside the top of the post (68) driving a motor attached to a screw-type set of gears to raise or lower the seat via a switch on the handlebars.  This one was filed in August 2009!

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16 Comments
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Campy Seatpost
Campy Seatpost
11 years ago

What an awful patent illustration. The bars are all wrong, and that stem isn’t even slammed.

Bart
11 years ago

Not to be picky but Magura had a hydraulic road brake pre-STI shifters…The STI Shifter killed it off.

sr. lobo
sr. lobo
11 years ago

SHIMANO RULES AGAIN!!

MaLóL
MaLóL
11 years ago

they do rule!!!!

Big Slim
Big Slim
11 years ago

I think that the hydraulic components should be primary used for cross and not some mucht the road. I think that bringing hydraulics to the road is to much braking power and just more money that people will be spending, but the bicycle companys have to come up with something to keep making money.

Big Slim
Big Slim
11 years ago

But overall these brake levers will be very beneficial and awesome when cross comes back around.

harro chan
harro chan
11 years ago

sram is crying

Nash
Nash
11 years ago

Does sitting on a long tube with batteries included not raise eyebrows anymore?

Chris
Chris
11 years ago

I’m sure Hydraulic rim brakes are the future on road bikes. Disc for CX and crazy roadies

gringo
gringo
11 years ago

@ Nash:
sitting on a battery powered tube with remote control in / out action!

why does lowbrow raise eybrows?

Carytown Bicycle Co.
Carytown Bicycle Co.
11 years ago

My bet is hydro disc will become the standard for CX but never really take over with road and touring applications. To many chances to overheat the system and mechanical disc works far beyond good enough for this. I have a road disc, commuter disc, and rode a disc cx this winter. For the first two the AvidBB7 brakes were perfect… for the cross bike not so much.

Chris
Chris
11 years ago

Do we REALLY need all this Hydraulic crap on a road bike… or even electronic shifting???

Look how many teams are using SRAM 10s cable driven with success (Im a campy guy, Im just pointing out this electronic 11s, hydraulic blah blah is pointless in my opinion)

WoofWoof
WoofWoof
11 years ago

Hopefully Shimano cockblocks Sram again with these patents.

mateo
mateo
11 years ago

@Chris – Compare the number SRAM pro teams with Campy/Shimano ones. I’ll make it easy. 15 Campy/Shimano (all on Electric groups) and 3 SRAM teams.

bc
bc
11 years ago

@Chris, At worlds a few weeks ago, 19 of the top 20 finishers were on electronic drivetrains. SRAM throws a lot of money at the sport but their win/loss ratio is actually pretty poor.

John
John
11 years ago

@big slim- I think Wouter Weyland would disagree, oh, wait…

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