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Speed up and simplify brake maintenance with Zeno SpeedLink

Written by Greg Kopecky Feb 14, 2019 12:30 p.m. ET

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Are you tired of countless special tools, disposable small parts, and proprietary nonsense from your hydraulic brake systems? Taiwan-based Zeno wants to minimize and simplify the relationship with your brakes, using their clever SpeedLink system. Featuring reusable parts and an olive-free compression nut system, they want to make hydraulic woes a thing of the past.

Zeno SpeedLink Hydraulic Quick Connect System

If you don’t work on your own brakes, you might not know that there is a huge number of small parts, special tools, and one-time-use items. Multiply that by the number of brake brands, and you have a recipe for chaos – especially for shop owners.

Zeno has a unique reusable brake hose compression system that doesn’t use disposable olives and only requires a small trim of the housing to reattach hose ends. In addition, the only tools required for regular maintenance are two 10mm open-ended wrenches. The best part? They claim it takes less than half the time to set up your brakes compared to conventional systems.

For bike shops, the Zeno system could mean a huge reduction in parts. Instead of needing 20 to 30 different parts and three different hydraulic hose types, Zeno says that only 6 major parts are needed, with only one hose type. We haven’t tried the system yet, but consider our curiosity piqued! Check Zeno out at the link below.

Zeno.tw

Greg Kopecky

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19 Comments

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wako29

5 years ago

I’m sure there will be plenty of comments on this system, but I’m most interested in the barb driver they show in the video at ~0:20. Anybody know who makes that?

Callum

5 years ago

Reply to wako29

We picked one up from cyclus tools of all people. Looks very similar albeit not exactly the same.

carbonfodder

5 years ago

Instrallation simplized. ’nuff said

biketiger

5 years ago

Reply to carbonfodder

Do you speak Chinese?

Tom

5 years ago

reserving judgement until I see this hose actually hold working hydraulic pressure, reliably.

onrhodes

5 years ago

The current process isn’t all that difficult people. Just saying………I can only speak for TRP and Shimano brake systems and quite honestly they are pretty straight forward.

5 years ago

Reply to onrhodes

Not only pretty straightforward, but how often do you need to disconnect hoses? For me it’s basically a once per bike type thing, and from what I can see these quick disconnects wouldn’t let you thread lines through a frame, so the only possible use I could see for such a thing is out.

I don’t work on 100 different brake brands, so there’s that. Still I don’t see what tools this displaces other than box wrenches; you still need 100 different bleed kits. And all the brakes I’ve ever owned used the same box wrench size for the line fitting. This sure sounds to me like a solution in search of a problem. Maybe there’s some shop dynamic that makes it make sense?

I work in hydraulic machinery. I asked a quick-disconnect vendor once if there was such a thing as a quick disconnect that doesn’t leak. He said no.
Granted, machinery typically operates at much higher pressures than bike brakes, and these look like they have rubber seals, which can make a high pressure seal at low torque. Then again, they wear out if you use the disconnect feature regularly…And also they’re rubber: are there different seals for different brake fluids?

Rodrigo Diaz

5 years ago

Reply to i

Can’t be that hard to have leak proof connectors. I had QDs when playing paintball and for spray guns, operating pressure in the hundreds of PSI. No significant issues, even with a slide check to allow for quick replacement of tanks/markers. See “Macroline”.

Of course you get a small leak every time you change them, but otherwise no issues in my experience.

Bob

5 years ago

unless they have a better way to disconnect an existing setup and reconnect it with out needed to cut the hose down and put a new barb and olive in, this is not really any better. with internally routed hoses having a quick disconnect that could go through the frame is the only advantage. Shimano brakes are simple already. if you cant manage now then you should probably not be working on brakes in the first place.

Maybe they can re-invent the grip installation process.

5 years ago

Looks like proper instrallation is key.

5 years ago

The real pita is bleeding the brakes. But this helps.

Bmx

5 years ago

With Shimano etc there is that brass insert that stops compression closing the inner tube of the hose. This piece is key to attachment , not seeing it here

briannystrom

5 years ago

Reply to Bmx

You’re referring to the “barb”. This is what the press shown in the “Now” installation was used for. A separate barb is not necessary in the Speedlink system, as it has a similar internal support built into the connector. You can clearly see it in the video. It also explains why it took significant twisting and pulling to remove the line before he cut and reinstalled it.

Colin Matthews

5 years ago

I have 2 sets of handlebars for my road/gravel bike. One is aero, one is traditional, and both have internal cables. I am looking for an easy way to just swap bars depending on the season (warm = aero, cold = traditional). I was going to buy an extra set of calipers and Di2 cable so that the swap is relatively easy. The current challenge is having to cut the hoses down each time you use them with an olive nut. This may make it way easier for the twice a year swap I am planning. Anyone else thought of doing this or have suggestions?

SJC

5 years ago

Reply to Colin Matthews

If you have two sets of levers and want to just keep both sets of bars permanently set up, then this seems like the perfect solution. If you’re planning on using the same levers between setups and want to use this to deal with internal routing through the bars, it might work as well – depends on how big the ports are through the bars and what kind of bends they have to make. Stuff like this tends to have difficulty fitting through cable ports or making it around bends, and could damage the bars internally if you try to force it.

Will

5 years ago

The only part of brake installation i dislike is getting the bleed syringe hose to “connect” to the port. Just a messy connection without any screw connection to it. So it seems excessive to offer this solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.

thebrassnipple

5 years ago

Looks like a Sharkbite connection for brake hoses. They hold water pressure and temp changes in commercial applications. My best is this works just fine.

briannystrom

5 years ago

Reply to thebrassnipple

Not exactly. Sharkbite plumbing fitting don’t require anything other than plugging the pipe into them. This system still requires tightening a collar that compresses the brake line over an internal barb. Something like Sharkbite for brakes would be truly revolutionary, but it would require a solid brake line. I don’t think the current brake lines that consist of an inner core surrounded buy a separate sheath would work, unless perhaps you removed the sheath where the line enters the fitting.

BTW, Sharkbite fititngs aren’t perfect. I learned the hard way that they don’t tolerate misalignment of the attached pipes well and will develop leaks.

briannystrom

5 years ago

While I like the idea of being able to install and replace brake lines with nothing more than a 10 mm wrench, I agree with others here that it’s not something that one typically does more than once when initially setting up the brakes, except in the rare instance that a brake line gets damaged. The Speedlink fittings look to be well designed, but they’re much larger than the parts they replace and are undoubtedly heavier as well. Whether that matters is another question entirely.