First Look – Shimano Flat Mount hydraulic road disc brakes debut, new 11-speed 105 Level hydro shifter & more!

Wow Hayes tried to do a flat mount years ago. They were ahead of their time.

It’s not plastic, it’s the pad backing extended into a heating to help keep the brakes cool. It’s literally a very cool feature.

@me they are heat fins. They serve a purpose and look badass!

@me

If you haven’t been following along with Shimano moutain tech, those are cooling fins that dramatically increase heat dissipation over non-finned pads. Read: You modulate speed better and experience less brake fade. This makes for a happier ride, where you might spend more time looking ahead on the trail/road/gravel than looking down at your brake caliper.

So with a flat mount frame, and the new flat mount brakes, you’re restricted one rotor size in the back? Hmm. Also those levers looks very interesting…….

So, which companies are on-board to produce disc compatible frames? Is carbon fiber still a frame material option?

If the bleed nipple on the rear caliper is at the highest point, to facilitate bleeding, it’s at the lowest point on the fork, to ________ bleeding.

Does this affect the standard on disc brake spacing?

Oh Shimano, you tease. Those hubs aren’t 15/12mm axle compliant! It is a good business model, changing the disc standards from mountain.

Err…..How do you align the caliper? The mounts are’nt slotted……

Also, it’s a shame the hubs aren’t thru axle. If the industry is going to settle on standards for the future of road disc brakes, it really should do it now, all at once.

What’s the advantage except the looks for this new standard? Does the disadvantage include the change of “squeezing” the chain stay tube if not properly using a torque wrench? What was wrong with what is in place today? In general I’m all for evolution and technological innovation, but come’on are there no limits to how many variations of “standards” that the bike industry needs to adapt to? An interesting topic in itself, how many variations of frame affection variables are required until the frame producers says enough no-more? OR is the total market value of sold “adapters” sufficiently profitable to offset the disadvantage of 1000’s of possible variations?

As for the looks of the brifter… I’ll rather stick with rim brakes until something nicer looking comes out from the great S-factories.

@ Graham – not technically. If a larger rotor fits in the frame, an adapter could be used to move the caliper toward the crank and upward.

@ Frippolini – I’d think most manufacturers would place tubes spanning vertically across, thereby eliminating any clamping of the chainstay. All bolt clamping forces will be applied directly to the tubes, be they metal or composite, leaving the chainstay wall to remain as thin as desired. At least that is the way I’d do it.

So, on the front brake the cooling fins are parallell to the airflow. In the rear they are more or less perpendicular. Would like to know what guided that decision.

@ Gunnstein,
There is certainly enough turbulent flow around the cooling fins to displace any heated air, which is all that is needed. They just act as a heat sink. There is no reason to have f/r specific pads with “aligned” cooling fins.

@JBikes Sure, but then it would at least look better if they where rotated 45 degrees, aligned semi-radially. But perhaps the logic is that efficient cooling is more important at the front, which does most of the braking, so even if the difference is marginal they would optimise for the front.

@MikeC seems to have a good point about bleeding the front.

Why do you think thru axle will we the new “standard” for road bikes? At best it will be the second standard.
They way thru axle works now, it will be impossible to use in the protour. Try changing a flat wheel/tyre in sub 15sek, like they do today, with a thru axle.

What is up with that new lever? Huge bulbous knob and either a long body or skinny blades – looks totally out of sync with the rest of the Shimano line up. On the one hand, I’m dying for Deore-level hydros for the CX/gravel machine, on the other, it’s got to at least have familiar ergonomics.

@swmmo totally agree. my trek 8900 is the greatest bike ever, still blowin’ past all the h8’ers on the trail. the 22mm mount for the rear caliper was the shiznit. also, thru axles are for the nerds who cant get their wheel in str8. open dropouts forever!

is the new one can squeze the brake from booth side? or the same like ultegra, from one side only?
in from one side only like ultegra, better buy trp brakes

I just want to know, will the revisions be called BR-RS506 or BR-RS505-B?

@Nico: The RAT thru axle system developed by Focus Bicycles is easily as fast as a QR wheel change.

One point worth noting for anyone who asks ‘why?’ Any performance or maintenance benefits touted here are the bait to get OEM’s on board.

With this new interface, if shimano can sell OEM’s a certain amount of spec in a given model year, this interface will ensure that all bikes from said model year will always be shimano equipped as SRAM et al. do not produce brakes to fit this interface. After riding the bike for a few years, the consumer wants to upgrade or refresh some parts, goes online or to their LBS and is either bound to Shimano, or will need to add a (heavy) adaptor to their light and fast road bike.

This will result in a fairly nice chunk of additional aftermarket revenue for Shimano simply by selling OEM’s on a (for now) proprietary interface.

Shimano makes amazing components, but also has some savvy minds driving the business.

@fast foreward freddy I think you’re optimistic expecting to bleed it with the bleeder at the bottom of the calliper unless it’s water you’re removing.

One of the beauties of the old system was that if the customer screwed up a thread the adaptor was the only part that got ruined, cheap and easy to replace. Now with threads in the caliper any thread damage is going to be very expensive.
I also wonder how the front is supposed to work, how do you align it when the bolts are trapped behind the adaptor, and as already mentioned the bleeding just seems to have got as bad as it could be…