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Eurobike faves: the Hope V-Twin hydraulic converter

Disc brakes on 'cross bikes: the time is now, and for now you need a box like this...

Like we said, soon you'll have road shifters with hydraulic internals and discs on your road bike. It's the future, though seemingly not the future everyone wants. Anyway, for now the focus is on cyclocross and Jo's first ride on the Kinesis Crosslight Pro 6 was enough to persuade him that actually, he did like discs for CX after all. And he's a proper luddite. You'll be next.

For now, you need a box to convert cable pull into fluid push. There were quite a few on display at Eurobike, but perhaps the prettiest was Hope Technologies' V-Twin, so named (by road.cc readers, not by Hope, although we reckon they'll use it...) because of its resemblance to said engine design. It attaches via a spacer insert, underneath your stem, and all the trickery goes on inside the box so it looks nice and neat. Here's Alan from Hope explaining...

Dave is a founding father of road.cc, having previously worked on Cycling Plus and What Mountain Bike magazines back in the day. He also writes about e-bikes for our sister publication ebiketips. He's won three mountain bike bog snorkelling World Championships, and races at the back of the third cats.

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10 comments

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Coleman | 12 years ago
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This must stop. Period.

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dave atkinson | 12 years ago
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I'll line 'em up...

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dave atkinson | 12 years ago
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I've used it about three times in three years. That's not very often. You do the math.

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slow-cyclo replied to dave atkinson | 12 years ago
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dave_atkinson wrote:

I've used it about three times in three years. That's not very often. You do the math.

It's maths!

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Coleman | 12 years ago
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Shrake.

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VecchioJo | 12 years ago
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will someone shut that child up

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cat1commuter | 12 years ago
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So what should be used instead of "brifter"? "Shifter" isn't right, because they contain brake levers too. "STI" or "Ergopower" are manufacturer specific. Sheldon Brown liked "brifter", so its good enough for me. Americans who ride bikes are one of the good parts of America.

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Tony Farrelly | 12 years ago
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Shucks we can't all be perfect and Dave does have a bit of a penchant for americanisms. Can't stand it myself but nothing we say will persuade him to quit it… y'all

Mebbe we'll change it, not cos it's an americanism but cos lots of people don't actually know what 'brifter' means (although I'm sure most of you can work it out) one of the team here thought it was a typo. Dave won't mind…

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crazy-legs | 12 years ago
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Quote:

Like we said, soon you'll have road brifters...

NOOOO, please don't EVER use that horrible Americanism "brifter" again. You've gone and ruined all your good work just by using that one word.  2

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Coleman replied to crazy-legs | 12 years ago
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Americanism? I have fond memories of my Raleigh Brifter. Oh, hang on.

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