гидравлический переключатель передач

The idea has been tried before, but upstart company 5 Red has introduced what is easily the most over the top, yet completely refined, hydraulic shifter and derailleur setup yet offered. Yup, that's right, I said hydraulic, as in no conventional cables or housing. Instead, tiny master cylinders in the shifter actuate slave cylinders in the derailleurs for a fully weatherproof system that won't stretch, corrode, or fray.

Company founder and designer Christophe Muthers has clearly spared no expense here as the entire hand-machined set will run about 1500 Euros. That is an astronomical figure for sure, but the attention to detail makes the figure sound a little more reasonable. Both front and rear derailleurs use a parallelogram-style cage that incorporates sealed bearings in every pivot for a nearly frictionless motion that should stay slop-free far longer than bushing-equipped pivots. The rear pulley cage also rotates on bearings and the triangulated design is super rigid.

Interesting, there are no return springs in the system. Rather, hydraulic pressure is used to move each derailleur in either direction. As such, shift effort is impressively light, and shifts were performed with perfect accuracy on 5 Red's test rig. Shifts are actuated with a single thumb lever per side, mounted beneath the bar, each of which has a pivoting rocker style 'paddle'. Simply push the top of the paddle to make shifts in one direction, or the bottom of the paddle for the other.

The system is remarkably flexible, too. Swapping the diminutive hydraulic lines from top to bottom, or left to right, allows the user to customize the shifter actuation style to their liking. Want Low Normal? Sure. High Normal? Ok. Want to shift the rear derailleur with the left hand shifter? As the adjustable detents are built into the slave cylinder in the rear derailleur itself, you can have it that way, too.

Remarkably, the complete set is said to weigh just 495g including both shifters, derailleurs, hydraulic line, and fluid. Muthers hopes to have "maybe" five sets completed over the next two months, and hopes he can ramp up production to as many as ten in that same period. Production was scheduled to start immediately after Eurobike, and Muthers says the first five sets are already spoken for. Better get in line now, eh?


інфа з cyclingnews.com