Brake Line Quick-Releases, Platform Pedals, & Clever Tools - Taipei Cycle Show 2023

Mar 23, 2023
by Mike Levy  
Taipei Cycle Show 2023


It's not a tradeshow if we don't include photos of at least a few interesting platform pedals, and these ones are from a brand called MDH that has an absolute load of different models in their catalog. This is the PXA04 that features a CNC machined aluminum 6061 body that gets twelve stainless steel pins per side, as well as a handful of other placement options that will let you tune the grip to match your needs. The body is 17mm high,110mm long, and 100mm wide, and a set comes in at a claimed 309 grams.

MDH uses a chomoly axle with a single DU bushing combined with three sealed bearings for the PXA04, and color options include black, blue, yellow, green, apple green, purple, orange, and the titanium finish pictured above. All of those retail for $109.90 USD.


Taipei Cycle Show 2023

Taipei Cycle Show 2023
Taipei Cycle Show 2023


Zeno's Q-Connector is a hydraulic coupler system that allows you to disconnect your brake lines as needed without losing any fluid, and they say that it works with the majority of brands' lines. This could be handy for bikes with internal routing and riders who like to tinker with stuff, and the tool-free design is said to allow for multiple uses without any need to bleed your brake. The Speedlink component is attached without using a barb or olive, and it clamps down onto your line with an 8mm wrench. The opposite end employs a coupler pin that also doesn't need a barb or olive, while a steel spring clip holds the two pieces together.

Zeno says that it can withstand 4500 PSI, and they offer versions for both DOT fluid and mineral oil, with all the individual components sold via their website.



photo
photo


There's a good chance you already own a multi-tool of some sort, but this one uses a C02 cartridge as a handle to save space and weight. That's what the aptly named Clever Standard brand has come up with by using an anodized and threaded adapter that features built-in slots that double as a spoke wrench, rotor straightening tool, and valve core remover. It also interfaces with any number of different tool bits, turning your new or used C02 cartridge into a handle for your hex, torx, or whatever bit you've slid into place. Threading the cartridge into the adapter, which comes in loads of different colors, also locks the bit into place, and Clever Standard even offers a thread-on extension with a tire plug installer and a small saw blade.

But wait, there's more! There are also two different ratcheting drivers you can attach, one in-line and the other a multi-direction socket wrench.

Author Info:
mikelevy avatar

Member since Oct 18, 2005
2,032 articles

89 Comments
  • 163 3
 Finally! A solution to that problem that we manufactured, headset routing.
  • 51 5
 IDK, if this nets out to a world where frame makers "plumb" the bikes for you (including the headset if they really want to do it) and all you do is connect your levers at the bar and the caliper at dropout, bleed and go. That would be pretty sweet IMO.
  • 46 0
 Actually it goes further back than that, the brake problem was caused by internal routing in general.
  • 23 0
 Now I can swap Shimano and sram lever’s seamlessly
  • 34 1
 @dwee: I hear DOT and Mineral Oil mix super well
  • 25 2
 @superkeen: that’s pretty interesting, they could use permanent hard lines in the frames and even the bars and then just have connectors at the points where flexibility is needed (headset, suspension pivot, calliper)
  • 11 14
 @superkeen: I hear sarcasm goes right over your head
  • 29 0
 @superkeen: you might be interested in this photoset: theradavist.com/mone-bikes-look-ma-copper-brake-lines
  • 7 0
 @toddball: Wiiiiiild bike, love the creativity! Thanks for sharing that one.
  • 2 0
 @superkeen: Saw a bike from the handmade bike show that had internally plumbed the brake lines from the head tube to the chain stay. Just a set of short hoses with banjo bolts to connect to the frame. Would have been from one of the first shows they covered on pinkbike.
  • 5 1
 @Woody25: Imagine trying to find a leak in the brakes, imagine finding your £2.5k carbon frame is scrap because there's Dot fluid seeping into the layup.
  • 1 0
 @Woody25: Yep', I had the same idea before, it's like excavators basically, though it could already be done with formula quick release.
But this could add a bit of weight as you'd need some kind of "plug" at each end of the "hard line".
  • 1 0
 Would be if they would fit though a headset bearing but does not look like they would?
  • 6 1
 Ummm... Hydraulic quick connectors aren't exactly new.
  • 2 1
 @Hieronymus: Of course not, been around forever
  • 1 0
 @mikelevy: flat bar / drop bar swap paradise
  • 2 0
 Now all we need is for influencers to tell us that external routing is dangerous, outdated and provided a worse performance "experience" and the sheep will jump the fence!
  • 2 1
 @darkstar66: Of course, they've been around forever - this is not new.
  • 2 0
 @mikelevy: thought you were taking the piss
  • 3 1
 @darkstar66: I usually am tbh
  • 1 0
 @toddball: pretty and cool. I can imagine the system would cool cooler as well.
  • 1 0
 @Woody25: that seems like a servicing nightmare in the event something does go afoul within the frame
  • 1 0
 @Torbo24: Yup!!!!
  • 1 0
 @Woody25: Irreplaceable brake lines seems like a horrible idea. Although most people wouldn't have any issues, I think non replaceable parts are still a bad idea.
  • 35 4
 What's the wall thickness on those co2 canisters. Loading pressure vessels in ways they weren't designed for would give me pause. But I haven't run the numbers, maybe, probably it'll be just fine.
  • 24 0
 Poke a little hole in the end of the canister for extra emergency torque!
  • 2 4
 If you actually managed to overload it you'd just strip the thread of the tool and rip the canister out, I guess?
  • 3 13
flag hellanorcal (Mar 23, 2023 at 13:16) (Below Threshold)
 If your uncomfortable with the fragility of a steel CO2 canister, just use one of the many 9mm diameter hollow aluminum tools sold by other companies.
  • 20 4
 Nailed it. No way I'd be leveraging the neck on those bottles for anything, especially in my hand. If you've see one explode, you know why. These are the types of designs that need to get people, including management who approves this crap, fired. I suppose if you don't like your hand, wrench away.
  • 19 3
 @hellanorcal: Last time I checked, hollow aluminum tools don't explode in your hand or go rocketing if it they fail when you repurpose them in ways that increases failure rate.
  • 6 0
 at first i thought it was a portable pneumatic ratchet
  • 1 0
 @superkeen: you had me at torque!
  • 13 0
 I am going to find a used CO2 canister and see if I can, by hand, snap its neck when screwed into something solid. Or maybe put a torque wrench to it and see when it snaps.
  • 2 0
 @iamamodel: please let me know what happens!
  • 2 0
 @iamamodel: If it's empty it won't be under load from internal pressure so failure would happen at a higher torque. But still interesting. Factor or safety for pressure vessels is typically ~4 or more so might be fine. Still factors of safety exist for good reason.
  • 4 0
 @krashDH85: Someone I know had one explode in his hand. Not while out riding, but in his shop, attempting to heat it up to use for a CO2 race car. Spun it in a drill, wearing a welding glove, and it put a huge hole in his hand. He’s fine now, but he won’t ever do that again.
  • 1 0
 @iamamodel: not just a model, youramodelcitizen.
  • 2 0
 @kcy4130: The internal pressure will actually increase the strength of the canister.
Try crushing a full soda can vs an empty one.
  • 24 0
 Imagine trying to undo a seized bolt and wondering if the bolt or the collar of your co2 canister is going to give way first. I admire the innovation, but not for me!
  • 31 0
 like a jack-in-the-box for bike repairs!!! keep on cranking...will it explode? no one knows...the thrill!
  • 4 0
 @SATN-XC: You can sing "pop goes the weasel" while you wrench. Fun times!
  • 3 1
 ....do you guys undo a lot of seized large diameter bolts out on the trail? Like, out in the middle of a ride you're gonna swap out your old pedals or something?

I can't think of a single thing on the bike that I would (a) fix on the trail, and (b) need enough torque that I'd worry about the CO2 cylinder exploding.

Also, don't let your bolts seize. Use grease.
  • 1 0
 @bkm303: first off, we're just having fun with this concept, I assume it wouldn't go to market without thorough testing....but to your comment about seized bolts, I cannot tell you the number of times my tools are used out on the trail by someone other than me...riding buddy or some random person with a mechanical. I cannot speak to the condition of their rigs.
  • 1 0
 @bkm303: I can't speak for SATN-XC, but personally I like to use my multitool as a breaker bar
  • 8 0
 Dry-break fittings for brake lines have existed in motorcycle racing forever. For all the reasons you need them in motorcycle racing at a high level, none of them exist here in mountain biking. Literally headset routing or selling a frame where the rear banjo doesn't fit thru the hole in the stays and you have to cut the line to get it off, are the only reasons this should ever be necessary. At least add speed bleeders up top on the master like GP bikes do if you're gonna go thru all this.
  • 7 0
 Formula makes speedlock for at least a decade. Looks neater than this companies offering
  • 2 1
 @briain: Sadly those arent perfect. I replaced mine with standard barbs after one of the couplings started leaking. It doesnt seem to be a super common issue, but there is a number of forum posts about leaking formula quick couplers.
  • 2 0
 Rockshox had this for the reverb remote years ago.
  • 2 0
 @briain: The formula system appears much more bulky. The Zeno's Q-Connector is definitely a lower profile.
  • 1 2
 Agree. Fantastic idea, but I frankly do not see the benefit here in MTB. I can't really think of any reason you would need to have a break away hose. Swapping brakes? Need new hydro hose. Swapping brakes to a new frame? Need new hydro hose (length).

Placing these fittings near the lever master cylinders would be advantageous, but as someone noted, trying to get these fittings through internal cable routing would be next to impossible. Sucks, I want to love the idea, but I just don't see it being useful.
  • 4 0
 @Simann: yeah I can see on say a DH race bike being useful. Have a stack and damage a lever or somehow a calliper and if you had a quick connect just near either of those componenets you could just swap them out quickly in the pits and not have to do a full bleed. Maybe just a quick top up. Then again full external routing you just swap out the complete set and done.
  • 1 0
 @endoplasmicreticulum: Yeah, I have seen that come up. Honestly, it's very hard to find any info on them. I think I'm gonna get one for the rear caliper as I've just bought a frame with internal routing.
  • 1 0
 @Simann: Really hard to know from pictures I actually think the opposite. I'm gonna pick up a formula one to try soon
  • 1 0
 @Simann: The use cases are a bit thin. But for me been able to swap parts quickly is a big plus and also if you travel with a bike disconnecting would be an awesome way of stopping your pistons getting pushed out
  • 2 0
 @Simann: I'd install one where the hose comes out of my main triangle before it enters the rear triangle. That way I could disconnect my rear triangle properly to clean and maintain the moving parts instead of rigging weird contraptions to hold up the rear triangle to protect the brake hose while I swap bearings or whatever I need to do.
  • 8 0
 between the Mtn biking and fishing industries by the year 2040 we'll be able to fit an entire tool bench's worth of tools into a matchbox.
  • 6 2
 The best thing about headset cable routing is it allows me to increase the parts count and number of failure modes on my brake system
  • 3 0
 QD hydraulic lines would be a game changer for servicing if designed properly. It has been safely used in motorsports for years, should be no reason why it wouldn't work as well on bicycles.
  • 2 0
 Seeing that hydraulic quick connector system made me think for a second it was an excavator / heavy equipment upgrade featured at a bike show - but alas, some wonky brake hose QC. If there was a Cat with an Engcon on it, that'd be the first thing most trailbuilders would walk up to.
  • 4 0
 www.bike-discount.de/en/mdh-bug-flat-pedals

buy on weekends it will cost ~52eu.

for the price - the best pedals.
  • 2 0
 What if... Put a coper-made hose, rigid as f*ck in some part of your bike were the "plastic" hose dont move?? Your rear brake lever cant be "elastic"... Improving your braking... Damn, my english still is not the best.
  • 1 0
 This has been done on a number of custom bikepacking bikes and is a good solution except that it is very time consuming to add to a build, and requires a completely new frame or hundreds of dollars in labor if the tube fails.
  • 1 0
 Worth to me checking out the quick connects for brake lines because with AXS it's getting easier to justify having two or three frames that share a common wheelset, groupset, forks, etc. The catch is always with brakes because you either have to have a dedicated brake set for each frame, or you're losing time cutting, rerouting brake lines based on stack, stem, etc.
  • 2 0
 Does anyone know of a pedal that doesn't have DU bushings, just bearings? Always a bit of a bitch to get those out in my experience
  • 3 0
 Shimano
  • 8 0
 xpedo.. unfortunate name, decent pedals..
  • 2 0
 @scantregard: Cannot unhear.
  • 2 0
 @scantregard: xpedo is a much less unfortunate name than pedo! could have been worse.
  • 6 0
 @kcy4130: a former pedo is still a pedo, they’re just taking it day by day.
  • 4 2
 I don't know about those pedals
  • 5 0
 @danielfloyd Agreed.... But the price point seems to be more like what a decent set of flat pedals should cost. Instead of most of them being closer to $200 nowadays.
  • 1 1
 @tmwjr777: definitely, I'm just not a fan of the looks. There's other affordable options out there for flat pedals though. One up composites, crank brothers stamps, race face chesters, to name a few.
  • 2 0
 @danielfloyd: I have actually been running Chester's for a couple of years now. They are a great inexpensive option. BUT, they definitely don't feel as "grippy" as some higher end options. Even wearing 5-10's, it's definitely noticeable. Compared to the Canfield's I was running before. Thinkin I need pedals that some people consider "almost too grippy". Like T-Mac's or Dagga's. Or just go back to riding clipless.
  • 2 0
 @tmwjr777: I just tried a pair of tmacs and didnt like the super concave as much as i thought i would. Coming from a set of one up's. Now im on hope f22 pedals and have the one ups sitting in a box to probably never be used again
  • 1 1
 A solution to a problem, created to solve a problem that was never a problem … I think I’ll just skip internal routing and I’m good.
  • 1 0
 There is simply no way to disconnect and reconnect hydraulic lines without introducing air to the system.
  • 1 0
 You missed the bigger thing from Speedlink: the hydraulic volume adjuster. Basically contact point adjustment for any brake!
  • 2 2
 Damn those pedals look fiiiiine
  • 12 2
 no they dont
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