[squish]

Hey all,

I've been working on setting my bike up for a bit of a trip and am playing around with a harness. I notice that I get a bit of deflection in the hydro lines at the mc from the bag. What is everyone's experience with this? Any issues or concerns beyond the obvious?

 

[STJunkie]

I had a similar bend against my harness using Avid Ultimate brakes. Had no problems with it until a couple hours into my shakedown ride. Some air eventually worked it's way into the line. Had to pump the brakes at first, and by the end of the three day trip I had no front brakes at all. Part of the problem on mine was having a short brake line to start with, and then raising them higher than normal to accomodate the bag. Eventally I bought some new hose and replaced with a longer line without the tight bend. Looks like you may be able to get by with raising the levers a little.

 

[trhoppe]

I had to get rid of the matchmaker clamps and move the brakes up a bit. That cured it for bike packing trips. The matchmakers go back on for races where I don't have the pack.

 

[Rockin]

For a while I ran an extra strap from the bottom of the harness up and around my stem to keep it from flopping back as much against the housings. Worked pretty good. Then I switched to the loop bars and it isn't an issue.

 

[VO2 Lax]

I switched to mechanical disc brakes (Avid BB7 and Speed Dial 5) for the exact problem you have. Ran my housing longer and the set up is now dialed. I actually really like the mechanical discs over the hydros.

The extended/pointed ends on the Avid brakes always get in the way, I’ve mounted the Harness on another bike I have and the Hayes Stroker’s (or if you have some coin, the Magura MT’s) work much better with the Harness if you have to have hydro brakes.

 

[AJT]

i'm lucky that my formula oro's have banjo at the lever end. I now run this banjo facing 90degrees backwards, keeps everthing out the way. Oh loop bars help loads too.

 

[1 Speed]

If you plan to run the same bike and brakes for bikepacking a lot, have a good shop put on longer hoses and run the pack under/inside of the hoses instead. It worked for me this year for the TDR but I also didn't have gear cables to get in the way. Might have also helped that I was using a Groovy Luv Handle instead of a flat bar too.