Home > Bike Types > Cyclocross

Tektro’s Parabox Hydraulic Disc Brake Converter for Road Brake Levers

7 Comments
Support us! Bikerumor may earn a small commission from affiliate links in this article. Learn More

Road.cc spotted this contraption in the opening day of the Taipei cycling show. Tektro looks to be pretty close to a production-ready tool for converting cable road brake levers to hydraulic disc brakes.

UPDATE: Original photo that better showed the device has vanished, so we replaced it with this one.

Part of Tektro’s TRP (Tektro Racing Products) and called the Parabox, it transfers the mechanical pull of the lever into a hydraulic brake fluid push toward the caliper. The cables come into the rear of the device, which clamps around (or is mounted to) a steerer tube spacer below the stem.

The body of the Parabox holds the master cylinder which pushes fluid into hoses off the front of the device. It’s not the most elegant looking solution, but could get the early adopters off and running before SRAM/Shimano/Campy develop a fully integrated hydraulic road shift/brake lever…and we’ve heard from both of the big S’s that it’s going to be a while.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

7 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Gillis
Gillis
13 years ago

I don’t really see what the problem with cable discs is. Admittedly hydro’s are better, but for the interim until the “Big ‘S’s” get it figured out I see no problem running cables. Not to mention all that does is shorten the cable. The cable is still there and will need maintenance. Plus, there’s no way you’re going to be able to run levers on your tops when hydros do become viable.

FN
FN
13 years ago

Last year on Eurobike, Germany’s “Trickstuff” showed the “Doppelmoppel”:

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/eurobike-2010-trickstuff-cyclo-cross-disc-brake-converter-27723

So the idea is’nt that new.

mjc
mjc
13 years ago

Kind of ugly looking, ain’t it?

seanwilson
seanwilson
13 years ago

Desn’t anyone remember the Hayes mtn version of this idea? The were terrible! The cable would stretch and the hydraulic output would change.

Jason
Jason
13 years ago
Null
Null
13 years ago

I could be well wrong, but out of the 3 big drivetrain manufacturers I only see Shimano as having the ability to pull off a dual control lever with hydraulic brakes. This is because Shimano have considerable know-how in both electronic shifting and hydraulic brake technologies, as in my view size requirements for the dual control lever will favour electronic shifting over mechanical.

Null
Null
13 years ago

Btw, Canyon bikes have already pulled this off in a prototype developed years ago:

http://www.canyon.com/_en/technology/project68.html

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.