Cascade Components Introduces Brake Adjuster 16

Our brake adjuster has been making the rounds ever since last spring. Now it’s time for us to share a more detailed description of what it does and how it does it and, of course, actually make it available for purchase. Currently we have the version for TRP DH-R Evos. A version for Dominion A4s and Mavens will follow. Production versions are black with an orange knob, and will run you $119 USD for a set.

This project was conceptualized after talking to a rather fast rider about how their brakes faired over runs. We concluded that finding a way to cope with tiny air bubbles and having the seals start from a slightly energized state would have the best chance of addressing their issues. The goal of this adjuster is allowing you to set a base brake line pressure that is greater than atmospheric pressure. With a typical diaphragm backed reservoir, at rest the pressure in the brake lines is more or less at atmospheric pressure. At the intended setting, this adjuster sets the pressure at around 15 psi (around twice atmospheric). The primary impact of this is any bubble that may find its way into your brake line is half the size it would otherwise be. Hopefully we are all starting out with solid bleeds, but no bleed lasts forever. This additional pressure can make bleed intervals due to bubbles in the fluid longer. Of course, if you are cooking your brake fluid that’s another thing.

How it Works

Now for the details on how this works. There have been a lot of guesses based on preexisting systems that physically forced fluid into the brake lines via a piston and a screw. This is different in that the knob adjusts preload on a spring which backs an IFP. That spring has a rate and range of adjustment that corresponds to a range of 0 to 25 psi in the brake reservoir. The IFP takes the place of what would usually be the diaphragm. Since the IFP is spring backed, there is still room for the fluid to expand into the reservoir and move out of the reservoir when pads wear. While this has an impact on spring preload, the difference is small enough that you won’t notice an appreciable change in lever feel due to it until your pads have worn significantly. The idea here is that you don’t have to adjust the preload on the spring all the time. We aren’t saying you can’t or shouldn’t, but you don’t have to.

Development

Like many projects, this adjuster started off in a much cruder state. The initial concept features a thumb screw that threaded in and out of a cap to push on the spring. This was quick and easy to play with, but not the level of refinement we wanted. Following that was a version where the thumb screw was ditched in favor of a knob more similar to what’s on the adjuster now. The second version contained all the fluid in the world, which made it quite large. In a theoretical world this was fantastic, but it was just too big and the real-world gains weren’t as big as the size of the thing. The following version was slimmed down significantly to what is its current form factor. From there on it was just a matter of getting the spring we thought would fit everyone best and getting the adjuster right. The adjuster is an M6x2 two start thread. With six clicks per turn, a standard M6x1 thread had way too many clicks between fully wound in and out. To be clear, this was designed as a proof of concept for a novel brake reservoir design. Integrated into a lever body, it would look much cleaner. We are offering this so that others can have a chance to experiment with something we’ve designed for our own R&D purposes.

For more information visit https://cascadecomponents.bike/products/brake-adjuster