jt profile

Stitched toe box and sole? Interest has been piqued.

They did wayyyy back: https://nsmb.com/articles/hayes-dominion-a4-brake-review/

If I remember right, no as RBC went under and sold the IP to the Athertons. One of the founders of RBC is onboard with Atherton. Memory could be fuzzy on the last bit however.

Good to know. I don't think I came off like a jerk, but if so believe you me that wasn't the intent. Years working tech support taught me that even the best mechs can always become better, and my diagnostic was pretty much invented and intended to help lift everybody up. And to prevent finding out about an internal rupture by eventually saturating the brake line to the point that it does indeed rupture externally. Other pro tip from that diagnostic: don't wear khaki when working on brakes :D

Haven't had the opp to poke inside the 6100/7100/etc series from Shimano yet, so I can't say. At some point I will simply because I'll need to check fit & function. Just wild that a company with their resources still suffer from these types of issues. Don't even get me going on the cause and solution to the wandering bite point... Woof!

Set the lever in the bleed position, bleed port at 12, mc body basically parallel to the ground. Cycle the lever and see if the spongey feel goes away. If so, likely a bad bleed, possibly a bad bladder. If the feel stays the same, check the brake line for any kinks, especially where it moves over any suspension linkages/components. Brake lines aren't indestructible and can develop internal leaks that weep between the layers of the hose, so it's leaking just not visibly. You can also check for this while the lever is in the bleed position with the cup attached. Add about 15mm worth of fluid to the cup and cycle the lever very slowly. If the lever goes to the bar and the fluid level drops with each pull til there's less fluid in the cup than what you started with the line's ruptured. If the lever goes to the bar but the fluid level rises slightly as you hold it to the bar then returns to the original level on release, you have a bad MC piston or mc bore.

(FWIW, the term spongey can mean diff things to diff people. Someone may take it as the lever feel gets softer during actuation while another takes it as the lever goes to the bar without much effort. May seem like splitting hairs, but the problems described can have way different causes.)

Owned a set of the 7000s and dear lord what a PITA. I had a lever develop the slow return you speak of. Once it started to become a major issue I decided to pull both brakes apart. Turned out the slow returning brake's mc piston had swollen up some when compared to the other's, just .2mm in diff between the two. This allowed it to start locking up in the mc bore. It should be noted they are plastic. Brakes were out of warranty, so decided to wing it and ordered  a set of aftermarket Ti mc pistons for em. They worked-ish. The dimensions were considerably undersized on one which allowed the piston to rock a bit in the bore under use, causing a seal blowby event. So don't get those aftermarket jobbers. Cannibalized an older set of non-series Deore brakes to find they had aluminum mc pistons that were the same dimensions as the good plastic ones in the SLX brakes. Rebuilt the mc with em and they feel divine, like what the brake is supposed to feel like and better than new ones. They're now on a buddy's bike and working aces still. (of note, I only ever used Shimano's mineral oil in em, so the pistons didn't swell from fluid contamination) 

This has reinforced my belief that plastic has no business being used for mc pistons.

Currently waiting on bar stock to turn down a few prototype Al pistons for Shimano's SLX and above units. Apparently current Shimano brakes share the internals from these older generations, so likely only a bit of time before they start suffering the same succotash.

I've liked Endura's goods for a long time now, and the show has piqued my interest, but the one odd bit from them (and near every UK/EU clothing manufacturer) has always been their sizing methods. I've tried Endura's gloves, but to get the right circumference I had to deal with an extra 10mm or more of length on the fingers, shorts required going from a 32" to 34 or 36" waist, and jerseys/shirts have been XL from my usual M or L. Shoe wise, I'm kinda in the same camp as HollyBoni up there. I'll definitely have to find some place that stocks them before I spend the coin. If they fit like Chuck Taylor's it'll have to be a hard pass. With Chuck's I'd have to double size up to get the width right, but then end up walking around in clown shoes due to the extra toe box length.

Thankfully most internal routings are wayyy easier than some of Gary's designs were. Oof!

"Perhaps your particular conditions could lead to the opposite conclusion. You’ll still be wrong, but at least we won’t have to argue about it now."

B e a u t. Gonna have to use this one at the next engineering meeting. 

Possibly one of the best things Tektro/TRP did was design for use with Shimano pads. That right there insured they would be welcome in most any shop. The bleed is simple/Shimano enough as well.