Adding a little color

Back in the day AME used to make brake hoods in a variety of colors. It was a great way to accent your bike and make it your own. Well, there are now two other offerings that allow you to do the same thing. Hüdz and Far & Near. I already mentioned Hüdz in a previous posting, so now I am going to talk about the Far & Near hoods.

Pictured above are the pink version for Shimano Ultegra/105 brifters. They are available in blue, green, pink, red, white and yellow for Campagnolo and Shimano.

As far as brake hood go, most people do not even give them much thought. They are just pieces of rubber that cushion your hands while riding, at least a little bit. They also provide a bit of grip so that you can easily control shifting and braking. These are no different, as a matter of fact, they are hard to distinguish from the originals other than the color. The molding looks to be identical to OEM hoods. The mold seams are in the same spot. The nubs for Ergo or Flightdeck cyclocomputers are in exactly the correct spot. The feel of the hoods are almost identical to the originals. Even the grain on the rubber is identical to the originals.

I have added these hoods to our Cannondale tandem (blue) and my Pedal Force Dura-Ace (white) and Nicole’s Pedal Force Ultegra (red) bikes. The white ones replaced a set of black Hüdz I bought earlier in the year.

So far they seem to be very nice, the finish is good and the fit on the levers is perfect. I will provide an update at the end of the season when I can figure out if they were worth the little bit of money to accent the bike.

They are available from Fairwheel Bikes in Tucson, AZ. If you ask real nice they may also be ordered from your LBS through distribution from Fairwheel.