I was lucky enough to get in on the first Australian shipment (and I'm pretty sure, the WORLD!) of IMA's new Thumb Brake System.
The first lot arrived a few days ago and they look just as well designed and engineered as their triples and clip-ons!







They're available in a few different kits and mounting options. I wanted the lowest profile MC up at the bars, so opted for the Complete F Kit with fork mount.

First job was to assemble the top and rear MC and thumb assembly, in order to work out what length of brake line I'd need and what the best angle of banjo bolt would be.
Basically the length of the red line here:




Someone has clearly thought about this!!



Rear MC fits well too, that gives me a good idea of what angle the banjo will need to be.




I thread some string through the run I wanted to take, from the thumb, through the bike, back to the rear MC. Then, measured it up before ordering the custom length and banjo angles from Hel Australia.




While I was waiting for the braided line to be made, I set about finding a good place to fit a reservoir.
I was tempted to go the HRC shorty reservoir I normally use for the rear, but with such a long line and ideally more use out of the thumb action, I'm thinking there may be more heat expansion so a proper race reservoir would be a good idea.







The line arrived very quickly so I didn't have to wait long for the next step! First up was to tie the banjo to the end of the string I used for measuring.
This made pulling it through the bike a breeze!




Happily the time spent on measurement was worth it and the line was a factory fit!






Purging the system was a bit of a PITA because I didn't have all the right bits and had to Mcguyver a syringe.. but basically the method is to syringe in the new brake fluid from the caliper, and push out all the air, until it reaches the reservoir at the top.
The 'one wee trick' is to take off both MC's and shake them around as well as actuate the levers to get the last few bubbles out.
After that, I was able to bleed as normal to make sure there were no stray bubbles around. It was actually quite good to use a good amount of brake fluid rather than the tiny amount that normally gets used before you bin the bottle!



Last step was to tidy up the lines and secure it to the bike and the loom that I'd run it along.




Can't wait to have a crack!!