I noticed that newer shimano brake levers have the hydraulic house coming out almost parallel close to the handlebar instead of angled forwards.
Is there a reason for this? Somebody wrote that it was to better fit new bikes which have internal cable routing through the headset. But one negative I've found is that the cable can interfere with stuff you got mounted on your handlebar.
Are you supposed to tape the hose to the handlebar with the new levers?
Finally, if your bike doesnt have internal headset routing, are you supposed to buy the models which point outwards?
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I guess you should buy the model you want, and whether the exit angle of the hose is a determining factor is up to you. I do think you have it right that the parallel exit is meant to combine with internal routing in the bars/stem, which is presumably a lot more interesting to XC riders.
Initial reports are that the newer levers result in the hoses rattling against the bars a lot, and I certainly believe that they’ll get more in the way for bike packing or other bar mounting interference issues.
However initial reports are also that they work as well as ever with a hair better feedback when on the brakes and that the wandering bite point issues are gone, so some advantages there as well seemingly.
The lever in your photo is an MTB type you do not tape/wrap hoses/cables to the bars on MTB’s in the same way you do on road bikes.
While road bikes with completeley internally routed hoses/cables that pass through the bars & stem are becoming more popular on MTB’s internal routing only means through the frame. You do not tape MTB cabes/hoses to the bars.
They’re just aiming for a cleaner cockpit look. New sram brakes have a similar design. irl it doesn’t look that different then the old style brakes.