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I’m a little more old school than most of you on here I think. MTB’s had cantilever brakes when I first got into them in the early 80’s. My trail bike (’97 Stumpjumper Comp) has U brakes, that work perfectly. It seems everything has disk brakes now. The obvious advantage is you can ride through water and not lose brakes, and that’s a good thing. However, I’d like to know what the true advantage is of having hydraulic brakes, as opposed to a cable operated disk brake. While there’s no doubt that the hydraulic brakes are very smooth, are they worth it? Seems like there could be a lot of maintenance issues with them. A cable is a pretty easy fix, replacing hydraulic fluid, more labor and time intensive.
So please, enlighten me to the benefits of hydraulic brakes! -
modulation and power.
I have BB7’s 185mm on the front of my bike and they are not as powerful as my uncles juicy 3’s or the Elixir 5’s I had at one point. I had issues with my Elixirs that the LBS told me was ‘normal’ (the wheel would spin 3-4 times and abruptly stop, not normal) so I went with BB7’s because they had such great reviews.
My bb7’s have good modulation and power, but they dont have the ‘bite’ the juicy 3’s or the Elixirs do.
Im pretty sure you are going to get a billion different answers on this. I have read hundreds of threads like this and everyone has their own opinion. My next bike will have hydros on it. BB7’s work, but I want hydros.
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Hydraulic brakes really come into consideration when riding technical stuff and you need all the fingers you can get ON your grips but also need to be on the brakes at the same time,the hydro’s will allow you to operate your brakes with one finger with there superior modulation and power allowing for more steerer control while braking at the same time,waaayyyy coool.
Hydraulic brakes to me are a no brainer……
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So my hydraulic brakes are supposed to require maintenance?
Other than replacing pads and re-aligning the calipers periodically, I have had no major issues.
The last time the LBS looked at it they noticed that one of the rear pistons wasn’t retracting all the way and they pulled the lever to push it out, cleaned it with a little brush and then pushed it back in and it’s been fine ever since. (yes I watched so I can do it myself next time) 😉
Anyway, I have never had to bleed mine or anything like that
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oh, and to the original question: I have v-brakes on my commuter bike and they work just fine, and are lighter than a full hydro setup.
My current mountain bike weighs 30 pounds and I weigh 200. Keeping all of that man and machine under control on gnarly downhills is MUCH easier with the hydraulic disc brakes. Most of the time I can use just one finger on the brake lever and get all of the stopping power I need. Occasionally I need two fingers. If I grabbed a whole handful of brake lever, I’d go over the bars.
As mentioned, the Avid BB7’s are about as good as it gets for mechanical disc.
And finally, the disc brakes are also affected when they are wet, but they are less likely to get wet due to where the rotors located are in relation to the outer rims, but I think the real advantages are sheer stopping power and modulation. Mechanical discs are good at this, hydro are even better.
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Thanks for the info on the hydraulics. Now i understand that you get better braking out of them. If I ever replace my ’97 SJ, I’m sure it will be with an SJ that has the hydraulics.
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