Cable vs fluid disc brakes

[Devil2575]

Looking at sub £1000 road bikes and would really like disc brakes. The cable discs on my cheap hybrid are brilliant compared to the conventional rim brakes on my road bike. The question is, is it worth paying the extra for a bike with fluid in place of cables?

[DanGPR]

They're called hydraulic disc brakes, by the way.

It depends on what you're compromising elsewhere on the spec to be honest. Which bikes are you looking at?7

Bare in mind you can buy a pair of lower end hydro disc brakes for less than 100 quid (Clarkes, Shimano Deore, Magura , Avid..)

[Sarkmeister]

DanGPR said:

They're called hydraulic disc brakes, by the way.

It depends on what you're compromising elsewhere on the spec to be honest. Which bikes are you looking at?7

Bare in mind you can buy a pair of lower end hydro disc brakes for less than 100 quid (Clarkes, Shimano Deore, Magura , Avid..)

Would the low end brakes work on a road bike though? Hydro shifters/levers are still fairly rare i think.

[anonymous-user]

DanGPR said:

Bare in mind you can buy a pair of lower end hydro disc brakes for less than 100 quid (Clarkes, Shimano Deore, Magura , Avid..)

for £100 you can get SLX hydraulic brakes, and they are not lower end, rated pretty highly. I use them on my mtb changed from Avid Elixir R. I know these are MTB brakes but would be o.k on road/gravel.

[The_Jackal]

You cant use MTB stlye brakes on a road bike (SLX, XT etc)
I think he is asking about hydraulic brifter style brakes.
But to be fair I dont think you can get them on a bike under a grand can you?

Edit: Apparently you can - Pinnacle Dolomite 5

Edited by The_Jackal on Wednesday 14th September 21:10

[m444ttb]

I have cabled discs on my work bike (a Cannondale CAADX) and some hydraulic discs on my new Biardman road bike. The feel is quite different. The hydraulic discs have the better modulation people talk about to a much greater extent and more ultimate stopping power. The Cannondale probably isn't tip top any longer it's fair to say but I will probably replace the brakes fully with hydraulic items before winter 17/18. The other issue I've had with the cables has been stretch. I've never had an issue on my rim braked road bikes but the Cannondale has needed properly sorting out every 9 months as it gets to the point where it's hopeless.

[Devil2575]

The_Jackal said:

You cant use MTB stlye brakes on a road bike (SLX, XT etc)
I think he is asking about hydraulic brifter style brakes.
But to be fair I dont think you can get them on a bike under a grand can you?

Edit: Apparently you can - Pinnacle Dolomite 5

Edited by The_Jackal on Wednesday 14th September 21:10

Which is the bike I'm looking at.

Pinnacle 4 is cheaper but has cable brakes. Just wondering what the advantages of hydraulic brakes are. I'm used to cables so just wondering if it's worth paying more to get a bike with hydraulics fitted. I'm sure they're more complicated.

[egor110]

The Boardman CX bike has proper hydraulic brakes.

[deadtom]

Devil2575 said:

I'm sure they're more complicated.

au contraire; hydraulic brakes have much fewer moving parts and in general* are much more reliable and hard wearing than cable systems.

• cheap hydraulic disc brakes are a very grey area.

[RobDickinson]

From my mtb experience cable disk brakes dont get you what you want from disk brakes.

No modulation, far more on/off than hydraulic, and they need a lot more maintenance/playing around with.

Hydraulic every time.

I replaced the cable brakes on my HT commuter with hydraulic recently for not a lot of money

[Devil2575]

deadtom said:

Devil2575 said:

I'm sure they're more complicated.

au contraire; hydraulic brakes have much fewer moving parts and in general* are much more reliable and hard wearing than cable systems.

• cheap hydraulic disc brakes are a very grey area.

Hmmm...

I'm thinking fluid changes, seal problems etc.

I guess it's the difference between something I know and something I don't.

[Kawasicki]

m444ttb said:

I have cabled discs on my work bike (a Cannondale CAADX) and some hydraulic discs on my new Biardman road bike. The feel is quite different. The hydraulic discs have the better modulation people talk about to a much greater extent and more ultimate stopping power. The Cannondale probably isn't tip top any longer it's fair to say but I will probably replace the brakes fully with hydraulic items before winter 17/18. The other issue I've had with the cables has been stretch. I've never had an issue on my rim braked road bikes but the Cannondale has needed properly sorting out every 9 months as it gets to the point where it's hopeless.

It's highly unlikely you are stretching the cables.

A great benefit of hydraulic calipers is the consistent and automatic adjustment of the gap between pad and disc. This is not so easy to achieve with a mechanical system, so maybe that is the root cause of your frequent adjustment issue.

The ultimate power or a cable versus hydraulic system is in theory limited by tyre grip anyway.

[Devil2575]

RobDickinson said:

From my mtb experience cable disk brakes dont get you what you want from disk brakes

I found the cable discs on my Carrera hybrid very good. A lot more powerful than the rim brakes on my road bike, much better in the wet and easy to modulate.
In every other aspect my road bike is superior to the hybrib but on steep descents the discs make for much better stopping power and control.

[Devil2575]

DanGPR said:

They're called hydraulic disc brakes, by the way

I know. I was being lazy. Typing on my phone is a pain.

[The_Jackal]

Providing they are not faulty you wont need to bleed or change seals on hydraulic brakes anything like people say.
There will always be guides around on how to do it and it is no more a bigger deal than changing gear cables.

[Magic919]

I bought one of the bleeding kits with a couple of syringes included and it makes the job a lot easier. Having had hydraulic and cable, I'd take hydraulic where possible.

It's still a bit early days for road bike hydraulics with little choice of brifters in the Shimano range. I had the TRP hy/rd for a while. Worked well, but the lever ratio wasn't ideal.

[FD3Si]

Devil2575 said:

Hmmm...

I'm thinking fluid changes, seal problems etc.

I guess it's the difference between something I know and something I don't.

I went out last night on my thrasher MTB that gets a hard, hard life. It's on Hope C2s from the late 90s. They are still on the original seals, and have probably had a couple of bleeds in that time. They've had a very, very hard life. Still capable of easily pulling me to a stop with the back wheel hovering above the ground.
Tales of seal replacement and constant bleeding are due to people either using the really, really cheap ones from Clarks and the like, or people in the 'Discs are wrong on a road bike' camp.

FWIW, in my limited experience, cable operated hydraulic offer the worst of both worlds, and certainly won't sway anybody to the wonder of discs. I get why they exist on road bikes with the lever situation, but I'd just run cable ones then upgrade if it were me.

[Kell]

In an ideal world you'd go for hydraulics, but I ran cable discs on my commuter for five years and was pleased with them.

They are a step up from rim brakes in terms of stopping power - especially in the wet - which was a real bonus for a bike that gets used daily in all sorts of disgusting weather.

Now I'm back on a bike with rim brakes (Brompton), I can really feel the difference and lack of stopping power in the wet. Made even worse by the the fact that the Brompton only has 16" wheels.

Adjusting the cable ones wasn't difficult, but did need doing regularly to keep them working properly. had I kept that bike, I was thinking about upgrading the brakes - but then the frame snapped and I bought a Brompton.

[Devil2575]

Kell said:

They are a step up from rim brakes in terms of stopping power - especially in the wet - which was a real bonus for a bike that gets used daily in all sorts of disgusting weather.

The reason I want them is because I regularly do some very steep descents where going fast just isn't an option. Rim brakes just don't give enough power and control for this to be comfortable and you end up doing to entire descent at very low speed and even then I couldn't really stop the bike if I needed to.

Doing a 20% gradient with a narrow, tight blind bend at the bottom on a rim brakes just isn't enjoyable.

[Kawasicki]

Devil2575 said:

Doing a 20% gradient with a narrow, tight blind bend at the bottom on a rim brakes just isn't enjoyable.

I enjoy it.