Originally Posted by
Tourist in MSN
Better late than never.
I am content to stay with cables for shifting and braking. It works, is reliable, easy to fix with a minimum of tools. I can see the advantages of hydraulic for competition, but touring, I am not competing with anyone. I have had dust and mud cause some friction in cable systems, so I admit that there is another advantage to hydraulic systems. One day I had so much mud clogging up my rear V brake, it stopped releasing, so maybe there are rare times that a hydraulic system is more reliable?
If hydraulic systems work great for others, that is great. But, I am sticking with cable.
Last weekend at a swap meet, I picked up a used pair of interrupter brake levers for 31.8mm bars for $5 USD.
Can't beat the price. Actually I think hydraulic brakes make as much sense for touring bikes as racing bikes. Tourists ride long hours, have more weight to stop plus we're usually older so the finger-tip ease of hydro could be much more comfortable on descents. Additional cost for a potential touring groupset to include hydro is low, maybe $100-$200. I would guess that touring bikes with hydraulic brakes will be common 10 years from now; it took a long time for cable disc brakes to become standard on touring bikes.