Originally Posted by
maartendc
...
Thanks for the feedback! So you mean if the housing gets damaged, the liquid inside would leak out, rendering the brakes useless? That seems like a major downside, even though unlikely to happen in most scenarios. In that case, mechanical seems more durable indeed. I mean, you could snap a cable I suppose, but for long tours in the wilderness you could carry a spare brake cable somewhere.
....
I think most bike tourists do not carry spare cables or a spare tire or spare brake pads. Sometimes I carry a spare tire, sometimes not, and I only carry spare brake pads on longer tours. But I always carry a spare brake and spare shift cable, they are light enough that they are permanently in my bag of spares.
I saw a couple bike shops on my tour last summer. But I never saw a bike shop on my Iceland tour, and i was looking for one to buy a souvenir bike jersey, I know at least one or two existed but I never found one.
When I changed this shifter cable, I had three unbroken strands of wire remaining.
