cyccommute 

I'm not so sure it's a minority opinion. My co-op has a box full of hydraulic brakes and zero mechanicals. At Veloswap this year I was specifically looking for mechanicals and found dozens and dozens of barely used hydraulics sets (front and rear) but only 5 to 6 individual mechanicals. If hydraulics are so popular and so good, why do I find so many used ones that are nearly new?

From a mechanical standpoint, hydraulics work well until they don't and then they are a bugger to fix. Bleeding them is messy, time consuming and generally a royal pain. Returning them to how they came out of the factory is nearly impossible in my experience. Dealing with syringes and bleed ports and the fluid is usually not worth the effort. I wonder if that's why I find so many used hydraulics? The only hydraulic I've worked on that was simple is the Hope which are just like a car. Open them up, open the bleed port, pour in some fluid, pump them until they are firm and close them up again. Simple. Avid and Hayes are a difficult and next to impossible to get right.

From a rider's point of view, I haven't found a hydraulic where I like the way they work. People who say that they have "superior modulation" have no idea what modulation means, in my opinion. Modulation...to me...means a little bit of brake lever movement results in a little bit of braking. More lever movement means more braking. A lot of lever movement results in stopping the bike. Every hydraulic I've tried has given me a huge amount of braking for very little lever movement. They have been either "on" or "off" which is the very opposite of "modulation". On steep downhills, the rear end wants to come over the front at the slightest touch of brake which isn't something that I personally like.

Mechanicals, on the other hand, have always worked like brakes should. Drag the brake a little and the bike slows down a little. Hit them hard and the bike stops.