Originally Posted by
RubeRad
Interesting. I have only personally experienced hydraulics, so I can't compare with mechanicals.
I can say that Avid/Sram are a PAIN!!! to bleed, you gotta use these special syringes to create vacuums at both ends to get microscopic bubbles out of DOT fluid, follow a very specific workflow and only do it on a 5th tuesday when there's a full moon. Also my Avids had very bad turkey gobble, until a friend advised me to dab a little grease on the back of the brake pads, that took care of it.
Yep. Kind of my experience. As of the turkey gobble, I solved that by replacing the stock rotor with a more round one. The "gobble" came from the pads squeezing on the peaks of Avid's early "Roundagon" rotor then flexing inward as the peaks passed and then being forced open again. Once I changed to the round G3 or a Magura, the problem went away.
Originally Posted by
RubeRad
I've found Shimano hydraulics dead easy though, they work great, they use nontoxic mineral oil, and you don't even really need to bleed them, you can just open the top port and 'burp' them by flexing the lever until no more air comes out (which I guess is the same as 'until they're firm', although you don't really know until you close up the port again)
I haven't worked on Shimanos. I've looked at how to do them and they do have a slightly less complicated system but the mineral oil is a problem. DOT3 fluid is cheap and readily available. You can pick up 200 mL of the stuff for a couple of bucks. That's more than enough to do a brake bleed on a bike. And, if the brake uses DOT fluid, you can probably use DOT3 on it. Shimano's mineral oil costs about $15 for 100 mL and can only be used on Shimano brakes.
I've also heard about the "burping" but I wonder if you couldn't do the same with Avid.
Originally Posted by
RubeRad
With no experience, I can't compare hydraulic vs mech modulation. You're right, on/off is the opposite of modulation. All I know is, my hydraulics have much better modulation than the V brakes on my old GT mtb. (When my wife started mtb'ing with those brakes, she had a lot of endos and had to learn to be very careful with the front brake) And they are strong enough I can get away with 1 finger braking most of the time, 2 fingers if I happen to be descending a big hill and have to ride the brakes the whole way.
I've never had a brake that wasn't what I would call modulated. I run cantilever, road side pull, linear and mechanical disc. They all work the same in my experience. I even have a bike with disc on the front and v-brakes on the back (call a Colorado Mullet by some of my mechanic friends). I don't use the rear brake any differently than the front. I don't feel any difference in the lever pull between them.
Being an old mountain biker, I've never seen the whole "one finger" thing as being something I strive for. I usually brake with at least 2 fingers and 3 if I can get them on the lever. I used to use up to 4 way back in the Stone Age. At times I'd like to go back to that. I don't need to hang on to the handlebars with the other fingers.
Originally Posted by
RubeRad
I've also found it difficult to get hydraulics well aligned/centered. The notion of loosen the mounting bolts, squeeze the brake, and tighten them back up, doesn't work that well in practice. But I imagine it would be the same with mechanicals.
A
Birzman Clam Disc Brake Gap tool will help. It sets the gap properly and helps align the pads. Disc's don't have much gap between the pads and the rotor and hydraulics need even less than mechanicals do. It works and it's cheap.