My tour bike has a SA DRUM brake in the front. I squeeze the levers hard often. The cable went BOTH tours, 20,000 miles and 6 years. I use lovely SA levers.
Cable ends get frayed IF you take them apart. Even then, the last few years it has been less of a problem. Otherwise, I haven't broken a cable since my caliper brakes on old Raleighs. Often I reuse rear cables and casings on the front. It is simple to carry a spare cable. I did carry a cable cutter. LOL.
My Rohloff disc brake certainly also has cable TRP Spyres.
I certainly wouldn't use hydro if you paid me.
Last edited by GamblerGORD53; 01-31-23 at 11:50 AM.