bluehills3149

With all Shimano's groupsets from 105 up and SRAM's top tiers now exclusively hydraulic disc and electronic shifting, the ability to retrofit a new groupset on a vintage frame without disc mounts (and that's most of them) is becoming impossible.
But I was musing that this might see the revival/release of hydraulic rim brakes, like SRAM once released (pic below but are they still available?) and Magura has for post-style brakes.
Or perhaps Campy will corner the market with a cable option on their top-tier groupsets even as they become electronic and speeds rise to 2x13.

tyrion

Strikes me as a niche market. An outfit like Paul Components ($$$$) might take a stab at it.

pastorbobnlnh 

Even at Paul Components, they prefer mechanical disk brakes, and not hydraulic. Ya got to love their derailleur style "jockey wheel" adjuster.

Recently I went for a ride with my niece and nephews and one of their Lynskey road bikes was equipped with Shimano 105 hydraulic disk brakes. The bike had been sitting for months and the front brake was not working properly. It took my nephew a good hour+ of fiddling with hydraulic fluid and other adjustments to make the brake function correctly. All the while he was cursing that hydraulics and disks are such a pain in the a** on road bikes.

chain_whipped

Those look pretty svelte.

The Magura RT6 hyd rim caliper resemble delta styling.

As for the future, disc is here to stay-
Never signed a disclosure agreement so just a heads up. Did see only a few months ago a 'concept' (not shown a working prototype) linear / servo motor disc brake calipers. Wireless too. Clunky look but lightweight, composite housing. No messy hydraulics or troubling wires and connections. Heat dissipation is a major concern, ceramics talked of, rotor type and sizing. Of course, all has to be absolute flawless or its dooms day litigation. Was told the servo idea came from the primary goal having ABS, yet ironically development for that portion has not evolved.

nlerner

I can't quite see an advantage of a hydraulic sidepull over a non-hydraulic sidepull, but maybe I'm missing something.

I have hydraulic disc brakes on my main rider, and set up and maintenance really aren't particularly difficult as long as you have the right tools. I was intimidated at first (and had my LBS set them up initially), but have come to realize that they're pretty simple: hydraulic fluid (rather than a cable) runs through a tube (housing) to push a piston open and closed, so as long as you keep that system sealed, there shouldn't be a problem. My setup is quite robust: after many thousands of miles I haven't had a fluid leak or needed to top it off (though when I do, I'll need to buy the proper "bleed kit"). After about 3K miles, I had to change the front disc pads, but the replacements have now lasted about 5K miles without signs of excess wear. I've never changed the rear pads.

Bad Lag

+100

My daughter's TREK has never worked properly. On one outing with friends, her brakes began to drag and could not be released. It made getting home with the bike monstrously hard.

She has not ridden since, on any bike.

I then spent hours repairing the brakes only to find the brakes are once again dragging badly after just a few months of disuse.

IMO, the component makers are not doing the public any favors with hydraulics. Cables work. Leave them alone.

smd4

Hey, they're in Chico! Location of my alma mater...

Chombi1 

I never tried out disc brakes on bikes yet, but according to my younger brother, it is like night and day difference in braking power, compared to rims brakes. Literally a life saver in the worst braking conditions ( Like going down a steep mountain road, in the rain.).
Only negative I heard of with disc brakes on bikes is, the brakesets are usually still heavier than rim brakes.

fooferdoggie 

then the bike should have been repaired. I have a bike sitting for a year brakes are fine. the only problem I have with them is when I screw them up. all it takes is another bleed to fix my mess up.

Polaris OBark

The best brakes I have had on a bike: Shimano hydraulic disc brakes (Ultegra and XT).

The worst brakes I have had on a bike: Hydraulic rim brakes (Magura?) from 2000.

bwilli88 

I have a couple of bikes with discs, including one with a disc up front and V brakes in the rear.
That disc/V brake combo bike would be awkward with a hydro disc on the front. Having the same levers on the bike keep it from feeling weird, they are switchable linear/direct pull.
The Shimano hydro brakes on my Mt bike are really nice but finicky in setup as I prefer right front and left rear.

Russ Roth

In both cases the LBS they were bought from should have been made to fix them till they worked well. I've got hydraulic disc on 9 different bikes and they have always worked fairly flawlessly. My mtb needed a rebleed after 5 years, they'd only just started to feel a touch soft, while my youngest's mtb could use a bleed on the rear brake after 4 years of use under 2 kids. Road wise we're rocking 2 sets of sram and a set of campy. Only pair that ever gave trouble was some FSA, they never worked well to begin with, I watched their bleed video and promptly threw them out and remembered why I always disliked the brand. Bikes come with follow up repairs for a reason, the companies don't always install the brakes perfectly but the shops can rectify that.

Bad Lag

Too late, the damage is done.

The bike sits in the garage unridden. She doesn't want to ride it after that incident. I know I will never buy a bike with disk brakes and in particular hydraulic disk brakes.

I was thinking about buying a set of cable actuated brakes for her bike but I honestly think disk brakes aren't needed on road bicycles.

Off road might be a different story due to the dirt but even there,... well, we could talk about it.

I do not understand all this hub bub about brakes. I just don't get it, at all. I use Nuovo Record brakes. I have zero trouble with them. They are so powerful I could skid if I wanted. I could endo if I wanted. The thing is, they are easily modulated so none of that happens, yet they are powerful stoppers.

mtbikerjohn 

I'd love to see Magura make drop bar levers for these again..I heard rumors of adapting TRP or Shimano levers to these, tho..

pastorbobnlnh 

And there's the rub and the irony of my comment! In my nephew's case, he is the LBS (well sort of). He's wrenched bikes since his teens (he's in his 50s). His last gig was as the build mechanic at Lynskey. The customer would order his/her frameset and specify the build and my nephew would build the bike prior to shipping.

So, every bike he has (too many to count and almost all are titanium Litespeeds or Lynskeys)--- he built. He's the kind of guy who thinks he knows everything, and rarely if ever turns to someone else for help or guidance.

It was comical to watch him for the hour+ he fiddled with the front brake system to make it work correctly. Even after being successful, he had spilled hydralic fluid on the disc and pads and the braking noise was worse than any caliper has ever made.

But he couldn't remove the wheel to do a proper cleaning. It was stuck in the dropouts of the carbon fork. Next thing he does is grab a sledgehammer and proceeded to whack the QR nut. The wheel still hadn't released, so he handed it over to his 19 Y.O. son, and off we went for the ride, up and down hills squealing all the way.

I promise, all this occurred. You can't make this stuff up.

Juan Foote

My road bike is older now, but has a nice set of Ultegra rim brakes. They work really well in everything except wet weather, but indeed do still work if you plan for it. They are quiet, reliable, last long periods between need of attention or adjustment.
It is a bit unfair of a comparison to hydraulicly operated brakes, but both of the newer city/hybrid bikes I purchased have mechanical disk brakes. Both of them work quite well in the wet or dry conditions.....both of them are off and on noisy, fiddly, require constant attention, and even as little as we ride them, have to change the pads more frequently than I ever thought possible. On my wife's bike I constantly have to mess with them not to drag or "scrape" making this funny squeal as you ride. Mine are almost constantly out of adjustment the other way around where they simply don't always have the same feel, even so much as over one ride.

The single biggest gripe of all, aside from all that, is when getting a flat and having to screw around trying to get that damned disk back between the caliper. This most often involves backing out the adjuster/ferrules and stopping several more times right after to adjust things back in. I may be old fashioned, but at this point I prefer rim brakes all the way around.

tyrion

Just realized all you need is a linear actuator that connects to the arms of a mini-V brake and you've got your hydraulic rim brake.

USAZorro

Doesn't using the word "revival" imply that they once had a vival? I honestly don't remember this.

smd4

I'm a Dura Ace guy through and through, but I gotta say, I really like the look of this brake. Did it work well?

wschruba

About as well as all the other ones available/in common use.

(which should tell you: not really worth the trouble)

The problem with rim-brake versions is that they either apply so much force that they can bow the frame/fork apart (see the boosters above) or are attenuated such that they provide no real benefit to the rider versus using a cable-operated brake. They saw a brief resurgence being used for aero-bikes/tri-bikes in particular, because the hydraulic hose was so tolerant of the torturous routing typical of those bikes.

bluehills3149

Leonard Zinn from Velonews reviewed them back in 2012 or so when they were released and was impressed, particularly with the modulation.
https://www.velonews.com/gear/wrench...c-disc-brakes/

Does anyone know of a modern-retro build using these calipers with a new SRAM 12 spd wireless build? It would be a unique take on the modern-classic bike.

chain_whipped

With a quick online shopping, for one Sram hydraulic rim caliper and matched dual control lever cost near $200 shipped.

Scott-Matthauser in 1988 had a hydraulic rim brake for the front only. Caliper and lever, sealed system from factory was $185! Quirky, it had to be mounted behind the fork crown and the main support was to rest against the rear of the fork blade. Use your imagination what the secondary inconvenience were.

mpetry912 

Neat idea but too complicated for the marginal benefit acheived. An answer to a question nobody asked. "Rim Crushers"

The pad / rim interface is the limiting case on rim brakes, as well as the heat generated which then goes into the tires.

I love hydraulic disks on the ebike, but conventional, cable actuated rim brakes are good enough on lightweight bikes, at least for me.

/markp

squirtdad

there are lots of other options other than shimano for cable pulled high end rim brakes

I just put the velo orange grand on a new frame and they handle bigger tires




https://velo-orange.com/collections/...g-reach-brakes

or tektro https://velo-orange.com/collections/...g-reach-brakes

mpetry912 

Those velo orange brakes look very nice, I agree they are prolly made by TRP, thanks for the links

I have the TRP long reach brakes on the Dinucci and they work great.

I did replace the pads with something else just for grins

/markp