touring and flying with hydraulic disc brakes

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
HarryD
Posts: 296
Joined: 9 Jan 2007, 5:44pm

Re: touring and flying with hydraulic disc brakes

Post by HarryD »

Have done 2 to 4 week tours every year for last 15 years on a slicked mountain bike with hydraulic brakes in Norway, France, Spain & Italy. No issues with reliability & no problems with long descents from high passes (e.g. Cime de Bonnet 2802m). Like anything else can get them checked out before setting off.

Also very happy with my Ultregra dual pivots on my unloaded road bike on similar descents

Airlines happy to take them. Have used EasyJet, SAS, KLM, Ryanair & Jet2. EasyJet state on their website that hydraulic brakes & suspensions are fine.

Not sure if this helps but never having had a sudden failure when mountain biking I've never thought they would be an issue
reohn2
Posts: 45158
Joined: 26 Jun 2009, 8:21pm

Re: touring and flying with hydraulic disc brakes

Post by reohn2 »

TonyR
I've never had the problem you mention,with cable disc brakes.

My point was that cable discs are easier to contend with by the roadside,should I need to.
Last edited by reohn2 on 31 Jan 2016, 6:27pm, edited 1 time in total.
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"All we are not stares back at what we are"
W H Auden
Tiberius
Posts: 799
Joined: 31 Dec 2014, 8:45am
Location: North East England

Re: touring and flying with hydraulic disc brakes

Post by Tiberius »

I'm a dead simple bloke.....

I choose my brakes by how quickly they slow me down. NOT by how easy/difficult/possibly/maybe/probably/worry worry worry they can be fixed 'by the side of the road'....

I'm fairly new to cycling ( I have a motorcycling background ...I've toured the world on 'em ) So, serious question for all you 'experienced' cycling bods......Has a major tour on a push bike EVER IN THE HISTORY OF THIS PLANET come to an end due to brake failure ???...

I can tell you this with 100% certainty, it would not stop me doing anything.....

You can probably tell, I have a VERY low tolerance of chronic pessimisim !!!.....
mattsccm
Posts: 5101
Joined: 28 Nov 2009, 9:44pm

Re: touring and flying with hydraulic disc brakes

Post by mattsccm »

If you worry about technology braking I would leave the gears behind as well. They are far more fragile that hydraulic discs. In the decade and a half or there abouts I haven't broken or even mildly injured hydraulic discs on my MTB which gets way more hard use than any tour I bet. No MTBer would be without them unless they have a fetish for old style stuff ( not a bad idea actually) or they want to be able to hand forge a spare part from a Mongolian soup plate. Its only a brake. If you snap one off you walk down a hill.
Having used cable discs on my roughstuff bikes for 6 years I would swear by them. Over Xmas I swapped the road bike from cable to hydro discs and by god they are better. If you are starting from scratch price up hydros then cables plus the shifters. They won't be far apart.
Of course you will have the problem that no hydro road system plays with triple chainsets if that's what you need.
mattsccm
Posts: 5101
Joined: 28 Nov 2009, 9:44pm

Re: touring and flying with hydraulic disc brakes

Post by mattsccm »

Why worry about fixing something that is unlikely to break and if it does its not critical?
reohn2
Posts: 45158
Joined: 26 Jun 2009, 8:21pm

Re: touring and flying with hydraulic disc brakes

Post by reohn2 »

Tiberius wrote:I'm a dead simple bloke.....

I choose my brakes by how quickly they slow me down. NOT by how easy/difficult/possibly/maybe/probably/worry worry worry they can be fixed 'by the side of the road'....

I'm fairly new to cycling ( I have a motorcycling background ...I've toured the world on 'em ) So, serious question for all you 'experienced' cycling bods......Has a major tour on a push bike EVER IN THE HISTORY OF THIS PLANET come to an end due to brake failure ???...

I can tell you this with 100% certainty, it would not stop me doing anything.....


It would stop you stopping :shock:

You can probably tell, I have a VERY low tolerance of chronic pessimisim !!!.....

You'll come across a bit of it on here,It's known as a difference of opinion :wink:
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"All we are not stares back at what we are"
W H Auden
pwa
Posts: 17366
Joined: 2 Oct 2011, 8:55pm

Re: touring and flying with hydraulic disc brakes

Post by pwa »

Tiberius wrote:I'm a dead simple bloke.....

I choose my brakes by how quickly they slow me down. NOT by how easy/difficult/possibly/maybe/probably/worry worry worry they can be fixed 'by the side of the road'....

I'm fairly new to cycling ( I have a motorcycling background ...I've toured the world on 'em ) So, serious question for all you 'experienced' cycling bods......Has a major tour on a push bike EVER IN THE HISTORY OF THIS PLANET come to an end due to brake failure ???...

I can tell you this with 100% certainty, it would not stop me doing anything.....

You can probably tell, I have a VERY low tolerance of chronic pessimisim !!!.....


I've had a hydraulic disc brake overheat and stop working completely. Admittedly that was on a tandem, which is hard on brakes. I'd prefer cables so that there is no fluid to boil. You can easily replace glazed pads. The discs themselves are a bit delicate on a bicycle, unlike on a motorcycle, and can distort enough to muck things up completely.
Tiberius
Posts: 799
Joined: 31 Dec 2014, 8:45am
Location: North East England

Re: touring and flying with hydraulic disc brakes

Post by Tiberius »

mattsccm wrote:Why worry about fixing something that is unlikely to break and if it does its not critical?


......Yup !!!!....... :wink:
reohn2
Posts: 45158
Joined: 26 Jun 2009, 8:21pm

Re: touring and flying with hydraulic disc brakes

Post by reohn2 »

mattsccm wrote:Why worry about fixing something that is unlikely to break and if it does its not critical?


Because the brown stuff happens,as us old pessimists,or should that be 'realists',would say :wink:
Last edited by reohn2 on 31 Jan 2016, 6:29pm, edited 1 time in total.
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"All we are not stares back at what we are"
W H Auden
pwa
Posts: 17366
Joined: 2 Oct 2011, 8:55pm

Re: touring and flying with hydraulic disc brakes

Post by pwa »

mattsccm wrote:If you worry about technology braking I would leave the gears behind as well. They are far more fragile that hydraulic discs. In the decade and a half or there abouts I haven't broken or even mildly injured hydraulic discs on my MTB which gets way more hard use than any tour I bet. No MTBer would be without them unless they have a fetish for old style stuff ( not a bad idea actually) or they want to be able to hand forge a spare part from a Mongolian soup plate. Its only a brake. If you snap one off you walk down a hill.
Having used cable discs on my roughstuff bikes for 6 years I would swear by them. Over Xmas I swapped the road bike from cable to hydro discs and by god they are better. If you are starting from scratch price up hydros then cables plus the shifters. They won't be far apart.
Of course you will have the problem that no hydro road system plays with triple chainsets if that's what you need.


Have you tried descending a 15 mile Alpine pass with a heavily loaded bike, using hydraulic discs? That's different to normal MTB use. More heat involved.

I would tour with hydraulic discs if that is what my bike had. I wouldn't let it stop me. But it wouldn't be my first choice for a touring bike.
TonyR
Posts: 5390
Joined: 31 Aug 2008, 12:51pm

Re: touring and flying with hydraulic disc brakes

Post by TonyR »

pwa wrote:I've had a hydraulic disc brake overheat and stop working completely. Admittedly that was on a tandem, which is hard on brakes. I'd prefer cables so that there is no fluid to boil. You can easily replace glazed pads. The discs themselves are a bit delicate on a bicycle, unlike on a motorcycle, and can distort enough to muck things up completely.


Both stopped working simultaneously? And were they tandem rated brakes? But lets face it braking on a tandem is hard on any brakes. You can overheat the rims and blow the tyres off or you can melt and glaze over the rim brake pads. Which is why if you want to do loaded tandem touring in hilly areas you are best off with a drag brake and if not, regular stops to let things cool down.
pwa
Posts: 17366
Joined: 2 Oct 2011, 8:55pm

Re: touring and flying with hydraulic disc brakes

Post by pwa »

TonyR wrote:
pwa wrote:I've had a hydraulic disc brake overheat and stop working completely. Admittedly that was on a tandem, which is hard on brakes. I'd prefer cables so that there is no fluid to boil. You can easily replace glazed pads. The discs themselves are a bit delicate on a bicycle, unlike on a motorcycle, and can distort enough to muck things up completely.


Both stopped working simultaneously? And were they tandem rated brakes? But lets face it braking on a tandem is hard on any brakes. You can overheat the rims and blow the tyres off or you can melt and glaze over the rim brake pads. Which is why if you want to do loaded tandem touring in hilly areas you are best off with a drag brake and if not, regular stops to let things cool down.


Thorn tandem with 2 vees (i.e. rim brakes) and a rear Hope Mono 6 piston disc brake with large disc. Thorn, in fairness, did warn that disc brakes can be seriously cooked by a tandem. All brakes have their good and bad points, but only a hydraulic disc brake has ever stopped working completely for me. In an instant, on a very steep descent with a bend coming up. Lever to the bar with no result.
pete75
Posts: 16370
Joined: 24 Jul 2007, 2:37pm

Re: touring and flying with hydraulic disc brakes

Post by pete75 »

Tiberius wrote: So, serious question for all you 'experienced' cycling bods......Has a major tour on a push bike EVER IN THE HISTORY OF THIS PLANET come to an end due to brake failure ???...

I can tell you this with 100% certainty, it would not stop me doing anything.....

You can probably tell, I have a VERY low tolerance of chronic pessimisim !!!.....


I can tell you this if your brakes fail at the wrong time and in the wrong place it may stop you doing anything apart from being put in a box and shoved in the ground.
'Give me my bike, a bit of sunshine - and a stop-off for a lunchtime pint - and I'm a happy man.' - Reg Baker
Bigdummysteve
Posts: 353
Joined: 24 May 2015, 9:29am
Location: Oxfordshire

Re: touring and flying with hydraulic disc brakes

Post by Bigdummysteve »

I've never had a single problem hydraulic brakes, they are a very very simple device, true seals could blow but usually this would not be a catastrophic failure and would be caught with routine Maintenance. Spares could easily be lighter than those require for cable brakes ( seals, a few olives and oil)
While I have heard of hydraulics failing on long descents most of the problems seem to be related to poor equipment choice,don't use tiny light weight aftermarket rotors on touring or heavily loaded bikes, I use Shimano slx brakes on my dummy and have never suffered from fade even loaded up to an estimated 100lbs at speeds of up to 50mph.
Mechanical brakes can also fail, cables can snap etc

While not a road or touring sample very few respondents on this thread had many problems
http://forums.mtbr.com/brake-time/anyon ... 26367.html

This was extracted from http://velonews.competitor.com/2013/11/ ... red_308954

Obviously, any sort of fade is highly dangerous. But discs are not the only brake system that will fail with excessive heat. SRAM was able to blow a tire off its rim after five minutes at 550 watts (on a dynamo tester), but saw zero damage to its disc brakes after 12 minutes at 800 watts. In other words, if you’ve never blown a tire off a rim due to heat, you’ll certainly never boil your road discs

Basically I think hydraulic brakes are a lot more reliable than some think.
Tiberius
Posts: 799
Joined: 31 Dec 2014, 8:45am
Location: North East England

Re: touring and flying with hydraulic disc brakes

Post by Tiberius »

pete75 wrote: I can tell you this if your brakes fail at the wrong time and in the wrong place it may stop you doing anything apart from being put in a box and shoved in the ground.


So, BOTH brakes fail....'at the wrong time' (Me....at the SAME time ?????......Worry Worry Worry !!!!!!)

Seriously ...YOU....CAN ....NOT ...BE ....SERIOUS !!!! *

*jonny Mac ....Wimbledon.....Ages ago...... :mrgreen:
Last edited by Vorpal on 3 Feb 2016, 11:36am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: fix quotes
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