Hydraulic rim brakes

[annirak]

I see a few companies are offering hydraulic rim brakes for road bikes now. Is there any real benefit?

I've heard they provide zero drift (cable stretch), better modulation, and less need for adjustment.

I could also see hydraulic brakes being beneficial in terms of multiple control points. You could connect a manifold into the brake line and have a secondary brake lever on a set of aero bars, for example.

Does the complexity outweigh the benefit in the end?

 

[2Loose]

I've been running Magura hydraulic rim brakes on the hybrid for a few years and can confirm that they have fantastic power and modulation, with no adjustment at all apart from when replacing brake blocks.

 

[Crackle]

They're still the brake of choice for trials riders. Cavendish had them on his bike one year but that is about all I know about them.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

I had Magura hydraulic rim brakes on my Pace Research

They were powerful, but still suffered from the usual problems; wet-weather & mud giving poor performance, wearing rims out (I had one shed a 6" length of braking surface on me once!!!!)

This was in the early 90's, so quite a time before discs became available (barring some very expensive American kit)

 

[2Loose]

But Richard, even in the wet they compare favourably with any other type of rim brake...but disks obviously win that one. Hydro rim brakes fall somewhere between normal calipers and disks imo.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

But Richard, even in the wet they compare favourably with any other type of rim brake...but disks obviously win that one. Hydro rim brakes fall somewhere between normal calipers and disks imo.

Maybe later derivatives were better In the wet, when various pad materials were available (so simple to change though, that a 2 year old could do it)

There was one thing about them, no matter how hard you squeezed the lever, Pace seat-stays & fork blades never flexed!!!!