Getting round to building up a bike which will hopefully get on used for a bit of bikepacking throughout Europe, and was wondering whether to go for mechanical or hydro discs (assume cost is unimportant). Now I’ve never had a problem with my mtb hydros and of course they offer superior braking, but are they not such a wise idea when you won’t have the bits to service/fix them yourself and you can’t guarantee that there’ll be an LBS in the area?
Thanks in advance.

i would take cable personally just because you can get it repaired /replaced easier.

BB7s work well enough if not as well.

But I’ve never suffered a failure of either on a ride (only on road touring tho)…nor have I ever heard the “cable discs are better cos you can fix them on the trail” mantra make a difference on a tour, tho I’m happy to be proven wrong.

Seems like an idea rather than a reality.

I’d go for hydro and take a spare seal set and brake line with fittings. Thats what I did

In my experience hydros are more reliable than cable discs anyway (not cable discs are unreliable at all).

Can’t think of anywhere in Europe that I’d be able to get cable discs fixed that I couldn’t get hydro discs fixed too.

what might happen – cable/hose snags on a trail obstacle and pulls out (throwing you off the bike which may of course have other more serious repercussions).

Cable – if you have spare stuff you can probably fix it.

Hydro – hmmmmm.

But are you really likely to have this failure? Has anyone ever had it?

i had my front hydro fail on a local ride and it required bleeding to fix. when i say fail i mean completely stop working was bad enough getting down the descents locally never mind a big hill touring.

easier to just get say another caliper if a cable so an easier fix but both require a stop at a shop.

that said i agree its an unlikely fail

I would go bb7 but I really like them! Find them easy to setup and powerful. I am very much a fix if as I go person though so would hate to be constrained to have to go to a shop to get a brake problem solved (not going to carry the tools to bleed a hydraulic brakes).

Not that I think the chance of failure of either is very high, but the law ok f the sodxworks and some thing that has not failed all year commuting with zero maintenance will fail on that tour you have been planning all year!

to bleed a brake all you need is a spanner ( on my multitool) and a tube? ( I suppose it depends on your brake) To me its easier to do this than replace and set up a cable

Touring? Hydros
Bikepacking? Cable

As any fule kno.

Hydro.

More reliable all round. A friend used cable discs on Transcontinental and she had endless problems with them, including total loss of power at one point.

My experience of cable discs is almost that they’re the worst of both worlds, all the problems of cables with none of the all out power and modulation of hydro discs.

More importantly, however, choose a brake with an easy to find pad. So, XT or Deore. That sort of thing. My Ultegras use XT pads. Widely available.

How long a tour and where? Makes a bit of difference but for a few weeks do you even need new pads? I only replace mine every few thousand miles

to bleed a brake all you need is a spanner ( on my multitool) and a tube?

not the most comprehensive bleeding description i have ever heard 😉

Mine require syringes and fluid as well neither of which would be amongst the things i take with me.

Ok – mine require a spanner on the bleed nipple and a bit of tubing – plus an allen key to open the reservoir. The only extra thing to take would be a few inches of plastic tubing. Not that I bother because it can be bled without the tubing and I have done so. Fluid is easily obtainable if its DOT

Makes a bit of difference but for a few weeks do you even need new pads?

I’d certainly take (or be aware of where I could buy!) new pads for proper touring in Europe. Imagine a long day in the Alps fully laden. In the rain. Lots of brake use, lots of dragging, etc. More chance of cooking a brake, certainly, but definitely more likely to shred a pad. Also, one careless moment with the lube* and a contaminated disc situation?

*Stop that. Stop it right now.

I suppose you have to bound the decision by the worst case scenario.
Which is probably a snagged, pulled out/damaged brake line needing replacement in the arse end of nowhere? Pretty unlikely, Maybe a leaking seal is more plausible? Having to change worn pads is much the same for either

While neither cable or hydraulic would be impossible to sort by a roadside, I would rather be trying to sort a cable brake.

Having to carry fluid,a bleed kit and and other gubbins Vs just taking spare inner/outer cables and pads seems like the better option to me…

But then hydraulic discs are pretty well proven and reliable, the liklihood of some sort of catastrophic failure is actually quite low…

The only difference with what you need to take is either a spare cable or a brake hose and fittings and stuff to bleed the brakes

Having toured a fair bit I do carry the spare hose when touring – because we tour offroad and could rip the hose out. Never needed it tho. Only ever had one failure when away from home – a seal went and I rebuilt the caliper in the campsite and bled it. DOT fluid is available at every garage

As already mentioned here just get something that has easily available pads, more important than cable or hydro. These days I use cable brakes on all my tour/bikepacking bikes mainly to help avoid damage in transit. Hydros are reliable enough, I just don’t want to see a damaged bike box (use card boxes for point-to-point trips) causing a pulled hose, or pulled lever with the spacers out, causing an time-killing issue. Cables are easier to replace than a hose but it’s still not a major concern, spokes are more vulnerable for ex.

The only brake issues I’ve seen have been leaky seals caused perhaps by the heat of long loaded-up descents. Then again I’ve had to back off BB7 and Spyre brakes to avoid overheating, I expect a brake-dragger can cook any brake and a cable brake will be damaged by overheating faster.

A friend used cable discs on Transcontinental and she had endless problems with them, including total loss of power at one point.

Respectfully suggesting that they used a brake that was poorly set up, not adjusted for wear as they rode etc, since the all-cable systems tend to be pretty consistent now. Could be similar issues with a hydro. Hydros probably a better bet for the less mechanically confident though, no adjustment needed.

Think it depends on preference and what you are comfortable using and maintaining. Amazon can post spares pretty much anywhere now so that not a major issue although I always carry spare pads unless its a very local ride.

My personal choice is cable discs because of the risk of hose damage or seal failure, in transit or in use, and it being easier to replace a cable. That said the likelihood of that happening on a decent pair of hydraulics is tiny. So that’s just my preference. I prefer to carry a spare cable than spare fluid/plastic pipe etc. But then again thats my choice. I ride with serial shimano users who know their brakes and their foibles inside out 😀

Another reason for me is I prefer drop bars when touring and also 9 or 10 speed for longevity and there aren’t many 9 or 10 speed hydraulic drop bars systems.

Meh…what do you know?
you only ride a few laps of swinley car park..at most….

DrP

😉

To be fair there aren’t many places more gnarly than Swinley carpark 😐

I’d go for what you like most cable or hydro… the problem is when you start worrying about what may break you suddenly find that you actually need a spare bike.

I’m not saying don’t take extra pads or olives this can make life easier but pretty much everything can/will break or won’t.

DrP would have been well happy if he was up a mountain in the Himalayas if his TI(frame for life) did its crack trick as I expect that was the last thing he thought was going to break on the bike.

(don’t forget spare gear hanger thou)

Taking a loaded touring bike down a col will cook hydros. I’d take cable any day of the week.

fourbanger it doesn’t have to you know if you use them properly! Having said that cable disc are more heat resistant than hydros

Thanks for all the replies peoples, as said above I keep thinking I need to basically take a whole spare bike, but as the consensus is that hydros are plenty reliable enough I’ll go with them, and take a spare lever and hose, as well as plenty of pads, should cover most eventualites.
Cheers