I can afford it, but it won’t be my main bike, so somehow feel guilty about spending more when I know there is a cheaper version.

It’s the difference between cable and hydraulic brakes on a gravel bike BTW.

Are hydraulic brakes that much nicer?

Yes
You know you want to.

Worth paying the extra for hydros, yes

Why would you feel guilt about spending money you have on a bike you can afford?
And no I’m not looking for an answer.😜

Hahaha!

I guess that settles it then!

Hydro brakes are worth it, every day of the week.

Definitely. I’d definitely rather have hydro discs that mechanical. To the extent if it was a toss up I’d take a Ali frame over a carbon one all else being equal, it’s a bloody expensive upgrade, and they’re loads better.

I’ve had all three type (mechanical, semi hydro and full hydro) and my current 105 hydros are ridiculously good.

My BB7s are really nicely set up now. Compressionless outer made a huge difference and once they’re adjusted they work really well.

However, I’m currently costing up a hydro conversion (going 11sp to 12sp in the process) as I’m regularly swapping wheels and that means a pad re-adjustment every time.

I’d save the interim step if I were you.

Didn’t even put it in the bike forum so can’t be that serious!

If you use your bike regularly, enjoy it and can afford it then why not!

defo get hydraulic.

Unanimous.

Thanks all.

I decided I didn’t need the next model up with hydros when I bought my diverge…

I spent the next 6 months regretting it and hating the brakes until I sold it.

My current bike has hayes cable discs, they work perfectly.
But if i was buying new I wouldn’t even consider a bike with cables nowadays.

My previous experience with cable disks was:

OEM shimano rubbish : rubbish
Hayes : moderately rubbish
Bb7 : over hyped, but acceptable, but still not an improvement on v brakes in the dry.

Then I was building a bike and already had biffters so picked up some cheap spyres. They’re actually not bad. With compression less outer and race matrix pads they feel like hydro’s. Stopping power is on a par or better than with good v’brakes, but still works in the wet (my commuter has v’s at the moment). It’s a much much closer decision than it used to be. And they are very cheap in comparison.

But if buying a whole bike or shifters anyway then it’s a different decision. At that stage it’s only a £200 upgrade and probably worth it.

BB7s, with compassionless cable as @scotroutes says, are perfectly good enough.
Previously they were a bit rubbish, but not sure I’d feel need to move to hydro any time soon for riding I do.

Happy with BB7s on my road bike (std full run cabling, same for 14 years) and hydros on MTB.

Also means I can run whatever gears I want.

Are hydraulic brakes that much nicer?

Absolutely yes.

Another vote for definitely.
Do you want brakes that are great or just “acceptable”?

BB7’s set up well with compression-less outers will easily lock a gravel wheel. Unfortunately from my experience, they don’t very often arrive very well set up and go out of tune easily.

Hydros on a couple of bikes, the oldest hasn’t been touched in 4.5 years.

It took me eventually losing four teeth (two of them ~4.75 years later), titanium plates holding my upper jaw together and some screws holding a couple of metacarpals together from my smash in Xmas 2013 to buy a hydraulic disc brake bike two years and a day ago… I doubt i could ever go back to rim brakes.

However, I’m currently costing up a hydro conversion (going 11sp to 12sp in the process) as I’m regularly swapping wheels and that means a pad re-adjustment every time.

Assuming you’ll still be changing wheels your pad adjustment will become a caliper adjustment every time. But if that’s your justification so be it.

I’ve got hydro disks on my latest road bike as i wanted carbon/aero rims and I know that regardless of pads carbon wheels and caliper brakes are pish.

But I still have a number of bikes with cable disks -including a 75lb cargo bike that has no issues stopping quick enough I worry about the frame at times when it’s fully loaded using boggo standard deore cable disks.

My gravel bike is also my touring bike -for me the cable disks are a positive as there are no seals to fail at an in opportune moment and leave it non operational- if the cable was to snap I’d replace it with the spare cable I carry.

The fragility of Shimano caliper seals does worry me with my road bike unfortunately but since it’s a Sunday best bike it doesn’t worry me “that” much

Definalty get hydraulic.
Mechanical disks are ok but require more adjustment as the pads wear which I found a pain keeping them ‘spot on’ to be honest.

Hydraulic doesn’t suffer from that and feels more powerful and more consistent.

The BB7s are now out-dated IMO. They are a good brake with compressionless outers, but they rely on bending the disc on to the static pad, so setting them up perfectly is almost an art, and past a certain wear point you have to set them up again.

I like hydraulics, but I prefer the stone axe simplicity of cable operation, so Spyres which move both pads are what I prefer now (just bought another set).

Ultimately it doesn’t matter whether you use hydraulic or cable, what matters is reducing the losses between lever and calliper.

Hydraulics come ready set up, just bolt them on. No hassle.

Cable disks can be compromised by bad cabling.

Cheap outers can suck up a lot of the braking effort by compressing, and then the brake appears to lack power.

That’s why compressionless outers are important, and I’m surprised anyone fits anything else – why voluntarily hobble your brakes?.

That’s why I make up my own cable outers from sections of rigid tubing where flexibility is not required.

Adjustment on Spyres is simple and I like that there’s no worry about brake fluid leaks onto the disk or having to bleed them.

Just sold a Cross bike with Spyres as they were no better than a twig in the spokes. New gravel bike has 105 discs and I can now stop in all weather’s with no effort. Its just works and works consistently and safer.

I’m just converting my Arkose to use the Giant Conduct hydraulic system. I put up with mechanical discs (tektro) for years but never liked them. They just didn’t seem powerful enough and I felt compromised in traffic and on busy roads.