Originally Posted by
corrado33
Really? Ever heard of the emergency brake? I'll tell you what, let's have a contest. We each get to bring one tool. You switch out a set of hydraulic brakes and I'll switch out a set of mechanical.
Oh I agree. I've personally never had issues with hydraulic brakes, even on my cars. The point is you simply CAN'T fix it in the middle of nowhere. Mechanical disk brakes are solid and very hard to break. At the COOP I LOVE the cheap wal-mart bikes that come in with disk brakes. Why? Even though they're crap I can still fix and adjust them in a matter of minutes. Hydraulic brakes? Heck no. Mechanical disk brakes don't need yearly maintenance, where as hydraulic you should periodically change out your fluid, or top it off.
Now, on the other hand, I've had a quite a few friends have VERY high quality hydraulic disk brakes fail on them, multiple times. One was even a set of nice XTRs and another was a set of XTs.
Realistically, what are the odds of a line breaking in the middle of nowhere for no reason? Going by my experience with cable actuated drum, and rollerbrakes, its really nothing more than a personal preference issue. Hydraulic brakes require no adjustment, and no more maintenance than a cable, so they're my preference.