Originally Posted by
cpach
Its a matter of degree. As a working mechanic I see about 50 newer Shimano brakes with bleed ports at the lever to one of the older style. They do hold up better than some of their contemporaries... In contrast, if I were taking road bikes, "really old" might be, I dunno, pre 70s bike boom, from my perspective.
Upto a point, their biggest contemporary being Avid Juicy brakes, which BITD were bad when new, and the standard suggestion if anyone needed any work on them when they were new was to replace with Shimano, amazing that any are still around today, the older Shimano design also had a big issue with the cold, the M775 (the one I had plenty of experience with) would go very wooded at sub zero conditions, Obviously this issue won't affect you if you like in a warm climate, but for where I am, it was bad in winters, and as soon as the new design came out, it was replace all and the issue went away