sjanzeir

I've been eyeballing some hydraulic rim brakes from Magura and wondering if they're worth it for almost $300 for a set. Anyone would expect them to be reliable and well made for the price, but are they really any better than the already excellent rim brakes I've been running on my Dahon Mu and my Trek 7.6 FX? Could you tell me more about them?

Andrew R Stewart 

The Magura HS33s have been the go to hydraulic rim brakes for a couple of decades. I have a set on my Monty trials bike and know of others who use them on both other trials and tandem bikes. HS33s are best mounted on their spec bosses but do have the hardware to fit common canti bosses.

I find these brakes have greater clamping "power" but still suffer from the rim aspect, like cable brakes also deal with. While there's some improvement to braking not enough to offset the cost and unique replacement pads in many rider's opinions (of there would be many more bikes w/ these brakes).

If the current brakes work well for you I suggest going for a ride and being happy. Andy (who can't ride his Monty in the way it is made for)

Moisture

Totally agree ^

HillRider

Based on their limited availability and few makers, I have to conclude hydraulic rim brakes are the answer to a question almost nobody asked. Unlike disc brakes, where hydraulics are pretty much the go-to and cable operated versions are in the minority, hydraulics have almost no benefit over good quality cable rim brakes.

Rick

I have the hs-66 on my tandem. They have been there for a good many years. They are a huge improvement over conventional rim brakes. They are better than mechanical disk brakes. Once installed they are low maintenance. You need no tools to install new brake pads. Magura wore out the molds for the hs-66 so it is No longer manufactured. It was the drop bar version. The flat bar version the hs-33 is still manufactured. Having sold over 300,000 sets last year they have no plans to stop manufacturing them. They are better by far in rain and snow than conventional rim brakes. The bicycle rim is a much larger disk to stop with and these brakes take advantage of this. If you like them and don't want to break the bank go to bike 24. These brakes use low pressure hydraulic hoses and I have never needed to change the hydraulic fluid in them. If you are setting them up on a Tandem you will need to order more low Pressure hydraulic hose. You will need a bleed kit. These brakes use a closed hydraulic system. YouTube has some videos on the bleeding and trimming of the lines.

sjanzeir

I was kinda sorta thinking of running the Magura rim brake assemblies with whichever Shimano levers that would work... Sort of a Shigura mod, but with rim brakes... 😬
I'm not nearly there yet, though.

mtbikerjohn 

I wish they would make the HS66 levers again. I love using my HS33's on my Black Mountain Cycles monstercross frame, but can only use them with flat bars. I've read somewhere where someone used Shimano hydro levers mated to the Magura brake cylinders. Wish I can find the thread again which explains the hose modifications needed.

sjanzeir

From what I've gathered, the conversation is much more straightforward with flat bars: all you need is Shimano fittings at the lever end and Magura fittings at the caliper end and Bob's your uncle. Some say that either brand's mineral oil will work just fine.

mtbikerjohn 

Flat bar set up is basically a no-brainer. I think it was on Weight Wienies that someone mated Shimano Ultegra hydro levers to the now discontinued Magura road hydro brakes. Magura had stopped making replacement lever parts and the person in question figured out how to adapt the Ultegra levers to the Magura master cylinder. I think the same can be used for the HS33 master cylinders.

sjanzeir

There seems to be a general consensus on two things: a. That you need to choose carefully which Shimano levers you match to what Magura calipers (it's basically a two-piston vs. four-piston thing) and b. That you should be fine with any brake lever from the Big S as long as it's not the Servo Wave type.

Leisesturm

I ultimately decided to upgrade to compressionless housing vs the Magura swap but I did get as far as putting a pair of the Magura's in my Amazon cart. IIRC they were $89/ea. for lever, caliper, hose and Royal Blood (mineral oil) hydraulic fluid. That's enough short of $300 to wonder where the o.p. was doing their shopping. I also have an ongoing experiment with mini vees (short pull) mated to standard long pull levers! The OEM combination of Flight Deck (105) brifters with the Tektro RX5 mini-v's was NOT inspiring. It was either the Magura's or the lever swap. So far so good.

veganbikes

Would not do it. You need really stout rims and ideally flat bars and use the proper levers and calipers.

If I am really looking to upgrade, there is Cane Creek's eeBrakes for Sidepull stuff, Paul Racers for Centerpull, Paul MotoLites or MiniMotos for your long or short Linear Pull stuff, and Paul Touring and Neo Retro for Cantilevers. Pair those with good stiff shoes and pads from the Stops (Kool or Swiss) and good compressionless brake housing and nicely polished stainless steel cables (uncoated) such as you will find in the Jagwire Elite Link or Pro kits you will have excellent braking. Honestly the consumables (shoes/pads/cables/housing) are the best upgrade for any cable brakes but if you want the absolute best you can upgrade the calipers as well.

I love Magura but having seen a lot of the HS33s on electric bikes and them just not being that great I cannot recommend them as much. I know a lot of trials riders had good luck with Magura hydro rim stuff but these days it is just silly. I did like the look of their caliper TT brakes though, those actually looked cool in the black and red and would have matched a bike I had when those were out but I am glad I didn't go for them. I didn't end up keeping the bike and honestly wouldn't have wanted to deal with hydraulics at that point.

Lazyass

I bought a set of HS33's in the 90's when they first came out. I loved them. I wish they had become more popular for road bikes. It would have been nice if Shimano had gone that direction with their road groups and had their pro teams racing them because everyone else would have followed them.

HillRider

I just checked Amazon's Magura offerings and the HS33 brakes were listed for $148/set which is pretty close to $300 for the complete bike. The only $89 item was a set of their disc brakes.

Leisesturm

It is possible it was HS11's I had in my cart. No way to tell now. Since I go out of my way to find 3 finger levers whenever possible, the HS11 levers probably appealed to me more. The fact that hydraulic rim brake pads hit the rim with a straight on motion appealed even more. No more brake pad dive! I may not be completely done with the idea ...

Rick

As I stated before once installed The Magura hydraulic rim brakes are maintenance free. other than changing pads which is a tooless operation if you have quick release wheels. If you haven't ridden a bicycle with properly setup Magura rim brakes don't comment about theIr stopping power. 18 to 20 years ago I purchased a set of hs-66 brakes from Cambria bicycles. They are on my Tandem. They are the best rim brakes I have ever owned. The hs-33s have larger hydraulic cylinders than the hs-66 brakes. they are made in Germany. If you aren't rich then purchase from a German source like bike24. My last order from bike24 took only 7 days from the time I ordered. They say 10-14 days.

ClydeClydeson

I have ridden plenty of bikes with Magura rim brakes. I had the HS22 (same design as HS33 but without some adjustment knobs), had a couple friends with HS33s, and built some Cannondales that came with HS33s for sale in the shop where I worked. They were sometimes a bit of trouble to keep from squealing like a pig poked with hot poker, but always stopped on a dime and gave you 9 cents change.

When rim hydraulics were introduced, centre-pull cantilever brakes were the norm on mountain bikes, and these have the design weakness that the higher the straddle cable goes, the less leverage you have to pull the brake arm toward the rim, while hydraulic brakes provided braking force that directly followed your input force at the lever. In ~1995, however, V brakes and long-pull levers became available and these accomplished basically the same thing as hydros at a much lower cost and complexity. Yes, hydraulic brakes are close to maintenance-free once properly set up, but the maintenance on V brakes is simple and you only need a 5mm allen key to do everything required, which is generally nothing except for maybe semi-annual adjustments or pad replacements (greatly simplified by cartridge pads).

Then in the early 2000s, just about every good quality MTB started coming with disc brakes, and after a few generations of those worked the bugs out, they were obviously superior in every way, esp. hydraulic discs, if your frame and wheels were compatible.
So hydraulic rim brakes are an interesting solution if you are retrofitting and old bike without disc mounts, but in reality aren't actually 'better' than other types of brakes commonly used.