Swapped from cable housing to full hydraulic disc brakes on my touring rig and glad I finally did it

Honestly I spent like 3 years fighting with mechanical discs on my Surly. Constant cable stretch, rubbing in the rain, having to adjust at trailheads. Last month I finally bit the bullet and grabbed a full Shimano GRX hydraulic setup for about $350 all in. Took me a whole afternoon to install and bleed because I'm not a pro, but first ride in the wet was night and day. Stopping power is just way more consistent now. Anyone else make the switch later than they should have?

2 comments

2 Comments

faith_carter23d ago

My 2018 Kona Sutra was the same way... spent two years constantly fiddling with those TRP Spyres cables. I finally installed some Shimano MT200 brakes I found on sale for like $80 for the whole set. The difference in modulation alone was worth the switch, cable disc brakes always felt so on/off to me. Bleeding them was my first time too and I definitely made a mess but once I got all the air out it was smooth sailing. Now I can actually brake confidently loaded down on steep descents without white knuckling.

jessica84123d ago

Wait, did you have to swap the rotors too or did the MT200s play nice with your existing ones? I've been on the fence about going hydro on my touring rig but the whole rotor compatibility thing has me second guessing. That price point is wild though, I was looking at some Juin Tech hybrids but even those run over a hundred. @faith_carter your point about modulation is exactly what I'm after, my current cables feel like a light switch even with compressionless housing. The bleeding mess sounds about right for a first timer, I tried it on a friend's set and ended up with fluid on my driveway and a weirdly squishy lever for a week until I realized I'd left the cup half open.