Hydraulic Brakes on RadWagon 4

[ZiZiL]

Hello. I have recently bought RadWagon 4. I has not yet arrived but should be here in 5 days or so. That being said, I am a bit worried about the brakes since I will be carrying my two kids on there.
My mountain bike (non electric) has full hydraulic brakes and I am very impressed with the stopping power. I am curious if anyone here upgraded from the mechanical disc brakes to full hydraulic brakes on radwagons.

Thanks for the responses.

 

[AHicks]

I would ride the bike for a bit and answer the question regarding replacing them based on your experience.

Are the hydraulics nicer? Probably.

Are they necessary to stop the bike safely? I don't believe they are.

Been riding a RAD with mechanical brakes for 4 years now. Still on the original pads. I'm 315 lbs, and the bike is used in an area with some pretty decent hills. We can see 30mph pretty easily coming down some of them. The mechanicals have yet to scare me!

 

[fooferdoggie]

I would ride the bike for a bit and answer the question regarding replacing them based on your experience.

Are the hydraulics nicer? Probably.

Are they necessary to stop the bike safely? I don't believe they are.

Been riding a RAD with mechanical brakes for 4 years now. Still on the original pads. I'm 315 lbs, and the bike is used in an area with some pretty decent hills. We can see 30mph pretty easily coming down some of them. The mechanicals have yet to scare me!

if you're still on the original pads you're not braking a whole lot.

 

[fooferdoggie]

Hydraulic is definitely better.

Some people argue (not you) how they don't need hydraulic brakes because mechanical brakes are still strong enough to lock the front wheel if you squeeze it hard.

What I really liked about full hydraulic (not cable actuated hydraulic) was how it felt like butter and I only had to put very little effort.

Hydraulic brakes are definitely stronger for little effort, and it's not only about stopping power, but for me, it was about control.

I would recommend hydraulic to anyone... and I also like the fact that I don't have to keep adjusting the wire like mechanical brakes.

so true the feel is so much nicer. that charges with brands too. my Shimano it's I have full power with 1 finger. its a great feel.

 

[AHicks]

if you're still on the original pads you're not braking a whole lot.

No city traffic for me. Way more rural. I refuse to ride next to vehicles weighing hundreds of time more than me, with nothing but a white line separating us.... -Al

 

[ZiZiL]

After some research, and recomendations from here, I am thinking about going with the JuinTech M1 and keeping the wires rather than going into full hydaulic. I know it is not perfect but at least I will get the smoth braking and not worry about adjusting the brakes every 20 miles or so. Do you think that is still worth it?

 

[PedalUma]

I would ride the bike for a bit and answer the question regarding replacing them based on your experience.

Are the hydraulics nicer? Probably.

Are they necessary to stop the bike safely? I don't believe they are.

Been riding a RAD with mechanical brakes for 4 years now. Still on the original pads. I'm 315 lbs, and the bike is used in an area with some pretty decent hills. We can see 30mph pretty easily coming down some of them. The mechanicals have yet to scare me!

I agree. Proper adjustment of the mechanical discs is essential. These bikes come with organic pads. Swapping them for multi-metalic will be a huge improvement and is easy.

 

[McCorby]

After some research, and recomendations from here, I am thinking about going with the JuinTech M1 and keeping the wires rather than going into full hydaulic. I know it is not perfect but at least I will get the smoth braking and not worry about adjusting the brakes every 20 miles or so. Do you think that is still worth it?

You may also want to consider TRP Hy/Rd mechanical hydraulic brakes. I have a set on my analog gravel bike and they work great. Whichever mechanical hydraulic brakes you decide on, be sure to use compression-less linear strand cable housings for best performance.

HY/RD – TRP Cycling

trpcycling.com

 

[Terry777]

I think if you’re taking your 2 kids aboard you won’t be needing brakes that will stop you easily from + 30mph buddy or whatever. I think as someone else suggested, give it a whirl and see how you feel. Any modern brakes on a bike from a good reputable reliable manufacturer will be more than enough.
Good luck however you go

 

[McCorby]

Me personally, no.
It will still be exposed to wire friction and cable adjustments. (because the wire will still stretch)

If you go on YouTube and check out the channel called CitizenCycle, they tested that brake on RadRover.
He pretty much said there's not much difference between JuinTech and Rad's mechanical brakes.
Maybe a little bit better, but you won't go like "wow, this is much better"

The only benefit of JuinTech is ease of installation.
You can avoid mild inconvenience of installing Shimano full hydraulic. And it is a mild inconvenience because you only have to do the installation once.
JuinTech is more expensive and it is still not a full hydraulic.

Have you ridden a bike with mechanical hydraulic disk brakes? In my opinion, they perform much better than mechanical disk brakes. I only needed to adjust the cables once after initial cable stretch when new. The key to good performance is using quality compression-less cable housings (See link below). How much do you want to bet CitizenCycle used the original cable housings that came on his bike?

Note: I only have experience with the TRP brakes. I have no experience with the JuinTech.

Pro Compressionless Brake Housing | Jagwire

Pro Compressionless brake housing eliminates flex from cable actuated braking systems, increasing power and improving lever feel.

jagwire.com

 

[fooferdoggie]

After some research, and recomendations from here, I am thinking about going with the JuinTech M1 and keeping the wires rather than going into full hydaulic. I know it is not perfect but at least I will get the smoth braking and not worry about adjusting the brakes every 20 miles or so. Do you think that is still worth it?

you would savew money by going to a shop and having them change over to full hydraulic they would be easier to deal with.

 

[McCorby]

Oops I just re-read your post, you said "mechanical hydraulic" brakes.

No, I have not used JuinTech, but the other thing that I noticed was that, full hydraulic brakes come with nice and compact brake levers because it requires less effort.

I also do not like cable friction.
In my experience, pretty much every bike has noticeable cable friction especially for rear brake (because the cable is longer for rear, inevitably giving more friction).

I totally agree that full hydraulic will give the best performance. But if they don’t want to have to deal with finding hydraulic levers with motor inhibitors or having to bleed the system due to routing the rear brake hose through the frame, mechanical hydraulic is a good option.

The cable housing I linked above was designed to be very low friction btw.... The lever effort on my analog gravel bike’s rear brake feels no different than the front. Overall lever effort is about the same as my ebike‘s Shimano hydraulic brakes.

 

[ZiZiL]

you would savew money by going to a shop and having them change over to full hydraulic they would be easier to deal with.

Actually not easier and not cheaper either. Here is my options:

1) Order the JuinTech M1 for $149 and install them. I can do the installation just fine because they are very easy to do. End of story.
2) Order Shimano 355/365 series brakes. The kit is $120 bucks. The issue is that the tube is not long enough to get to the rear end on RadWagon. So the tube needs to be removed and replaced with a long one and bleed the system. I called two bike shops and they told me they can do both brake instalation with tube replacement for $140 bucks. Thus, we are looking at total of $260 bucks to get them done.

This is a $110 difference which I doubt worth it. I can spend that money towards a controller upgrade kit to be honest. That is my thinking so far.

 

[ZiZiL]

@Timpo I do not undserstand why you think it is cheaper to install full hydraulic on RadWagon. See my post above. It is not cheaper. It almost cost double to instal full system vs caliper only due to tube replacement and bleed. The bike shop told me that the tube will cost me 40 bucks alone.

 

[McCorby]

I now have to agree with Timpo on this. You are better off going with the full hydraulic, even if it ends up costing a little more. I did a little google research and found that the TRP‘s I’ve mentioned may be discontinued, and I personally don’t believe the JuinTech’s are of the same quality. Amazon is selling the TRP’s, but they are $106 for just one caliper!