What fooferdoggie said. Hydros are a step up and you see them used on modern quality bikes. My Modolo Master Pro rim brakes stopped my road bike great in the 1990's, and they were precision instruments. But I wouldn't use them today because there are better tools for the job now. And they are not unduly expensive. So if they're missing, its a sign other corners likely have been cut.
yes it came with shimano deore (actually a step down) hydraulic brakes were only good basic slopes. we had places we could not stop fully it was crazy.
I like top of the line components and I am willing to spend extra for them. However, if someone is on a budget, I don't think that mechanical brakes from a name brand manufacturer on a class 1 ebike is a safety concern. If you are spending less than $2K on an ebike (not DIY), I guarantee that compromises on the quality of the components have been made to reach that price point.
This Garmin radar setup is super interesting to me. Could you say more about the radar saving you from an accident?
Agree. Better components aren't just about safety. Hydraulic brakes are becoming standard equipment for arthritic hands, suspension seats for lumbar pain, etc.
2-lane country road with no shoulder… which is very common here in rural Tennessee. 50 MPH speed limit, but most people do 55-60 (or more). At the top of the hill I was on, the road turns slightly left and goes down even steeper. I was nearing the top of a hill when the radar went off (audible alert) with a red color indicating that the vehicle is approaching rapidly. Briefly looking down at the mirror I verified a large pickup truck was coming on quickly and just got to the point of the hill to where I could see an oncoming car in the other direction at close to the same distance away. Because of the hill, neither of the vehicles could see each other. There was no shoulder and past the pavement was only a deep ditch. Fortunately, the bank of the ditch wasn’t too sharp so I push my right foot down, rode off into the ditch a foot or two off the road, and stopped. Good thing I did too as both vehicles passed each other just slightly ahead of where I was and probably would have been meeting at my location on the road.
Really, safety and stopping power is not the main attraction with doing hydros. Its more about rider satisfaction with the bike. Being a moderator on the Sondors FB group, and one other that focuses on the general retail ebike rider, each has a population of thousands of riders, mostly new to bikes period and with little experience beforehand. They're all riding heavy ebikes of course, and a very, very common issue is riders running into cable stretch and having to adjust and then readjust the cables and pads as normal wear takes its course. As the brakes go out of adjustment people feel - and hear - the pads rubbing and so on and it pisses them off, as you'd expect.
Those are valid points. It is not fair to say hydros are no maintenance though. Bleeding hydraulic brakes is a bit more work than adjusting cable actuated brakes and if you need to cut the tubes to fit the bike, you will need to bleed them.
Hydro vs cable disc brakes choice for me is about the fact that hydro disc brakes retract both pistons on each side (or sets of pistons). The reason this matters is hydraulic disc brakes set up with pistons at a reasonable distance from the rotor so there is no "chuff, chuff, chuff" sound as the rotor touches a very close pad every revolution. By contrast, the most common cable discs such as Avid BB-5 and BB-7 have only one piston that moves toward the rotor. The other side's piston is stationary and has the rotor pushed against it by the moving piston. This design works fine in practice and has stopped a million mountain bikes since discs were introduced. Since it works ok, it may hardly matter that I dislike this design, and find it to be an engineering kluge to require the rotor to be bent out of plane toward the stationary piston, even if it only has to bend a little. In recent years TRP released their Spyre mechanical disc brake that has both pistons moving toward the rotor and both retracting. In theory this fixes the kluge but the Spyre brake has some stiffness problems and goes out of adjustment too easily in practice. It's fine, but I am happy to skip over cable / mechanical disc brakes entirely. Hydraulic technology is mature, reliable, and easy to learn, and the only real problem with it is that old school bicycle mechanics (like me) didn't have the tools or experience to fix it, especially out on the road or trail. My preference was to learn the "new" skills and how to use the new hydro tools (few and simple), and move fully to hyrdo disc brakes on bicycles and e-bikes. It's true that cable discs will stop ok for many e-bikes as ridden in their environment, and if they do, great. I still ride (cable) rim-brakes on many of my cycles and they stop well too. I build all my bikes from the frame up so I choose the components I prefer, and even modified the new e-bike I bought in late March, including switching out it's full hydro brakes for better full hydro brakes. Not necessary for function, but it was a happy preference for me.
These are good performers in my experience. I like the version that has a reservoir at the caliper so they are self-adjusting like regular full hydro brakes. The self-adjusting capability of hydro brakes (with reservoir), is a key reason to prefer them, as m@Roberson pointed out. Adjusting cable-mechanical discs is not a big deal when you get the habit in place, and they tend to require a bit of extra attention anyway because of how close the stationary piston needs to stay to the rotor. But I'm glad there are hydraulic calipers that work with cable levers for those times when you have specific levers you need to use, or for folders as you say.
OK, your post piqued my curiosity and my subsequent research convinced me I want a Garmin RTL510 on my new and yet to arrive R&M Load 75.
I use both because its a lto easier to record rides to strava with the garmin and I already had i weh nI installed the nyon. Plus you get temp and whateverr else you cat fit on one screen on the nyon and notifications too.
A bike I used to commute with had steel wheels, and they were poor for stopping when wet. But I never had that kind of problem with aluminum wheels.
From what I understand, the price difference is small between the RTL510 and the RTL515. If you may want to use the Garmin radar with a phone, the RTL515 supports BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) where the 510 does not.
buy.garmin.com
