On Tuesday, April 9, 2019 at 8:09:56 AM UTC+1, Chalo wrote:
A cable has never leaked out of one of my cable-actuated brakes, disc or no. A cable has never fouled any of my breaking surfaces by touching them, nor damaged the pads beyond repair.

These are a couple of things to bear in mind when you use oil instead of cable to apply the brake.

At the very least it is smart to consider a sealed-for-life system if you must have hydraulic liquid on on your bike. I specced one on my fave bike because I was fed-up with uncontrollably sudden stops from Shimano's hub brakes, instantaneous pad wear from Shimano's disc brakes, and the constant adjustments required by mechanical rim brakes. All I wanted was a progressive, strong enough, and service-free system, not too much to ask if you're waving a fistful of money. Bike vendors, importers and manufacturers, all except one, looked at me like I was crazy: didn't I know that a cyclist proves his worth by suffering?

With Magura's sealed for life system, the HS11 and HS33, I got 622mm discs because the hydraulic callipers work on the rim of the wheel, not inefficiently near its centre. Avoiding the ****poor advice on this forum that only the strongest brakes would prove my manhood, I specified the lower pressure, much more progressive HS11*, and even removed the cross-fork stiffening back between the callipers for a bit of additional slack, and have been very happy with the resulting smoothly progressive braking for 10 years. Zero service in ten years, not even changing the brake blocks, which still have another 10K left in them, having already done 10K and change. I still have all the replacement parts (brake blocks, retubing kit, etc) that I ordered with the bike, and don't foresee using them either.

* Back then the -33 had a smaller chamber than the -11, and thus more pressure. Today both are mechanically and hydraulically exactly the same, the only difference the last time I looked being that the -33 and "racing" derivatives are dressed up in sober black to look "professional" and bump up the price while the -11 offers colourful slipcovers, which someone will no doubt shortly be along to damn as "girly" and far too cheerful for "real cyclists".

Andre Jute
Hedonist