Brakes for winter use

[Bob]

This could go here or in the Winter Bikepacking forum, anyway. I'm in the process of getting a fat bike, it's a rolling chassis and amongst the kit I need to complete the bike are brakes.

The bike won't be my main off-roader but will be mainly for winter use. Note that here in the UK "winter" is probably closer to what would be termed "shoulder" seasons in the US, we don't get that many days below freezing and outside Scotland days below -5C are even rarer but I've also entered the Rovaniemi 150 and it's likely to be pretty cold around the Arctic Circle in February.  

So what would be best in terms of brakes, mechanical or hydraulic? My other mountain bikes have Shimano XT hydraulics and my CX bike has TRP Spyres so have experience of both (my old commuter bike had Avid BB7s so know those as well) just not in very cold weather. Searches bring up polarised (unintended pun, sorry) views - who would have thought that of the internet? - with some having bad experiences of both systems and others having not had any problems with either. Local bike mechanic reckons BB7s as they are easier to service trail side but TBH I have found them a little bit fiddly at times.

Thoughts bikers please!

[Lentamentalisk]

Doesn't really matter till you get to freezing. Hell, even rim brakes are fine till you dip your wheel in a frozen over puddle and end up with a sheet of ice over your breaking surface. Below freezing disc brakes are nice. Below 0F, from what I hear, hydraulics start to be problematic. If you are riding in the wet, and then it drops below freezing, any cables that had moisture in them will freeze up, and you'll find yourself without shifting or braking.

But like you said, in the UK, it doesn't really matter. Any sort of disc will be nice.

[Sparkyga]

If your coldest normal winter temp is -5C I wouldn't sweat over your brakes too much.

I've run Avid BB7's in sub -40C and they have been totally fine, if not a pleasure to use

[Bob]

Cheers guys.

I've always found the temperatures around freezing to be the hardest for most kit to deal with since there's a constant freeze-thaw cycle going on as you pop in and out of localised micro-climates. Once you are down below the -5C sort of range then it's a "dry cold" and in one way much easier to handle. I've mountaineering experience of seriously cold temps but not biking in them.

I'll wave the credit card at some nice internet guy and get him to send me some BB7s then.

[Don_13]

FWIW at this stage, consider cable routing with any cable operated discs.  My rear brake is a chain stay mounted Spyre which has generally been great.  But...   The cable routing has the open end of the cable outer facing upwards and it does collect water in there.  It froze solid on me in April on an overnighter between Aberdeenshire and the Trossachs!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Bob]

To wrap this up :

The seller of the rolling chassis sold me the set of BB7s that he'd used on the bike when he did the Rovaniemi.

The race was last weekend and they worked fine, temps were -6C to -16C so not too cold.