Do any of your bikes have Magura rim brakes?

[Chris667]

Hello everyone.

I have had Magura rim brakes since... forever. A faff to set up, but then you can forget about them.

Do any of you choose them for your Thorn (or not Thorn) touring bikes?

I am just curious - they seem to have fallen out of favour a bit, and I have a big bike purchase coming up in the future.

[PH]

Were they ever in favour?  I know they were the go to for a lot of German cycle tourists for a number of years, but they were always a bit of a rarity in the UK. At least amongst touring cyclists, I understand they were a real boon for trials riders, but that isn't a field I know anything about. I tried them on my Raven for a short while, I didn't dislike them, but neither was I wholly impressed, the front one needed a brake booster to get the squealing down to an acceptable level and although I appreciated the light touch, and the self adjusting, I don't think they greatly improved my stopping distances.   I would have stuck with them, but along came carbide rims and there was no Magura pad, so the V's went back on.
I know they have their fans and if they work for you I can see no reason not to continue with them, but for me, hydraulic discs are preferable in every way.

[martinf]

I have had Magura rim brakes since... forever. A faff to set up, but then you can forget about them.

Do any of you choose them for your Thorn (or not Thorn) touring bikes?

I've used them on a borrowed bike and they worked well.

But I prefer old-fashioned V-brakes or cantilevers on my touring bikes, mainly because I reckon it is easier to replace a broken cable than to repair hydraulics.

I do still have two other types of brake in service:

- a roller brake on the rear of one bike that has no provision for V/cantilever brakes or discs. Not very fond of this brake, it works OK but doesn't give the "feel" of other types of brake.

- a cable operated disc brake on the rear wheel of one of my Bromptons. Main advantage here is that the transmission stays clean for longer.

[Andre Jute]

I have Magura hydraulic rim brakes on a Utopia Kranich. I like them for being sealed for life, maintenance free, very progressive (I run mine without the rim-stiffening brace), and excellent value relatively speaking when compared to the same quality of disc brakes. Also economical in operation: I fitted new brake blocks at 8000km. I vaguely remember dialling out a small but irritating squeak by simply swapping the blocks from side to side.

Among the brakes on my other bikes, like Martin I have a mixture:  mechanical discs, sudden-death roller brakes -- not for the inattentive and other social riders, in the past have had the usual more common types like V-brakes and cantilevers, and from schoolboy days remember back-pedal drum brakes and, if you were lucky, rod-operated front brakes.

I prefer the Magura rim hydraulics over any of the others I have experienced. The only downside to the Maguras is the inevitable replacement of the rim when it wears down, and in my case the hassle of finding suitable rims (24mm or more over the beads) to make the 60mm Big Apples I like perform right.

[steve216c]

I currently have 2 bikes with Magura rim brakes, a couple with cantilever and the rest with V brakes (11 bikes currently in the shed)

I’ve worn out rims on V-brakes and on Magura, both of which work better than cantilever in my opinion.

As previously mentioned, and IMHO once the Magura are set up, they are super low maintenance, a breeze to adjust and are the best of the rim-bunch in stopping power if you don’t have disc brakes.

[Andre Jute]

I use Magura hydraulic rim brakes on my everyday bike, a 29er. I have disc and roller brakes on other bikes, and agree with you, the Magura rim brakes are the best. I found discs and rollers very on-off, lacking in nuance, and therefore deliberately chose the weakest of the Magura hydraulic rim brakes, back when the HS11 had a bigger chamber than the HS33 (today they have the same chamber, the only difference being in the appearance), and thus a lower pressure multiplication so that you get a decent spread of retardation. You need to squeeze a bit harder for a panic stop but I rarely make those and anyway have strong hands. I don't see the point of a vehicle, any vehicle, which outside racing applications demands your attention all the time if you want to avoid a faceplant.

Love the Magura rim brakes for another reason: I developed my bike, already ex-factory a hedonist's bike, to have absolutely the minimum demands for maintenance, and the Maguras fit in nicely with this concept -- in fifteen years I've never had them open and just changed blocks every few years. The bike gets fifteen minutes of maintenance every year for the Rohloff oil change and a squirt of grease into the EXT klickbox, and a quick wipe-down of dust.

May your next bike-shed have infinite capacity.