Mountain Bike Brakes Explained: Braking the Confusion

V-Brakes
With the advent of disc brakes, and the quickly changing mountain bike world, V-brakes are coming out of style. Nevertheless even these still have a place in the MTB world. V-brakes are much cheaper and still a little bit lighter than disc brakes. They are very simple to install, repair and maintain. The downside is they do not offer a lot of stopping power. For heavier bikes and technical terrain, they just can’t deliver enough.

Mechanical Disc Brakes
Mechanical disc brakes have a disc rotor but use a cable to transfer the braking energy. These offer a lot of the stopping power of hydraulic disc brakes but not the modulation, which I’ll go over in a second. Disc brakes, in general, function better in wet conditions than rim brakes, and rim true will not affect their performance. From experience and talking to fellow riders, mechanical disc brakes require frequent adjustment for good performance, yet unlike hydros, you do not have to bleed the brake system or worry about pinched lines.

Hydraulic Disc Brakes
Hydros are the premier choice and what everybody goes for. They require little maintenance, but they do have to be bled every year or so. You can use them with one finger, and they have more modulation than any of the other brake options. Modulation is the amount of control you have over your stopping power. Mechanical discs and V-brakes feel like they are either on or off while with hydraulics you can really control the pressure on the rotor. This is a great thing for technical descents. The last thing you want to do is lock your wheels up. When your wheels are locked all you do is slide and your control is gone. Modulation is the key to this.

But everything has a place in the mountain bike world. My cross-country single speed has a pair of Avid single-digit seven V-brakes. This way I do not have to worry about bleeding the system, constant adjustment, and when I’m out riding in the middle of nowhere, I know they’ll do the job without fail, even after I slam my bike into the ground a few times. On the flipside my geared hardtail has a pair of hydros that have saved me from a few very nasty descents. For technical terrain and bigger bikes disc brakes are the way to go. If you want a solid performing brake for your cross-country hardtail, with little required maintenance and little that can fail on the trail, think about a good V-brake.

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