>>963074unpopular opinion time:
imho hydraulic brakes are freaking overrated. I get the benefits for race use ONLY but for everyone else mechanicals are better. TRP Spyre/Spykes are good designs, if Shimano and SRAM poured their funds in dual caliper self adjusting mech brakes I'm sure we'd see huge improvements.
I mean the only REAL benefit of hydraulics is the better modulation and self adjustment, pretty much. Mechanicals brake just as hard if properly mantained, their shortcomings are mostly derived from the shitty single caliper brakes that are a pain to keep adjusted and brake marginally worse.
On the other hand, hydraulics add a whole lot of unwanted maintenance (yeah they might be sealed and good to go, but they won't always be like that for everyone and forever. Long term, mechs win, and on VITAL components like brakes you damn better want them to be field serviceable.) and they suffer from a lot of issues, like fluid boiling. If you fall and a hydraulic cable gets punctured, you're out of brakes. If you fall and a mechanical brake gets frayed, nothing happens except that you need to change the cable once you safely get back.
tl;dr I don't think hydros are worth the hassle except for short races. Even for enduro races I'd rather have mechanicals. Downhill? Sure, go with hydros.
