I do ALL of the maintenance and repair on my (3) bikes. Nothing has tested my resolve to be self sufficient more than disc brakes.
Not even dropper posts? Must be a roadie 
Other than proprietary suspension stuff, I’m stubbornly self sufficient as well. But a recent encounter with a DT swiss threaded retaining ring almost pushed me over the edge.
What seemed like a 1 minute job (based on youtube videos) turned into a multi-hour battle that had me thinking about taking the wheel/hub to the shop. I ultimately won the war, but it took an industrial impact wrench, a mig welder, fabricating a special tool, heat gun, and lots of swearing. The most impossibly frozen fastener I’ve ever dealt with, none of the approaches on the web/youtube would budge it.
Hydraulic disc brakes. And internal routing…
After several freak-out moments caused by my difficulty finding the brake bite point on descents & in group rides, & the numerous problems caused by trying to coerce my 105 hydraulics to behave more like rim brakes, I just went 
f*** this & swapped over to the mechanical TRP Spyres. Got the LBS to do the recable job. 
I rode that bike with hydraulics for 18 months & still couldn’t get used to them; I think I gave the system a decent chance. Not for me.
+1. Those two tools make putting in new brake pads easy!
The rest of it though… pain in the backside.
I don’t get it. Bleeding my SRAM hydraulic disks takes about 30 minutes a pair. Just followed the instructions.
Brake adjustment is easy, even when swapping wheels. Loosen screws, grab brake, tighten, done. Sometimes I’ll screw up and forget the brake spreader and touch the brake. Hence the two tools.
Ha ha that never works for me. Even using a business card. Even using the Hayes feeler gauge like thing. Always end up doing by eye once it’s close. I’ve never even seen that work. Maybe someday.
But I bled my brakes after shortening the hoses before a trip to Leadville. Didn’t have time to ride beforehand. And the suckers worked. That was…… handy. …
Joe
Well, they both launch rockets…
this made me lol, see these people on instagram often
Cant resist asking if you’re still afraid? Do this (and ref ‘MTBers practice’ above): go find a square curb on a quiet road with a few bike-lengths’ space before it. Roll towards it at a quick jogging pace, eyes well ahead, bike 90 deg to the edge. Just as the front wheel reaches the edge quickly push the bike horizontally out in front of you, using both hands and feet. The faster you go the more gentle the push and vice versa. Aim is to land with both wheels touching at the same time. It’s a really useful skill to have and not just for drop offs: any time you have an edge running across the trail you can make free speed and added safety using this technique and it’s a ton easier to learn than jumping.
I’m so happy now that I spent hours doing this in the driveway and around the neighborhood/town when I was growing up. Oh, and practicing wheelies and stoppies. Not that I’m great at either one, but comfortable.
This sparks a thought I have had, not sure it’s unpopular?
- Many people would benefit their riding by improving basic skills practice more than fixation on “marginal gains”.
Well, it’s popular with me!
Although (to be unsuitably serious for a moment) it plays out differently for MTB and road:
MTB: you nailed it with your comment
road: you still nailed it but it’s more a case of being mindful of basic technique (pick your own but e.g. pedal in circles; still upper body; regular hydration etc.) while riding. I watched a guy last year on the Grosse Scheidegg. a bull of a man, weaving all over, rocking the bike like he was sprinting for the line, at 10km/h on a 15% slope. We were likely working equally hard but I felt so much more comfortable than he looked
Here’s my unpopular opinion, and just to really unpop it I’m gonna go ahead and use bullets, bold-type and block caps.:
1x SUCKS big time!!!
- Awful ergonomics. On long MTB days my right thumb is screaming well before my legs give up (and that’s with XT)
- Inefficient: big jumps between gears, even in 12sp
- And those chain lines. Ugh!
- Worsens weight distribution: who the hell wants to move weight away from the centre of the bike to the extremities? And for MTB you’re replacing frame-based weight with sprung weight, which gives your hard-working shock even more work to do (actually the same comment applies to tyres even on-road)
- Slow: shifting from mid-cassette to that big ol’ dinner plate 51 tooth would be quicker using a trebuchet! Why is this better or faster than a single super-fast trigger press to go from big ring to small ring?
- And up-the-ways it’s just as bad|: even with XT it’s 2 cogs per lever press and that’s your lot. Click, click click oh come on! click….
- Expensive: 12sp chains wear a ton faster than 10sp even with improved care
- And those massive cassettes are more expensive by far than the cheap and easy-to-maintain front derailleurs that they do a bad job of replacing
- Looks: even on MTB that big ol’ dinner plate 51 tooth and its big ol’ friends look seriously clunky. And on a bike with drop bars….NO! NO! NO!
- Not necessary: one of the stated reasons for 1x is more tyre clearance. Well, I run 38mm Marathon Efficiency both ends of my cross bike on 2x 105! And it’s still the frame clearance, not the chain-line, which is the limiter. Want bigger than 40mm? That’s an MTB, friends!
- Lacks redundancy: Break a cable on 2x and you still have options; do the same on 1x and your doing a slow-cadence drill to the nearest bike shop if you can’t fix it yourself.
- Doesn’t fail safe: see above. Riding on after a cable snaps is more comfortable at e.g. 34 x 11 than a 1x stuck in top gear.
I felt the same way about Hydros but now with some experience it’s honestly not that bad. A full bleed takes ± 30 minutes (and you only have do it once a year, or in many cases, every few years). I can swap out pads and get rid of rubbing in less than 10 minutes.
With the right tools, hydraulic disc brakes are not that bad. But everything becomes a pain when you bring internal cable routing into the mix.
Lol, here I am having just changed my road bike to 1x. 11-46 10 speed.
XT 12 speed is about the best damn groupset I’ve ever used.
I disagree with you totally but great post! Love the bullets and bold type!
Fantastic addition to the thread 
If you have 2x, cassette gaps are closer so you have to do even more shifting and your thumb is worse off. You should go single speed and knacker your knees instead.