Is Blood the only way ?

[Rickster]

Hey about to bleed out my magura's and noticed the ridiculous price for their "special" mineral oil ! Yet Maxima offers mineral brake oil for 1/4 the price. Am I missing something "special " about the blood or is this price gouging or is it all about the colour ?

 

[RebornRider]

The tricky part of this is that "mineral oil" can be a lot of different things. It is not a pure substance like ethanol. methanol, water, etc. So Magura *might* have something in their mineral oil that measurably improves performance of their brakes. Or it could be 100% marketing bs. Or maybe there is a small benefit.

And (probably) no mtb media source is going to risk their income from advertisers by conducting rigorous tests of different mineral oil brands. We need the bike channel equivalent of Project Farm or Torque Test Channel.

So you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I fell lucky?

My $0.02 is that Royal Blood is ridiculously overpriced, but one bottle lasts for years, so the price per ride is tiny. I've had my Magura brakes for about 4 years, and I've bought only one bottle of their mineral oil. There is still enough left in the bottle for a couple more bleeds.

 

[steve_sordy]

@Rickster Why not give it a go and then let us know your findings. Many of us will be really grateful!
Not me, I'm all Shimano!

 

[RebornRider]

Steve thinks you're going to be lucky.



One more thought. In the US, mineral oil is sold as a laxative. If the generic stuff is good enough for your ...

 

[CarolinaCrawler]

I've used this oil in 2 magura (MT5) bikes, two shimano (m7100 and m8120) bikes, 2 trp (Slate) bikes and one sram (DB8) bike with no problems. A quart is 20 bucks and lasted me all of those bikes.

Finish Line - Bicycle Lubricants and Care ProductsBrake Fluid - Mineral Oil

www.finishlineusa.com

 

[MOTO13]

I have 2 bikes with Maguras...I use mineral oil exclusively. It's the same as RB...just no dye.

 

[p3eps]

I was about £12 for 250ml. I've still got over 1/2 my bottle left that I bought 4 years ago. I cut the hoses and filled the brakes / bled them... and then about 10 months ago moved them onto another bike - so had to drain the fluid and refill with new.
They don't take a lot to fill them.

Yes, it's expensive for the tiny bottle you get... but it'll probably last several years.

Would Magura warranty a brake if it was full of a different mineral oil (not blue?!). For the price, is it really worth the risk?

 

[steve_sordy]

At least mineral oil does not absorb water from the air, so it has a very good shelf life.

 

[MOTO13]

From everything I know about RB, there are ZERO additives, other than the dye. It's pure mineral dyed blue. Nothing proprietary about it...other than color.

 

[Rickster]

Well it seems there is more than just mineral oil at least in the Finish Line brand which is clearly marked on the container... but the Royal Blood has "secret " non revealed ingredients on its container

 

[Bones]

I've a 1ltr bottle of Shimano brake fluid that I use in my shigura setup.
it's not caused any issues with the magura mt5 calipers over the last couple of years.

 

[Rickster]

Perfect, I think I'm just going to go with the Maxima. I have used their other products for years without any issues.
Thanks everyone for the advice and suggestions. cheers

 

[Rickster]

I was about £12 for 250ml. I've still got over 1/2 my bottle left that I bought 4 years ago. I cut the hoses and filled the brakes / bled them... and then about 10 months ago moved them onto another bike - so had to drain the fluid and refill with new.
They don't take a lot to fill them.

Yes, it's expensive for the tiny bottle you get... but it'll probably last several years.

Would Magura warranty a brake if it was full of a different mineral oil (not blue?!). For the price, is it really worth the risk?

I go through the stuff like water ! I do a complete flush out whenever I bleed the brakes on all my rides. So from what I'm hearing and seeing here it's a non issue to use other brands. Besides if I had a warranty claim I would just flush out and refill with royal blood, so expensive you need to have royal funds ! cheers

 

[RustyIron]

Hey about to bleed out my magura's and noticed the ridiculous price for their "special" mineral oil ! Yet Maxima offers mineral brake oil for 1/4 the price. Am I missing something "special " about the blood or is this price gouging or is it all about the colour ?

Personally, I wouldn't sweat it. It's important to bleed more frequently to keep the oils clean and fresh. If the less expensive product will help you do that, then buy that. Recently I sold my bike with the Magura brakes, but I have a LOT of Royal Blood. I'll use it in my Shimano brakes and it will be fine.

You made me curious, so I looked up Maxima, Shimano, and Royal Blood. The chemical composition of Maxima and Magura are somewhat similar. Shimano is a little different, but I'm no chemical engineer, so I can' t tell you if the composition is relevant. The viscosity of the Royal Blood is 11.5 cSt, Maxima is <20.5 cSt, and Shimano is 8 cSt.

 

[Dax]

 

[Plummet]

Personally, I wouldn't sweat it. It's important to bleed more frequently to keep the oils clean and fresh. If the less expensive product will help you do that, then buy that. Recently I sold my bike with the Magura brakes, but I have a LOT of Royal Blood. I'll use it in my Shimano brakes and it will be fine.

You made me curious, so I looked up Maxima, Shimano, and Royal Blood. The chemical composition of Maxima and Magura are somewhat similar. Shimano is a little different, but I'm no chemical engineer, so I can' t tell you if the composition is relevant. The viscosity of the Royal Blood is 11.5 cSt, Maxima is <20.5 cSt, and Shimano is 8 cSt.

There are really 2 aspects that need to considered.

Viscosity of oil and chemical compatibility with elastomers. You will need to use similar viscosity oils or you could have performance issues. To thick and the port sizes will be too small for the thicker fluid and will slow down brake performance. To thin is better but maybe there will be some likely disadvantages of too thin. leaking seals perhaps?

If the oil is not compatible with the seals, the seals will swell and render the brake useless. Without a deep dive into the seal compatibility i expect that it should be the ok on all 3 mineral oil set ups.

Seal material between mineral oil and brake fluid is definitely different.

 

[timcking]

Hey about to bleed out my magura's and noticed the ridiculous price for their "special" mineral oil ! Yet Maxima offers mineral brake oil for 1/4 the price. Am I missing something "special " about the blood or is this price gouging or is it all about the colour ?

You can buy mineral oil in your local drug store.

 

[CarbonMan]

One wonders if the "secret ingredient" in Royal Blood is a small amount of heavily refined, 100% pure BS.

 

[Litespeed]

I've used this oil in 2 magura (MT5) bikes, two shimano (m7100 and m8120) bikes, 2 trp (Slate) bikes and one sram (DB8) bike with no problems. A quart is 20 bucks and lasted me all of those bikes.

Finish Line - Bicycle Lubricants and Care ProductsBrake Fluid - Mineral Oil

www.finishlineusa.com

This is good to know. I have Magura brakes on one bike and Shimano on the other.

 

[TheBikeMechanic]

Hey about to bleed out my magura's and noticed the ridiculous price for their "special" mineral oil ! Yet Maxima offers mineral brake oil for 1/4 the price. Am I missing something "special " about the blood or is this price gouging or is it all about the colour ?

The Royal Blood is a very very light mineral oil that Magura uses, but its specific properties are proprietary and a secret. I have used ‘other’ oils to help a rider out of a jam but warned them that a complete bleed would be necessary after they get back home from vacation. As far as rider feel at the lever: the Shimano, Tektro, Maxima and Motul all are thicker and feel like the brake is cold / frozen, the lever returns more slowly to its rest position. The pistons move about the same but also more slowly. Enough to notice.

 

[RustyIron]

Shimano, Tektro, Maxima and Motul all are thicker

Shimano is lower viscosity than both Magura and Maxima.

 

[Natch]

Well it seems there is more than just mineral oil at least in the Finish Line brand which is clearly marked on the container... but the Royal Blood has "secret " non revealed ingredients on its container

Secret ingredient = blue dye?

 

[E-MAD MALC]

I've a 1ltr bottle of Shimano brake fluid that I use in my shigura setup.
it's not caused any issues with the magura mt5 calipers over the last couple of years.

Same here I buy it from Epic

 

[RebornRider]

TheBikeMechanic says Shimano is thicker than Magura. That claim is not supported by viscosity data. You can learn a lot from the safety data sheets, which are required by governments. These data sheets are more likely to be accurate than spewage from the marketing departments.

The data sheets also confirm that there are measurable differences between various mineral oil brands.

Magura:

Shimano:

 

[E-MAD MALC]

So RB is thinner by 1.4mm 2/S
Would you really notice that difference in the performance, it is very minimal

 

[RebornRider]

Looking at the same data another way, Magura mineral oil is (11.5-8)/8 = 3.5/8 = 0.44 = 44% "thicker" (more viscous) than Shimano. You might notice a 44% change in viscosity. I would sure notice if my weight or my paycheck changed by 44%!

 

[E-MAD MALC]

I'll get a litre of magura for £20.00
I'll swap it out and see if I can notice any difference, be interesting

 

[Robstyle]

Putoline hpx is what I've used for all my mineral oil brakes. Works great, well priced.
Factory recommended from Intend and Radic brakes too.