Any time you remove your brakes you've gotta shorten your line. Which you can't really do very many times before you need to replace the whole thing, which is expensive. I'm not out there swapping brakes all the time, but enough that external lines are a benefit. External also makes bearing replacements and much easier.
And besides, routing internal lines - even with good tubes in tubes - is just more fiddly than external lines.
Its not a deal breaker either way for me, but internal lines just seem unnecessary, especially if you look at something like a Scott where the lines run through the headset (see also: road bikes).
Feb. 11, 2022, 9:33 a.m. - Cooper Quinn
Any time you remove your brakes you've gotta shorten your line. Which you can't really do very many times before you need to replace the whole thing, which is expensive. I'm not out there swapping brakes all the time, but enough that external lines are a benefit. External also makes bearing replacements and much easier. And besides, routing internal lines - even with good tubes in tubes - is just more fiddly than external lines. Its not a deal breaker either way for me, but internal lines just seem unnecessary, especially if you look at something like a Scott where the lines run through the headset (see also: road bikes).