joglo
Senior Retro Guru
Interesting to get this insights!It happens one of my German colleagues had a lot to do with these brakes back in the day. Asked him if he could recall how things went. Back then he was working for the marketing division and wrenching for top teams equipped with the then all black Magura Hydrostop brakes. They worked like hell but where extremely expensive to produce and spectators did not recognise aftersales when it came available.
His idea was to paint these sponsored brakes in fluorescent colours yellow and bright red to get more attraction. This worked very well and soon the original aftersales components where introduced in both colours too. Sales exploded despite the difficult setup of the first callipers and flimsy clamp around the bar. Improvements came over the years and different colours where introduced. Branding was in those days not automated, decals have been added by hand by housewives in Baden Württemberg for years until it was machine stamped. Different models like HS11, 22 and 33 but basic was always the same calliper. When the disc brake became more popular the HS lost its momentum but is still one of Magura’s bestsellers.
If anyone needs specific info I can ask.
In general I have heard same storry too, also the article from german Bike Magazin is confirming this, although it's mainly about the later HS33.
https://www-bike--magazin-de.transl...de&_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=wapp&_x_tr_hist=true(I hope Google translate does the job, if not please pull down the language dropbar menu to select the language of choice)
Painting it in neon, the addition of the "raceline" name and Mike Kluge and a few others like Lutz Schäfer using Maguras at their race bike from 1992 onwards was helping for a break-through after a few years.
I do have meanwhile quite a lot of material from Magura. If interesting we can get a detailed timeline for the early MTB years together.
Should we do this here or move this thread than rather to the "Kit" section?