Cycling & bikes - The death of rim brakes?

On Tuesday, March 19, 2019 at 5:57:26 PM UTC-7, Mark J. wrote:
On 3/19/2019 9:24 AM, sms wrote:
On 3/10/2019 6:34 AM, wrote:
I keep reading see all the bikes coming out and basically all disc
brakes. I cannot believe rim brakes are going to be gone but maybe I
am just kidding myself. I frankly hate the disc brake look and
certainly for a long time parts will be around but are these rim
brakes a dead deal.

Deacon Mark

In 1975 JC Penney sponsored a cross-country bicycle tour to promote
their new disc brake-equipped bicycle, apparently made by Huffy. If not
for JC Penney, we'd all still be riding bicycle with rim brakes or
coaster brakes. Video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k10233DdFi0.
Note the lack of helmets and the clothing.

Right after JC Penney came out with their disc brake-equipped bicycle,
Sears came out with their hydraulic brake-equipped bicycle. Sears and
Penney's led us into the age of disc brakes and hydraulic brakes.

JC Penney disc=brake rear wheel:
http://velobase.com/CompImages/Brakes/001CD095-5B7A-4C29-BE06-6F9D357D01CD.jpeg
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Eqqa0sg9HNo/hqdefault.jpg

Sears hydraulic brake-equipped bicycle: https://goo.gl/images/ymHkCz

Looking at the Penney photos, I can't quite make out the logos on the
disc caliper housing; is that one of Shimano's prehistoric calipers?

I can just barely remember, but we had an early (78-79ish?) Shimano disc
on our tandem before we swapped it out for a Phil Wood. My very dim
recollection is that Shimano made two generations of disc calipers in
that era and that the Penney one shown may be the first. I think I had
the second.

The Phil Wood is still working just fine; after years not using it, I
remounted it last summer and was happy to have it for a tour in South
Dakota's Black Hills. Note I DO know why these aren't made anymore, but
used /only/ as an auxiliary drag brake, it's not particularly risky. I
think the design's troubles were when used as a primary brake.
Liability exposure did the rest.

Mark J.

I saw the prototype at Phil's shop and the later production models and thought it was bizarrely complicated, but I guess that was necessary for use on a bike with no special mounts. I rode with one of the shop guys who had one on his bike, but before you, I didn't know anyone who actually bought one.. Cutting edge, baby!

-- Jay Beattie.