On Monday, September 11, 2017 at 4:49:11 PM UTC-7, Mark J. wrote:
On 9/11/2017 8:52 AM, jbeattie wrote:
On Sunday, September 10, 2017 at 9:11:16 AM UTC-7, AMuzi wrote:
On 9/9/2017 5:28 PM, jbeattie wrote:
So, my SuperSix was crushed in a roof-rack accident and last weak my Roubaix was stolen out of the garage that I left open all night. I've done that many times -- apparently one too many. I'm down to a gravel bike and my commuter -- the reborn warranty CAADX (which is a great bike).

The gravel bike is a pig, but I'll use that for fall/winter/spring sport riding. I want a fast bike, though -- and I've got a line on a nice bike that I can get with rim brakes or discs, but the disc model will not be available until December -- which really means that I get to ride it in dry weather some time around May. I can get a rim brake model by the end of the month.

All the shops are pushing discs, and I did like the discs on the Roubaix and on my gravel bike. I know this is absolutely the wrong group to ask because it's wall-to-wall curmudgeons, but if you were buying your last nice road bike, would you go rim brakes or discs? It will be a dry weather bike or ridden in the rain only because of bad luck. There would be no real weight penalty because the bike is so light to start with. I'm not aero, so I don't care about the aero penalty with discs.

My concern with getting rim brakes is not really even a performance issue because in dry weather, I've never had a problem with rim brakes -- but to listen to the guys at the local shop, rim brakes are going the way of the dodo. I'm worried about buying an antique!

No suggestion on your specific question but speaking as an
Industry Professional, I think my record for selling one
customer his "final perfect bike to last the rest of my
life" is six bicycles, 3 or 4 is amazingly common. Many of
those guys will be back again too.

So much of this is just market-driven angst. Discs have a nice feel and are powerful and do work better in the rain, but that is different from rim brakes being inadequate or dangerous.

People develop a preference and then the last-thing becomes unworkable or dangerous. "I used to ride 23mm tires, but 25s are so much more positive.. You'll die riding 23mm tires!" Then I think, "didn't I race on 19mm and 21mm?"

I was talking to my son yesterday, and he rides an Emonda with rim brakes and CF wheels. So, I asked him "where did you ride today," and he says Big Cottonwood with some side routes and a climb on the way home -- maybe 6,000 -7,000 feet of climbing and some seriously steep descending on the side routes. Any problems? No. His friends use rim brakes, and they do ridiculous amounts of climbing -- one just did 31,000 feet in a day (the whole Everest thing). And then I think back on my decades of rim brake experience and wonder why I'm even worried -- except for the anxiety caused by choices. Not that discs would be super-sweet and maybe even reduce some hand fatigue, but the idea that they are necessary or that rim brakes are dangerous is kind of out there.


-- Jay Beattie.

Jay, I think you've answered your own question well and completely. For
a dry-weather fast on-road bike, rim brakes will do the job. Always
have. I like the disks on my commuter too - though they squeak a lot -
but that's a completely different type of riding (in Oregon, anyway).

I sense your original question really was "am I missing anything?" I'd
say mostly not.

The one thing I can think of is that with disks, you can often fit
really large tires, in case you want to take your fast road bike on a
gravel-grinder race some day. Not much to base a purchase on, unless
you really have an itch for gravel racing.

You can also try to insert the disk into the pads after someone pulling the lever when the wheel was removed. This can leave the pad only partially pulled back since there is play in the mechanism. As you shove the wheel in it chips or cut off a piece of the pad which not only increases the squeaking but also greatly increases the speed of wear.

On a heavy full suspension bike off-road they work very well. Anywhere else they are massive overkill.