The death of rim brakes?

On Tuesday, March 12, 2019 at 6:46:50 PM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 3/12/2019 9:01 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 3/12/2019 7:23 PM, Mark J. wrote:
On 3/12/2019 11:57 AM, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 3/12/2019 11:07 AM, Joerg wrote:
On 2019-03-10 06:34, 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.


Disc brakes are simply better. Take a look around around automotive
and motorcycles. How many new cars and motorcycles are there that
still have drum brakes in front?

On Sunday I experienced the umpteenth reminder why rim brakes are
inferior. We had to cross some unpaved area on the road bikes and it
had rained. Muddy. Afterwards a descent on pavement, I reached in
and after the usual and expected one-second of zero brake action the
rim brakes came on. There was an awful grinding noise, you could
literally hear aluminum being eaten.

And yet, you survived. So did your rims.

I've heard that sound thousands of times. I've never had a crash or
rim failure as a result.

Failure in one day, no, I haven't heard that either.Â* Failure over a
shorter-than-you'd expect span of months, I've experienced that
personally as have others on this NG.

I've never had a rim fail by that mechanism at all. I'm not aware of any
of my riding friends suffering that failure.

Many, many years ago I was on a mountain bike ride where such a failure
happened to an out-of-town guy I didn't know; so I understand it's
possible. But I don't think it's at all common, at least around here.
And especially for road bikes.

Someone recently proposed that local soil content can make a difference..
I'm open to that possibility. In our area, soils typically have high
clay content, and I suppose that's not very abrasive stuff.

I guess we could do a poll. How many here have had a road bike rim fail
by having the brakes eat through it?


--
- Frank Krygowski

I haven't had any failures but I have had them wear so much that there was a groove in the brake track. At which point I replaced the rims. Ahh the bad old days where it was cheaper to buy a rim rather than a completely new wheelset for the same amount of money.