Disc brakes on road bikes

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Ian H

Ian H

Ancient randonneur
If your rims wear out in anything less than several years, there's something lacking in your cycling skills.
Or, as an eminent old cyclist once said, "brakes are for emergencies only".
 
A

Alex321

Guru
Location
South Wales
Dogtrousers said:
One thing the current prevalence of disc brakes points to is the throwaway society. Disc brakes were pretty uncommon outside of MTBs 14 years ago. They really got established with the pros picking them up about 10 years ago.

And yet they seem to have largely taken over*. If I look at a random road bike when I'm out and about, odds-on it has discs. This means that it's odds-on that the bikes are less than 10 years old. Now, some of those are new converts to cycling on their first bikes. But for the remainder, given that you need a new frame to swap from rim to disc, it means people replace their bikes after less than 10 years. Which seems a bit quick to me.

*Source: No source, it could be I'm making this up to support my point. ;)
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I was out on a club ride yesterday. 6 riders, so only a small sample, and one of those was an e-bike so doesn't count. Of the other 5, 3 of us had disc brakes, 2 had rim brakes.

Looking at photos of ther club rides, there are quite a few still on rim brakes, although definitely more on discs.

So maybe not as obsolete as you think.
 
Jameshow

Jameshow

Guru
Vapin' Joe said:
Going back to my club days which were largely spent in the days of steel frames and D/T shifters very few riders had a bike that was over ten years old.
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We tend to the pre / post carbon sti etc. but bike design did move forwards during the streel years 531 Vs 853 for instance! The along came alu for a short period....
 
Dogtrousers

Dogtrousers

Lefty tighty. Get it righty.
Alex321 said:
I was out on a club ride yesterday. 6 riders, so only a small sample, and one of those was an e-bike so doesn't count. Of the other 5, 3 of us had disc brakes, 2 had rim brakes.

Looking at photos of ther club rides, there are quite a few still on rim brakes, although definitely more on discs.

So maybe not as obsolete as you think.
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You and your facts. :sad:
I much prefer to make up my own data to support my arguments. ;)
 
Richard A Thackeray

Richard A Thackeray

Legendary Member
Location
Normanton, Wakefield. West Riding of Yorkshire
rydabent said:
Like them or not disc brakes have 3 great advantages. First better braking when wet, second discs do not scab up high priced rims, and third, rims on disc brake bikes can be lighter and more aero.
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And, on a commuter bike, with discs, a buckled wheel, via a pothole/rough road, won't mean having to wind the (rim) brake off, so efficiency remains
 
brommieinkorea

brommieinkorea

Senior Member
Location
'Merica darnit
Binky said:
I ride a rim braked bike and it's fine. I ride though in the dry and avoid if possible wet weather cycling. However, as has been stated rim brakes do wear out wheels and unquestionably aren't as good in the wet as discs.
I'm looking to buy a new bike and that will have discs. I'd quite like to have some fancy carbon wheels and for those discs are the way to go.

I'm pretty handy maintenance wise so I'll do any work myself as required. I do find some people ride disc bikes whose brakes make a horrendous squealing etc. That would drive me nuts but I'm sure can be sorted if they could be bothered to do it.

As for the pros, I recall when they first started using disc brakes there was all this fuss they would cause severe injury etc which turned out to be completely unfounded. As far as I know, no pro team using rim brakes anymore.

As for aesthetics, I think disc braked bikes look good.

My one gripe though is seemingly bike manufacturers are going further away from making rim braked bikes, it's now somewhat of a challenge to buy the bike you may want with rim brakes if that's what you want. Less choice is not a good thing.
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Rim brakes aren't really brakes, so there is plenty of choice, you can still buy drums if you like, and they are brakes.
 
B

Binky

Über Member
brommieinkorea said:
Rim brakes aren't really brakes, so there is plenty of choice, you can still buy drums if you like, and they are brakes.
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Erm no. Rim brakes are definitely brakes.
 
Milzy

Milzy

Guru
As mentioned on another post look at all the pro men & women crashing more than ever before. They were safer in the 90’s on smaller tires rim brakes & no helmets.
Seen so many slide outs already & it’s only early days of the Giro.
Discs can cause crashes, it’s harder to lock a wheel & go down with rim, as you have better modulation. Discs should be kept to off road.
You can tune cane creek rim brakes in to be just as powerful as discs if you like.
 
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W

Webbo2

Veteran
Milzy said:
As mentioned on another post look at all the pro men & women crashing more than ever before. They were safer in the blood doping 90’s on smaller tires rim brakes & no helmets.
Seen so many slide outs already & it’s only early days of the Giro.
Discs can cause crashes, it’s harder to lock a wheel & go down with rim, as you have better modulation. Discs should be kept to off road.
You can tune cane creek rim brakes in to be just as powerful as discs if you like.
Click to expand...

Are you becoming what Silva is to square taper BB to discs brakes.🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
 
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