Disc or rim brakes ?

[GrumpyGregry]

I'll not buy another* rim braked bike.


*unless it is a Pedersen or a folder.

 

[Drago]

Its a shame no one made any serious attempt at decent drums for bicycles.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Its a shame no one made any serious attempt at decent drums for bicycles.

Like these?

 

[h1udd]

I used to think disc for commuting and mountain biking and light weight rim for the weekend roadie.

But then I blew an inner tube up on a hot hot day descending once when I spent far too long on the brakes and not letting the rim cool down .... That frightened the living crap out if me ... So discs all around now .... That said if I bought a top end bike that came with Rim brakes, I wouldn't be bothered to change them

 

[Smokin Joe]

Its a shame no one made any serious attempt at decent drums for bicycles.

Not for me. PITA to service and when you do open them up the amount of crap that has found it's way inside the drum is unbelievable.

 

[Drago]

That's because no one produced any decent ones. Dave Wrath-Sharman made a handful to his own design for Cleland which were superb, reputed to be capable of working for a decade of daily use without attention, but there couldn't have been more than 2 dozen pairs ever made. That pretty much leaves Sachs, Shimano and Sturmey, all of whom made half arsed jobs that never really worked properly.

If DWS can design and build watertight, effective, durable and light brakes in his shed in Yorkshire, then why can't the might of Shimano do it in their post design labs?

 

[Wobblers]

Ultimately maximum stopping power is determined by the tyre contact with the road surface and decent rim brakes are just as capable of locking a front wheel or putting a rider over the bars as discs. I also wonder if the advantage of discs in the wet is negated by the fact you probably can't use all that braking power in wet conditions anyhow.
I do think that cheap discs are more effective than cheap rim brakes and pads however. On a high end race/road bike I'm yet to be convinced of their value except no rim wear - useful on a commuter bike.

Err, no it isn't. Maximum deceleration is determined by stability. Brake too hard and you (handwaves somewhat) shift the centre of gravity in front of the front wheel bearings and you're going over the bars. That happens about about (it's geometry dependent, unsurprisingly) 0.5-0.6 g. Even wet tarmac has a friction coefficient of 0.6-0.8 g. In other words, it's quite possible to go over the bars by carelessly ramming on the brakes even in the wet.

Both decent and properly set up rim and disc brakes are just as good at stopping you - in the dry. If you're never going to ride when it's wet, rim brakes are perfectly good. In the wet, it's a different story: disc brakes work just as well while even the best rim brakes won't work until the rim's been cleared of water. And believe me, that 0.2 second can be a very long time! If this is for a bike that you're going to use when it's wet, get discs. You won't regret it.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

If we are talking Hydraulic Disc vs. Rim then Hydraulic all the way. I wouldn't have cable driven again.

My BB7's are much better than my Hope 2 pots and there'll never be any seized or gummed up pots either nor will I need to mess about bleeding hydro again.