Greatest cycling invention of the last 25 years?

[Milzy]

For a while I put decent blocks in my rim brakes - but recently I realised I was destroying high-priced blocks. Madness!!!

Those Clarks ones work as well as Swisstop and will last about 5 years. Disc pads will be destroyed on a hilly sportive.
That’s why disc users are all fat guys on aero bikes riding the flat lands all the time so they hardly ever touch the levers.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

That’s why disc users are all fat guys on aero bikes riding the flat lands all the time so they hardly ever touch the levers.

 

[Webbo2]

Those Clarks ones work as well as Swisstop and will last about 5 years. Disc pads will be destroyed on a hilly sportive.
That’s why disc users are all fat guys on aero bikes riding the flat lands all the time so they hardly ever touch the levers.

Why don’t you nip over to my manor on the edge of the North York Moors and come for a ride with myself and my disc using club mates and see if you can back that statement up.
I wonder which group might suit you, maybe group 3 with the ladies on electric bikes.😏

 

[Milzy]

Why don’t you nip over to my manor on the edge of the North York Moors and come for a ride with myself and my disc using club mates and see if you can back that statement up.
I wonder which group might suit you, maybe group 3 with the ladies on electric bikes.😏

Very good. Look at all the world tour men and women sliding out and their injuries are getting worse. Pushing the envelope on wet corners.
In the 90’s they didn’t slide out as much on skinnier tires. Injuries weren’t as bad even though half didn’t wear helmets.
Discs are the scourge of road cycling & brilliant for gravel & mountain bikes.

 

[Webbo2]

Very good. Look at all the world tour men and women sliding out and their injuries are getting worse. Pushing the envelope on wet corners.
In the 90’s they didn’t slide out as much on skinnier tires. Injuries weren’t as bad even though half didn’t wear helmets.
Discs are the scourge of road cycling & brilliant for gravel & mountain bikes.

In the 90’s they weren’t going as fast.

 

[Milzy]

In the 90’s they weren’t going as fast.

Many records still stand to this day.

 

[EckyH]

Recently I saw a documentation about Eddy Merckx, including the horrible crash of Luis Ocana at the Tour de France 1971.
They hadn't disc brakes back in the day and said that the brakes didn't work at all in the conditions there (wet and cold).

The reasons for more (are there any reliable numbers, eg. crashes per 1000km in the races of the Pro Tour?) crashes I don't see in a specific technology, but in other reasons like higher speeds and therefore less time to react.

Nevertheless - good (!) rim brakes are good enough for me in dry conditions. In the wet I prefer good mechanical disc brakes.

E.

 

[grldtnr]

Nobody has mentioned retirement, I mean you can't cycle anywhere if you haven't the time !
( Perhaps not a invention as such.)

I’ve never had to throw away a worn wheelset in 20 years. Use for a few years then sell on, upgrade & repeat the cycle. The lightest wheel sets you can buy are for rim brakes actually.

MTB & gravel Disc.
Road bikes Rim.

It’s that simple.

If you think about it classic Rim brakes are not too dissimilar to being Disc brakes, a rim brake is nothing more than a disc with a gurt big 'ole in it, it works in a similar fashion by jamming a pad against the rim , just like a disc & pads.
I do dislike disc brakes on bicycles, most of my bikes are either rim or hub brakes, another anachronism, my Sturmey hubs on the recumbent trike are 90 mm , and work very efficiently in the wet,, and I can stop on the proverbisl sixpence should I want to, but that's at the expense of lifting the back wheel, I do run the risk of brake fade, on long decents, but they are such strong brakes , I only need a big handfull in extreme cases, I rarely brake constantly downhill, but I guess a disc could be usefull on the back wheel as a drag brake, but you really shouldn't use a back brake on recumbent trike, it can affect the handling bin and adverse way, but if you know what it's about, can be handy doing handbrake burns, and skiddybaroches'
But you really shouldn't , wrecks the back wheel