kenseth03

Just wanted some opinions here. If you had a mountain bike which you really liked would you buy a whole new bike just to upgrade to disc brakes? I have a 2004 Trek 6700 with v-brakes and to me it is just fine. However, everyone tells me how great disc brakes are. I am not going to add them to this bike because the price of a decent set of disc brakes is fairly high considering I would need new hubs also. So what would you do?

ThatOtherGuy

By my eyes, if it works fine and you're comfortable on it and with it, why bother spending a ton of money (relative to nothing, anyways) to change it? If there was something wrong with the V-brakes that you needed to replace anyways, it might be a different story, but change for the sake of change seems kind of silly to me!

DX-MAN

Since I'm a Clyde, v-brakes don't cut it for me. After bouncing off a truck's grill at the end of an alley, fingers pulling levers to the bar, I resolved that I'd never ride a non-disc bike again.

My present bike runs 185 Avid BB7's f/r; 185/160 are barely adequate, IME.

So what I did was easy -- built the bike I wanted, with the discs. Three years later, I have no regrets.

bikinfool

If you don't see the need then why worry about it? More than likely they don't need disc brakes either. Discs can be nice if you ride in wet/sloppy conditions but in dry conditions v's work fine. As long as you don't adjust them so that you need to pull the lever to the bar and still have no brake while you ride into a motor vehicle and then blame it on your fat ass .

ed 

V= adequate.

JonathanGennick 

Until you get the dreaded turkey-gobble, or until your pads get glazed over, or until your rotor gets warped, etc.

I like disc myself, but sometimes they are a big PITA.

FWIW, I would not replace a bike just to get new brakes. That's putting the cart before the horse. I'm actually leaning towards rim brakes on an upcoming build, because I want to reuse a rather nice wheelset that I have.

Glynis27

Does your current fork have disc brake tabs? If so, maybe you could try putting a disc brake up there to try it. If you used BB7s or other cable disc brake, you could even use your current V-brake lever. You would only need to worry about getting a front disc hub.

I personally will never use anything but discs. I LOVE the consistency they give.

kenseth03

Yeah the front shocks do have the tabs but the frame doesn't. Trek says I need what they call a disc-o-dapter which is fairly cheap. I may actually try the front disc brake idea but I will also need a new front wheel (or hub). To me though the bike is fine, it's just that I have alot of local bike snobs around here who are so big on disc brakes so I thought I would get some opinions about the subject. Thanks everyone for your input!!

JonathanGennick 

^ ^ ^ The important thing ^ ^ ^

Daspydyr 

I enjoy my Nitro that I have had for years. I'm 220 pounds and have V-brakes, though they have been upgraded. I keep drooling over new bikes and probably will pull the trigger someday. This morning coming back from a good ride I was amazed at how comfortable, quiet and smooth my bike is. Since I ride for exercise and to get away from life-I have trouble spending $2K for something with a better shine.

All them scratches and dings have memories, some match scars on me.