alan, regarding most of the weight on the rear, and "rebuilding" your rear wheel every 1-2 years--it would appear that the issue isn't brake wear, but rather spoke issues (spoke count vs your weight) --or at least that is how I am understanding your comment (what do you mean exactly by a rebuild?)
That's how I'm understanding it, too, since he says that he doesn't think disc brakes would solve the issue:
Originally Posted by
AlanK
I had to have the rear wheel rebuilt every 1-2 years: Since most of the weight is on the rear wheel, I'm not sure how far disc brakes can really go in extending rim life.
I read that as "I have to rebuild my wheel every couple of years
without respect to rim wear, so I wouldn't expect to see a gain in wheel longevity by switching to discs."
If he's actually grinding through a rim every two years, it seems like disc brakes would definitely help, but that doesn't sound like it's the case. But it does seem that you would really have to abuse your wheels, or be riding on the wrong wheels for a given activity, to have that kind of replace rate.