Originally Posted by
cyccommute
Cantilevers are a very good braking system. They aren't even that difficult to set up. Discs are more difficult to set up and maintain. Disc rotors are a pain to get straight and they bend easily. I futz more with rubbing disc than I've ever had to work on any other brake.
My experience is 180deg from yours. Most of my bikes are disc,and I've never had any issues that weren't caused by bad setup from the LBS that sold me the bike. The only times I've had a bent rotor were from shipment(eBay bikes) or from playing polo(which is pretty much considered abuse). Fixing a bent rotor just requires some tweaking with Park Tool's tuning fork or an adjustable wrench. OTOH,I've wrenched on 800+ bikes at my clinic,most of which have rim brakes,and it's the canti's that are the biggest pain to set up. I deal with rubbing rim brakes every clinic,usually two or three sets. Truing rims is also harder than tweaking rotors,and rims go out of true much more frequently.
Discs pads only need to be set for distance to the rotor. Rim pads have to be set for distance to the rim,height,yaw,and toe-in. In order for rim brakes to be as simple as discs,you need to use cartridge pads.
Originally Posted by
alan s
I know you might find this hard to believe, but we do get winter weather here....snow, ice, freezing rain, sleet (whatever that is), etc. Pretty much the whole range in good ol' DC. The government and schools tend to shut down even if there is a forecast of snow, but we still get plenty of winter weather.
And I had to ride in through both Snowpocalypse and Snowmageddon. Yeah,we don't get it every year,but we do get it. And it's usually only the main roads that get cleared until a couple days in.