I realize that this is about bicycles. Other transportation gadgets, especially aircraft, have used disc brakes for decades. Bicycles are very late coming to the party and, at some point, comparisons are useful and worthwhile. There is no innovation required to get disc brakes on bikes, just design application and refinement.

If one were to examine the development of disc brake motorcycles, he/she could save considerable time getting them on bicycles: Fork torsional stiffness (bigger thinner tubes & large, well clamped axles, etc.), wheel stiffness (lateral & rotational), heat capacity and, hell, even squeaking have all been addressed and delt with. We are not so special except, perhaps, for being a bit lazy and snobbish.

When I was a club racer in the early sixties, our brakes were very weak, would melt if used very hard and very long. There were a number of descents here in SoCal where we knew we would not be able to stop from speed; none of those descents are now a problem because of the progress the industry has made. I once analyzed an accident that put a man in a wheelchair because his brakes 'went away' going down a hill -- wouldn't happen now. If'n he'd had a disc brake mountain bike, he'd still be riding.

They are here, they're going to stay and in many ways they are better. Get used to them.

Joe