Originally Posted by
Slaninar
Paved roads all year long - no problems.
Off road - dry, or slightly damp - no deep mud and not often in the rain.
Hydraulic disc brakes are the best there are. However- they add weight, complicated servicing, cost more, put stress on the rest of the bike, front one has a tendency to pull the wheel out of the fork.
So when I add pros and cons, I stick with V-brakes for MTB and regular rim brake calipers for road bike. They have given me good enough stopping power. If I rode a lot of off road hilly terrain in the rain, I'd go for hydraulic disc. Perhaps even for a lot of paved hills in the rain and poor weather.
This is the important part, the servicing generally requires special tools (I'm talking about bleeding.) The tools vary from one brand/family to another brand/family.
If I had to guess though, I'd say disk brakes last longer. I took a bike with almost brand new rim pads on a 30 mile off mountain bike trail. By the time I finished the pads were 3/4 gone. Sure, I was on them a lot of the time, but still, that's a lot of wear. On the other hand I've ridden my disk brake bike multiple times on that trail (and for the rest of the summer) and the pads are still fine with plenty of wear.