Originally Posted by
cyccommute
Bicycles have had "disc" brakes for many, many years. As long as a bike has rim brakes, it already has disc brakes. It's just a larger rotor. The principle is the same and the mechanism is similar enough to be the same. The only difference is that a hub mounted disc brake has to be set up the way rim brakes should be set up, i.e. close to the rotor and with very little lever movement from off to on. Most rim brakes have been set up so that the lever is half way to the bars before the brakes actuate. You can set up hub mounted discs the same way and they are even worse than the worst rim brake imaginable.
This is how I had my rim brakes set up initially, with pads very close to the rims and very little lever travel (seems strange to have to call brakes "rim brakes now"). It's actually not the optimal setup.
I have a lot more lever travel now with my current setup, and perhaps an inch of space or so between the back of the back brifter paddle and front of the drops. This is definitely the sweet spot for me, yielding improvements in both modulation and braking power vs. the "pads right next to the rim" approach.
Utilizing a medium level of lever travel allows for far better leverage IME.