Originally Posted by
phughes
I was responding to a post talking about riding downhill in New England at 45 MPH, not mountain biking in the mud. That being said, my first mountain bike had rim brakes, as did all mountain bikes of the time, and my brakes worked fine, though disc brakes have the advantage there, and I have made no claims otherwise.
This thread is about Rivendell, and they build road bikes, not mountain bikes, and their bikes come with rim brakes. For that application, they are perfectly fine, and some may say they have an advantage. Disc brakes are great, but rim brakes work well, and have worked well for a very long time.
Rivendell does not just build road bikes. In the past they had the Bombadil, Hunqapillar, Clem Smith Jr., and now they are coming out with the Gus Boots which are all sold as off road bikes. Rivendell builds bikes that are all terrain bikes, or all road, or lets just call it very versatile bikes that you can setup to do ride a variety of terrain. They can, and do, ride most anywhere. In fact, look at the pictures of where they are riding their bikes on the website and Grant's blag and most are shown riding off roadways and on trails. Plus, mountain biking isn't the sole domain where a rider will encounter mud, or grime on the wheels. A rider can encounter that just riding fire roads, jeep trails, , and that's exactly the domain of Rivendell.
IMHO, canti brakes for bikes like that are not the ideal braking system because once you get mud onto the brake track, the braking suffers; once you have a wheel go untrue, your braking suffers; once you get grit into the brake pads, your rims suffer. Rim brakes do work fine for a road bike, but it's a different story for off road riding.
The post that you responded to outlined riding where disc brakes make more sense because they are a superior braking system for that riding. It's the reason they have taken over in the mtb and gravel worlds.