Originally Posted by
Bleu
The motor vehicle I drive daily has drum brakes, far from state of the art and they can overheat and fail, but they are not destroying the rims nor are they directly heating the tires. Brakes are far from a new thing as disc, drum and band brakes all existed by 1900. A bike wheel is not a consumable , or at least it shouldn't be .
I agree, rim wear is the main reason I want discs on my 20"/406 bike. However, having ridden an early disc bike in that size, the brakes were prone to locking (being mountain 26" discs on 20" wheels), needed better modulation. On a 16"/349 rim, it's going to be even worse, as the same ground braking thrust will generate a much smaller torque, thus many discs will easily overpower and skid the tire. Needs road discs, and either a mechanical caliper with really good modulation, or hydraulic, or cable-actuated hydraulic. Perhaps also a less grippy compound disc pad.