That problem is worked around in various ways. Once in a while you'll see a bike with mounting holes above the disc brake mount. More often you'll see the brake mounted inside the rear triangle instead of outside it. Even if mounted on the outside, there is adapter hardware that can let you mount a standard rack despite the inconveniently placed caliper.

Ya know... +1.

BB5 brakes, for example, are still adjustable on both sides, at least as long as you have a barrel adjuster for the cable. Alignment on both BB5 and BB7 calipers is still very simple, and it might even be easier to true a rotor than a wheel.

Granted, I haven't owned any other brakes besides Avid BB5, BB7, and Juicy5, so I figure that there might be others that are harder to work on. But for me, they're just not that difficult.

You just have crappy brakes then. I have properly adjusted Shimano 445 hydr. disc brakes and have as much "modulation" as vbrakes.

I have 2 serious hills in my commute which both require I stop on a dime to make a turn half way down. I got really tired of the cable stretch and constant adjustment of my vbrakes. I wore thru pads quickly and on more than one occasion didn't brake as quickly as I need to. That was enough to convince me to get disc brakes (that and it's often wet here). The need for on-going adjustment prompted me to opt for hydraulic to not have to worry about cable stretch. Thus far they do not disappoint.

I would have to agree. I made several adjustments to get them right. Even so, my front still squeaks. And I have to admit that more finesse is required, but not overly so.

Does anyone have a good guide / tutorial on adjusting disc brakes?

I have run disc brakes on my mtb and loved them for the power and modulation they offered but also do not feel like I am at a loss when I run rim brakes and any decent rim brake, be it cantis, centre / side pulls, or v brakes can provide more than adequate stopping power if they are properly set up.

The bikes I ride that see the crappiest conditions all have cantis and stop just fine in the rain, slush, and in the snow and I have never had an issue with them not stopping me when I needed them too.

I think the problem with this can o' worms is the apparent lack of scientific testing on the subject. Everyone who's used both types seem to have their own experience, often the compete opposite of the next cyclist. Ideally what's needed is a series of tests using the same model of bike, each fitted with side-pulls, cantilevers, v-brakes, discs, drums, foot in the tyre etc, and measure stopping distances from various speeds on various surfaces.

Of course, the problem with such testing is that sales of the poorer performing brakes would probably drop significantly...

Personally, I've never used discs or drums, but can set up v-brakes or cantilevers to be able to lock the front wheel in the dry. I do notice a drop in performance in the wet, but I'm usually battling a headwind when it's raining which helps braking a bit

Yes that's what we need is to get a bunch of sciencists involved and complicate this very complex subject even more... But seriously I believe that everyone should just use whatever has been proven to work for them. For some it will be rim brakes and for others it will be discs. No need to do any scientific testing. Personal experience is far more important then some scientific research. Use whatever brakes work for you.

If you are really talking about freezing rain, the issue isn't water splashing up. The water is falling from the sky and freezing on the bike, the brakes, the rotors (or wheels) and the ground. The water freezing on the ground is the limiting factor on whether or not the bike stops well or not. Even discs aren't going to improve the braking power of the bike.

That depends on the model, mainly whether both pads move when braking or if one pad is stationary. Sram/Avid has manuals for their brakes: https://www.sram.com/en/service/.

Here is a good guide for Avid BB&7 brakes from Park Tool.

All of my winter commuters chew through rear rim brake pads when the weather/roads are wet and gritty, would switching to a disc brake bike reduce the number of pad replacements I make?

google BB7 and look for videos, there's several good ones on youtube.

Yup.

As I read the web info all cable discs but IRD have a stationary inner pad,
so they say adjust the gap thinner on that side. 1/3, vs 2/3 on the outside..

Nope. People believe this, but it isn't true outside of the very tight requirements of racing. Take a look at https://www.training4cyclists.com/about/ Adding 1.8kg of mass to a bike's frame added about a minute to a 50 minute hill stage, and a minute and half if added to the rims. If added to the centre of the wheels then weight will behave as if added to the frame rather than the rim. So the extra work caused by discs is minute and beneath the limit in normal performance variation.

You should be able to do this in the wet too if you use rain pads - Kool Pinks or Swiss Greens - and maintain your rims carefully.

I have two commuters a crap weather and a nice weather.

Oddly enough my nice weather commuter has discs and my crap weather has rim brakes. I do prefer the disc brakes overall for stopping power but rim brakes are stupidly easy to setup and pretty much never seem to go wrong for me. I do use a set of Kool Stop Salmons which work great in the snow. I've had them in some real nasty snow storms with 30mph winds so snow was all over me and the bike, they stopped me every time.

But even with how easy they are to setup I will always vote disc brakes.

EDIT: What I will say is I replace pads a lot more on rim brakes then I ever do on my disc brakes. So overall cost I think is better on mech brakes.

I commuted for over a year now in NYC with BB7s, 8 miles each way, year round, in any weather (skipped few days), plus errands and weekend rides and I haven't used up one set of BB7 pads that came originally with my brakes yet (I got them in December 2009). They look like just over 50% used up, and these are not even the metallic type, but just the regular organic pads that come with the BB7s. So that's like 6,000-8,000 miles. For an average commuter (10-20 miles/day, mostly flat) they should last over 10,000 miles, that's 2-3 years. This will of course vary: how hilly your ride is, how heavy your bike is, weather conditions and road conditions (sand and dust will wear them out quicker), etc. The rotors will last a decade

To echo Itsjustme, a properly built set of wheels should never need truing, barring a major damage event (which becomes more of a rim repair than truing).

I'll agree that the rim brake pads help one stay aware of trueness, but it really shouldn't be an issue anyway, even on a mountain bike. Properly built and tensioned wheels should stay true, even under the stresses of racing, touring, etc.

Thanks for the info, I do a lot of stop and go riding which can tear up a set of rear rim pads in as little as two to three hundred miles of constant foul weather riding.

I am new to serious biking. I posted a problem sometime ago about braking in the rain. I had some generic dual pivot caliper brakes that came stock on my allez. I had one instance where I almost went out on the highway. Someone here suggested salmon pads and they were more than sufficient. That isn't to say that disc brakes aren't better. They are but to me it feels like those guys that put 4 piston calipers on their honda civic. I can see how it can be entirely necessary but in most instances it just isn't. I'd rather spend 100 dollars on other things.

I do lots of stop-and-go too. It's city riding, lots of frequents stops: I go well over 50 intersections of all kinds.

I hear ya, I'm definitely looking forward to the time that my foul weather commuter gets the same brake pad life as my fair weather version does, which it can go thousands miles of stop and go commuting on a set of rim pads.

I ride rim brakes on all of my bikes, because it's not super important to me, but I'd prefer discs on my commuter. And the sole reason is: Days with relatively deep snow leave my rims iced up to the point where a decent downhill means I'm stopping with my foot.

But that's like 3-5 days a year. So I suffer through the rim brakes.

Other annoyances of rim brakes:
* To get any clearance you have to use cantilevers (or some other similar system) and they're a PITA to adjust and keep from squeaking.
* Cantilevers don't get the greatest braking power, especially on steel road frames that have a fair amount of flex in the seat stays.
* If you use multiple wheelsets you either make sure they're the same rim width (which limits tire choice somewhat) or adjust adjust adjust.


Anyway, if the cross check had had a disc option in 2008 I'd have a bike with disc brakes. But it's not worth buying a new bike over.


The perfect braking system is this:
* Decent pavement without ice
* Skinny tires
* Caliper brakes

well, what I have in mind far from complicates the subject- just keeps every other factor the same while testing different types of brakes, so you can see the actual difference it makes rather than hide them under differences in rider, bike etc. No need for anything fancy, just have a cyclist ride towards a marker line then hit the brakes and see how long it takes to stop. You'd then get proper results for braking distance with each type.