I've had a couple of mountain bikes with disks and they worked fine. I've had a lot of bikes (road and mtb) with cantis and V's and they worked fine. All were maintained and adjusted properly.

If I were buying a new tourer I might consider buying one with disks but probably wouldn't because IMO (and it is just an opinion based on personal taste and not an incontrovertible fact so no one can argue with me) they are fugly.

You are in denial! They are gorgeous, from a mechanical point of view!

One ring to rue them all.

Nothing to do with luck and not everybody in fact only a few ride Mitchell Canyon because it is similar to "repack" for the riders who remember when brakes overheated and failed back in the 70s hence the name!

You are absolutely correct, but on a practical point of view--not so sure!

So is full suspension.

Never ridden with disk brakes, so I have no opinion, other than that look a lot more fragile than car or aircraft brakes. How do they fare, hammering day in, day out through potholes and weather? Required gripping force is probably lighter than that for drums -- that's a consideration for folks with arthritis.

I do know what I don;t want. I gave up on rim brakes over a decade ago -- less than a thousand miles of daily winter riding in salt and grit, and the rims wear right through. Brake pads last a month or two, but that's a minor hassle compared withself-destructing wheels..

I like drum brakes -- they go for tens of thousand miles with an annual squirt of grease and never give any trouble.

So are disk brakes the new dork disks?

I'd add lycra to that list.

You must mean index shifting (not "click shifting"), the use of carbon fiber is by far more important than disc brakes and so is lycra with synthetic chamois.

It always amazes me the emotional attachment people have with opinions about bicycle components and technology. Disc brakes for road bikes is the latest example. Especially when in many cases, the opinions are based on very limited experience with an extremely small sampling of the incredibly wide range of examples of brakes of many types, of many levels of quality and a long history of development and a huge range of different usages, conditions of use and skill levels of users and assemblers. There is more than one good way to do most things. They all have their advantages and disadvantages. They are all better at some things and not as good at others. Some examples of each type are better or worse than other examples and other applications. As time goes forward and usage increases, they tend to get better.
vive la différence!

Yup. As worked up as some folks got over bicycle brakes it's easy to see what could happen with topics like religion or politics.

I agree 100% with BluesDawg and Retro Grouch.

Brakes that work are a good thing. I 100% agree with myself about that.

The new clipless may be anti-lock brakes: Hands On: SABS Antilock Bicycle Brake Pads
Dated November 2012 but I'm not convinced wasn't really posted April 1.

IMHO, it's still lighting. Huge improvements.

I was pondering the real value of indexed shifting some time ago ... I actually think the primary advantage isn't so much the ease in shifting ... it's the fact that you can have 10 and 11 speed cassettes. Hard to do when you are friction shifting.

Speaking of which, the move from clusters to cassettes some time ago was a significant advance, IMHO.

vna

You will have a hard time convincing me that plastic frames are an improvement.

Head and shoulders top of my list would be cassette hubs. Definitely a game changer. Broken axles, once common, are now rare.
The thing that makes index shifting work is compressionless cable housing and I think that deserves to be on it's own. I'd definitely be anti-disc brake, at least anti-mechanical disc brake but for the availability of compressionless brake housing.
My third advance would be the ability to form deep section aluminum rims which is something that I don't care very much about. Still, they've definitely been a game changer.

Clipless pedals are a second category advance for me - not top three. I prefer to go clipless if I'm riding more than a mile or so but, now that I'm not mountain biking anymore, I could very happily go back to clips and straps. Makes walking into the restaurant easier.

And I agree with you on that. BluesDawg is always the voice of reason.

Here is another huge can of worms.

My technique with friction-shifting downtube levers was to reach down, move the lever and hope the chain ended up on approx. the gear I was hoping for. Can't imagine that working very well with greater numbers of more-closely-spaced cogs.

My opinion: Headlights that we can actually use. Hi-energy LED lights, that truly do the job, and do it well. Most excellent
for those of us that prefer night riding.

Plastic. Hahahahhahahahahha

That's a good one! I can remember riding at night with some really marginal lights because decent bicycle lights simply didn't exist. Even the cheap light systems today are hugely better in every way than anything that was commercially available in the 60's.

Most important advance for safety is the easy availability everywhere of low priced, battery powered LED lights and blinkies for front illumination and rear visibility.

As far as brakes, I prefer coaster brakes on my IGH bikes ridden in all weather, all temperature conditions, mostly urban, semi urban environments without mountainous hills to contend with. 100% reliability, Zero maintenance, last a lifetime. Only require one hand (either hand) on handlebars to use effectively. A front hand brake can be a useful adjunct.

If I commuted or raced up and down 4mile hills with an average 10% grade I probably would change my mind.