No, it's not that you're old. Age has nothing to do with your attitude. Just realize that your preconceptions have nothing to do with your new bike purchase. The LBS guy seemed a little weird because he couldn't figure out what your problem was. Just buy a bike which feels good on your test ride. You'll like it, probably way more than you have any idea of right now.

It seems like disk brakes are standard on any off the shelf bike these days. It isn't a matter of whether you need them, it's a matter of deciding whether the old style brakes offer an advantage that makes it worth reducing your field of choices.

I looked at the Trek Domaine on Trek's website. I got a bit of a nose bleed from the price but hey, it seems competitive with other bikes in its class.

At that price point, I would want a test ride for at least a day. My approach is to listen to the features and benefits and then discuss how I can take this bike out for a ride to experience it for myself and compare its performance with what I currently own.

I have another problem, not a luddite. I own a lot of high end wheels that create a legacy problem when switching to disc brakes. The wheels are useless if I purchase a road bike with disc brakes. And I have a time trial bike that shares race and training wheels with my road bike.

I have a tandem with a rear disc brake. It works well and stops the bike but is very noisy and I keep tweaking the brake to tune out the noise. During this year's Tour de France, the commentators noted the sound of the disc brakes engaging on descents. I hate noisy crap on bikes or cars. The Black Prince brake pads that I use on the Fast Forward wheel carbon rims with the enhanced braking surface are quiet and stop effectively. Having said that, I was at a cycling camp in Italy riding in the early morning fog and it was hilly. Everything was wet - me, glasses, bike and rims and the brakes worked but with reduced braking. So even if I do not intentionally ride in the rain, on wet roads or in fog, sometimes I am just into those conditions and disc brakes would be more effective.

I have a racing friend who has a bike with disc brakes and he claims that he can descend faster because he can brake later into a turn with confidence.

I used to go on group rides with a coach. He would follow us in his van and carry a set of wheels in case one of us got a flat. Now to get wheel support, there must be both disc and conventional wheels on board.

I think the advantage of age (not disadvantage) is that we have more experience and are in the position to use that experience to evaluate new value propositions and select what is best for us and use a salesman's pitch to provide the information as a point of departure.

As long as hydraulic brakes weigh more than my Weinmann 500's, I can't get excited, as I would have to lose weight myself to offset it.

OK, no I wouldn't buy a car with drum brakes. I also wouldn't buy a mountain bike without them. But where and how I ride my road bike it's no advantage and I was looking to save a few bucks.

The sales guy was just being a sales guy. I understand that and marketing. As such I have no need for "this year's" model really.

I did ride the Emonda, Domane, a Synapse and looked at a Gunnar shop (nothing built) and went to Performance to look at Fuji's. The bikes I rode were all nice. The test ride is so different from how I ride at home I'm not sure I could really pick a favorite.

I ended up buying a 5 yr old Seven Axiom SLX w/ SRAM RED from a shop that serviced it before they sold it. Old school but sexy?

Why are you shopping for a new bike?

If you are afraid you might be missing out on something you'll have to try out the newer features for yourself.
If you don't want to mess with the new stuff, look at a cheaper model or maybe your current bike is still adequate.
If you're trying to impress other people, save yourself the trouble. At best it's only going to work for one year because there will always be another new, shiny object next year.

My wife and I each bought a Domane last spring. While we really like the bikes, the hydraulic brakes are something I would not choose again. A few weeks ago we started out on a ride and my wife shouted over to me that she had no brakes on the rear wheel. The right brake lever depressed to the handlebar, so cancel the ride and off to the shop. the mechanic said that the rear wheel brake needed to be bled and we should leave the bike. Two days later we picked up the bike and found that the lever depression did not match that of the front brake. The mechanic adjusted the reach. The brake works fine but we were told that it might need bleeding again. In almost forty years of cycling I've never had a problem with rim brakes. I always adjusted them myself with no problem. Now we have very expensive bikes that might need periodic bleeding, a job that requires a few special tools and some learning or a trip to the bike shop. A big pain in the ass as far as I am concerned. I'd never choose hydraulic brakes again. As for discs, they stop the bike just like rim brakes do, that is, efficiently. No absolute need for them, but I do like the extra clearance for wider tires. We ride 32mm tires which we both like very well. So I'd get discs again, but not hydraulics.

Making a universal decision on one bad example? Now I know you know better than that. Even someone new to cycling can recognize that there are good examples and bad examples of every product. Especially when its a relatively new technology.

Even at this stage its possible to find a bike with mushy poorly functional caliper brakes. What would you do then? There's just too many variable to consider to resort to such a knee-jerk reaction.

Well, I'm 73, and when it was time to get a new road bike to supplement my 18 year old Bianchi steel frame (I could never replace it!), I ordered a Co-op from REI that has a great carbon fiber frame, good components and rims, and hydraulic disk brakes. I was dubious about the brakes, since nobody else I know has them, but that has become one of the main reasons I love it. The brakes take much less pressure to apply and are smoother and more precise than the cable disk brakes or rim brakes on my other two bikes. Going down the Colorado hills seems safer - my rims won't overheat and pop the tire, and the brakes don't fade coming down the Colorado National Monument. And of course it can stop on a dime. Don't automatically reject new technology. Sometimes it's better.


IMG_20180830_151056784 by Steve Carter, on Flickr

The self-appointed critics in this thread are aware that the original form of rim brakes was an original form of the disc brakes system on bicycles, aren't they? Or are that religious in their belief that they have to categorise them as unsatisfactory drum brakes, which they are not? Maybe these people should stand for membership of the UCI management committee and ensure that the concept of bicycle disc brake is fully adopted even with the serious physical injury risk that it runs.

Yes, they've been around that long and longer.

As I briefly mentioned in my other post, most people today, if they have "problems" with their hydraulic disc brakes on their bicycle, it is probably because of the manufacturer's cutting back on quality...
1; it is a cable actuated "hydraulic" disk brake, needs constant adjustment, not linear... so on...
2; it is a hydraulic disc brake but is an inferior type, has mineral oil instead of DOT3 brake fluid, freezes or boil's, it is a single piston type, it is just cheap lines connections and ends up leaking...
3; or it "can be the best" out there but the people who set it up fail in their job...

All I can say is millions of cars, trucks, and other equipment has hydraulic disc brake and brake failure is probably the last thing I have heard of that is causing any problems on any of those vehicles... and... that are way more punishing on the system than any bicycle could ever be... a 200Lbs + bicycle, stopping from lets say 30 MPH or 4,000Lbs + car/vehicle stopping from 60 MPH, stopping thousands of times during the year... over and over, That tells me quality is/probably is the "problem" manufacturer's dumbing down the system, not the system...

That's the crux of the issue right there.

Disc don't always stop the way rim brakes do. You might never be in a situation where you notice but for many folks discs offer better performance than rim brakes.

Not sure if you're joking or just incredibly ignorant with a huge side portion of paranoia.

It 's only fairly recently that the UCI has allowed disc brakes to be used on road bikes in 2019. Are you aware of that?

I'm very aware of the fact that the UCI re-authorized disc brake usage in July (not 2019). I'm also very aware that disc brakes don't pose a "serious physical injury risk" as you claim.

Both of those understandings formed the foundation of my reply to you.

Thanks for confirming that you weren't joking. Yikes!

Doull claims Kittel's 'lethal' disc brake bike almost caused serious injury | Cyclingnews.com

Compton injured by disc brake rotor in Lille | Cyclingnews.com

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cycling/...rs-horror-inj/

I could go on ... but I presume you know how to use Google.

My error in misreading the notification by the UCI about allowing disc brakes in its races from July. Unfortunately, the notification came in the same story that included a ban on Tramadol starting in 2019.

Do I care... not really. You can go with whatever you want. I will stick with the stuff I know and researched.

Yeah, isn't Google great?

You can even find up to date information, like this:

"Safety: Lack of Injuries Calm Sharp Edge Concerns

WorldTour riders have been highly critical about disc brakes, voicing concerns of sharp-edged rotors in crashes. But to the extent that discs have been used, the fears haven’t borne out. There have been just a handful of crashes where riders allege that disc brakes caused an injury and in two of them—Francisco Ventoso’s crash in the 2016 Paris-Roubaix and Owain Doull’s crash at last year’s Tour of Abu Dhabi—official review found no evidence that discs caused their injuries (video from Doull’s crash suggests it was a fence). And no, discs will not really cut a shoe (a contention made by Sky's Owain Doull after a crash in last year's Abu Dhabi Tour left a slice in his left shoe; experiments have shown that highly unlikely).

At the same time, there’s been only halting progress on fixes that would address safety concerns. The UCI now requires rotors to have a rounded edge profile. But rotor covers are still not required (or used even voluntarily). But gradually, disc brakes are being used in races without catastrophic results, which is blunting the safety criticisms."
(https://www.bicycling.com/bikes-gear...o-racing-2018/)

I'm glad that I live in a world where a few injuries (among millions of miles ridden and raced with discs) don't equal a "serious physical injury risk"

This guy sounds like he graduated (or got fired) from a car dealer. Just tell him No like Nancy Reagan said, and of course be kind to elderly single speeds.

Disk brakes causing injuries... Ha Ha, Ha, Sooo funny...

I'm happy that you live in that world too.

I'm also sure you're glad you live in a world where a few people taken by sharks don't equal any sort of danger from sharks.