daihard 

UCI experimentally allowed the use of disc brakes in the racing events they sanction last year. If I remember correctly, they decided to put the pilot program on hold following crashes where disc brake blades caused severe injuries on a few riders.

Performance-wise, the consensus seems to be that disc brakes are in fact superior to the rim brakes in pretty much all conditions. (I don't mean to defend either mechanism. Just an observation.)

https://blog.performancebike.com/201...s-disc-brakes/

likewater

I watched several youtube videos showing that hydraulic discs were far superior to traditional brakes. How could they not be? There's a reason cars don't have rim brakes.. you simply can't match the power of hydraulics.

They also tested how dangerous they'd be and a heated disc rotor from constant braking down a huge descent did far less damage to a thick salami than the spokes of the wheels. The spokes chopped it up like nothing.

digibud

Most or many serious cyclists end up with more than one pair of wheels. I have a pair I prefer when I know I'm going to do long fast descents, a pair for racing (although for me I admit that's a bit silly), and my daily pair. I also have multiple pair for my fat bike with discs and when I swap out disc wheels I have to go through a pain in the butt resetting of the brakes because there's no way to make the rotors fit perfectly from wheel set to wheel set. With rim brakes you just take off a wheel and throw another wheel on. Not so with disc. I realize it's not a huge undertaking but disc brakes are simply more of a pain in the rear. Totally necessary for winter snow. Quite important for huge mtn bike downhills but my basic rule is that if I don't really -need- discs then I much prefer the simplicity and weight savings of rim brakes. I won't bother with talking about squealing, which mine don't because I have that under control but....

Canker

again you can shim rotors so they all match and you don't have to mess with the brakes when you swap wheels.

Quick wheel changes during a race would matter if I actually raced and again shim the rotors. For all the riding I and the vast majority of people do a flat tire means take a break and/or chit chat for a couple mins.

The biggest problem with disc brakes is keeping the rotor true so they don't squeak but if you actually buy the right tool and take your time to straighten them once in a while that isn't a problem either.

You roadies are so 2003 mountain bikers complaining about disc brakes starting to take over there.

smarkinson

In addition to the Synapse there is the Cannondale CAAD12 available in disc in either Ultegra or 105.

Rowan

It's rapidly getting to the point where anyone who asks the question whether they would buy disked or rim-braked bikes, the other person will look blankly, and say: What are rim brakes?

By the way, rim brakes are still disc brakes. Think about it.

BobbyG

Yes, and "clipless" pedals still have clips.

CrowSeph

• You don't really need , the normal braked for road bike are fine.
• They will lose potential when they get wet.
• The pads wear out pretty quickly.
• The maintenence is horrible (there is always something to do)

Plus i have on my mountainbike and i'm satified only to the appereance side , becouse during those years i spent a lot of money only for fixing problems. I changed a looot of pads and a loot of oil , and a lot of caliper for the most sillies problems.

Why i decided to go "disks"?
When i decided to bought that mountainbike i was influenced a lot from internet.
Yes the stopping power is really good but you don't really need on a cross crountry bike or even in a roadbike.

Do you know sometimes disks will not properly working when they become really hot?
Well sometimes i had this experience on my mountainbike , but i don't know the reason and after a change of oil i never had that problem anymore (probably air bubble or smt). Some of my roadbike routes are very technical , near here there is a road basically a long climbing with a lot of road bends. During the descent i hit a lot of times the brake and in some part i keep pressing it.
If you are racing you need to go faster as you can , thats why i keep sprinting in the discent and when the road become more technical i push the break hard whitout loosing the control of the bike and after the road bend i start pushing again on my speed. When i go to the same route with my mountainbike i press the brake for a bit of time and then leave and then again press for a lot of time. I keep doing this for having control on my speed and evade the needed of hard stop and technical actions for turning.
Why i made this example?
Becouse mostly on my mountainbike i never do longs discends as this because this is ROAD made for roadbike.
So if a mountainbike can have some problems because the disks , why a roadbike with disks would not?

Let's face it , disks are cool but the situation where those are really needed are pretty uncommon. Mostly becouse they were made for downhill and other aggressive trails.

Extra: Since roadbikers are weight maniacs as i'am , i think those are one of the most eavy parts you can add in your bike. Plus there are a not of variations in the market for example there are some aero brakes and other lightweight versions as kcnc do. For me those lightweight are a true beauty but the cost let me to forget them.

Thats true! , the difference is: Rims have a bigger surface but less surface pads.
Thats why the stopping power is better on disks (more surface = more stopping power).

I own a campy veloce skeleton since 2008. Never had any problem and they still own the original pads.

Have a good day.

hogger453

Rim brakes. So my answer is no.

Mr IGH

MTB and gravel grinder/commuter/tourer, yes, esp because I ride long, very steep descents. Road bike, maybe. Most of my road biking is on car roads and I've stayed with aluminum rims specifically because I ride in the Rockies. Haven't had any issues but I don't go crazy on the descents as some will.

cyccommute 

I would say that most of the things said about discs are more "perception"...and not a small amount of marketing...than anything concrete. Personally, I've been riding mountain bikes since the days of cantilever brakes and I've never found any brake on any mountain bike to limit my ability to stop. I still use cantilevers on my loaded touring bike and they have worked extremely well in every condition I've thrown at them, including 45+ mph rain soaked downhills in North Carolina. It's been a while since I've ridden a tandem but even that bike was easy to stop with only cantilever brakes.

No, not all disc brakes are created the same but they are all marketed the same. The same "superior modulation" claim has been made about every hub mounted disc brake out there including the really awful ones. The "on/off" hydraulics I had were said to have superior modulation. The hydraulics I replaced on my daughter's bike were a newer version of the same brake that most people considered to have "excellent modulation" and the worked the same way o the version I had...in other words, they didn't modulate at all.

cyccommute 

You are making several mistakes here. First all automotive brakes are hydraulic. They don't have to worry about weight nor complexity. Disc brakes on cars are superior to drum brakes in some respects...but not all. Drum brakes have some advantages, like being less complex, have a larger friction area, are self-energizing so less force is needed to actuate them, are cheaper to produce and maintain, provide more force for the same braking surface area, etc. Trucks use them because of the larger friction area and cheaper production costs.

You are under the mistaken impression that rim brakes are somehow different from a hub mounted disc brake. A rim is a large rotating disc of metal to which you apply friction by squeezing brake pads on the disc from both sides. In other words, it's a disc brake with a huge rotor.


That's one's a bit hard to believe. I seen...and experienced...lots of things getting stuck in spokes. I've never seen anything cut by spokes. If an object (like a salami) is stuck in the spokes of a bicycle wheel, it stops without too much damage to object. I've seen lots of fingers after they've been stuck in a disc, the damage is pretty severe.

likewater

I know way more about cars than I ever will about bicycles and your statement on car brakes are very incorrect. Just saying.

There is no upside to drums. Discs beat them in every category

memebag

Yup. I had to pick rim or disc recently when I bought a new CAAD12 105. Less that $200 difference. I went with the rim brakes because they are simpler and I've never had a problem with rim brakes. If it ain't broke and all that.

Jeff Neese

I have never had the urge for disk brakes. I have enough braking power on all my bikes to launch myself over the handlebars. All but one have cantilevers, and the other one has dual-pivot side-pull calipers. I'll admit we don't ride in the rain unless we get caught, so wet-weather performance isn't much of a factor. I like the interchangeability of most of my (mostly vintage) bike's wheelsets.

And Rowan is right. Rim brakes are still disk brakes, and in theory the closer to the outside of a rotating disk you put the braking surface, the more powerful the stopping power will be, all else being equal. That means rim brakes should, by the laws of physics and with all else being equal, have greater stopping power due to the braking surface having a larger radius. We know not all else actually is equal and there are many factors at play. The point is that nothing inherent in disk brakes make them better.

DrIsotope

My bike has mechanical discs, and I'm nothing but pleased with them. They work better in the wet than rim brakes (and anyone who claims differently is simply deluded) and to those who claim there is more maintenance required... yeah, I would say that is true. A rim brake needs very little looking after, and I adjust my discs perhaps once a week (riding 5-6 days, ~200 miles per week.) But I have not noted that parts wear at an accelerated rate-- I get 6,000+ miles out of a set of front pads, and have 15,000+ on my rotors.

If I were buying a frame today, it would be disc. For my "everyday everywhere" style of riding, discs have absolutely zero drawbacks-- and don't forget: anyone who mentions system weight as a negative should be immediately discounted as a wingnut. I mean, I can't even count the number of times I've noticed how heavy my brake calipers are.

memebag

And disc brakes are still rim brakes. Spooky!

Loose Chain

I not much into consensus building. If somebody wanted to cause their eyeballs to pop out of their heads there is nothing that keeps one from building hydraulic assisted rim brakes. The fact is that the contact patch of a 23mm to 25mm racing tire is darn minimal. I can lock my wheels with my rim brakes. So hydraulic discs can also lock them twice as hard. Once the tire is skidding the game is over.

I think you could have a point if long and high speed downhills, it is likely the discs have superior cooling though again, there is nothing that keeps a rim brake from having a design that would shed heat efficiently since they have a larger swept area and therefore potentially greater cooling efficiency than discs and more leverage than a disc since they grip near the circumference instead of well inward near the axle.

If you think about it, rim brakes are disc brakes that use the rim as the rotor instead of a separate rotor thus their being lighter, less complicated, fewer parts. And I will say it again, nothing prevents a manufacturer from building a hydraulic rim brake caliper with ceramic coating on the rim other than the fact it simply is not needed.

J

daihard 

Some people are resistant to changes. I understand the fear of venturing into an unfamiliar territory.

downtube42

My next bike will most likely have disc brakes.

My most recent purchase was a new commuter with hydraulic disc brakes, and I absolutely love the brake performance. Jumping on the rando bike after a few weeks riding the commuter, I found the caliper rim brake performance downright scary. Prior to having the commuter, I considered the rando bike's brakes perfectly adequate. I will give the new brakes a full season to experience varied weather conditions, maintenance, and wear before pulling the trigger, but I'm already looking at potential rando bikes with disc brakes.

cyccommute 

Perhaps you should learn some more about cars then. More specifically about motor vehicles. Heavy over-the-road trucks that require far more of their brakes than lighter cars do, use drum brakes rather than discs for the very advantages I listed above.

But, since the discussion is about bicycles, this has little to do with them. Rim brakes are still a disc brake.

cyccommute 

Wrong analogy. Clipless pedals use a very different retention mechanism and a very different approach to keeping the foot on the pedals than toe clips do. Rim brakes and hub mounted disc brakes use the same mechanism and principles.

Your analogy is like comparing rim or disc brakes to coaster brakes. They are both "brakes" but they arrive at a solution to the problem in very different ways.

wphamilton

I honestly don't know if I'd go for disc brakes on a new road bike. If that's what was on the road bike I wanted, probably.

On the other hand, rim brakes are cheaper, lighter, simpler, and I've had no issue with stopping my bikes in any local conditions, so it's surely not something I'd specifically seek out.

BobbyG

Yes, I was being loose in my interpretation to appear clever; but as usual fell short.

likewater

Yea bro, 18 wheelers and F650s totally use drum brakes.