BirdsBikeBinocs

I was out for a ride yesterday and got caught in a shower. I got wet. So did my bike.

May-Day ... May Day ... May Day ... Oh, cancel that. MY RIM BRAKES WORKED JUST FINE.!!!

Signed .... OP

I don't need disc brakes. Thanks but no thanks.

winston63 

Ghazmh

BirdsBikeBinocs

No. I haven't bought yet. It's going to be a while. I'm enjoying the search. And, I'm enjoying the Schwinn with monster 42c tires. Had it off-road today. All 40 lbs. of it. So now you see why I'm wanting a road bike. But I'll always keep the Schwinn. Love it.

winston63 

Oh for sure you should keep it! It’s great having more than one bike, especially when they fill a different niche. I think you’ll enjoy adding a road bike, but there are times when your Schwinn will be a more suitable ride.

pillows_

This year I bought my first bike with hydraulic disc brakes. TBH, they are kinda nice but not really worth it for me. I work on my own bikes and its just an added hassle without much gain. For a MTB, XC, or touring bike its more practical, but for a commuter/road bike, not worth the hassle for the vast majority of riders. Unless you're a pro ripping up the streets, or you're using carbon wheels, caliper brakes are just fine IMHO

wsteve464

What do you find to be the added hassle with hydro discs?

Maelochs

defending them to all the people who are closed-minded.

DrIsotope

I wonder about the folks speaking of the "hassle" of hydro discs. I made the conversion from TRP Hy/Rd to full-hydro about 10 weeks ago, and have literally not touched the brakes since I finished the install. Nothing, in ~1,100 miles.

Feels like every other time I ride in the wet with rim brakes, I have to take the KoolStop pads out and give 'em a quick sanding, or deal with the pulsing feeling they develop. I've had to mess with rim brakes a whole lot more than disc.

Bill in VA

That is a generalization. Short reach caliper rim brakes may limit tire width, but longer length calipers will open wider. If you want to run real wide tires and also narrow tires with rim brakes just pick a bike with cantilever brakes. My Shimano cantilevers will open wider than the fork or seat stays of the frame so the limitation is there I can fit tires from 25mm to 38mm (I use 28 and 32mm). I see more tire limitations due to frame design than brake caliper design.

Where a disk would have an real advantage over a caliper on tire size would be if you wanted to swap a set of 700C and 650B wheels on the same frame as the rim brakes would be challenged by the two diameters..

pillows_

its not a huge hassle but compared to old school brakes it takes more time and is much easier to mess things up. Shortening brake lines, bleeding them, truing rotors, very little clearance when using new rotors and pads, if something happens while you're out on a ride you're pretty SOL

I dont hate them but for most of the riding I do regular brakes are A-OK for me

jefnvk

If you blow out the front one on a tour in the middle of nowhere, its really hard to take the fluid and lines out of the back one and put it up front for better stopping power the way you could with a cable?

/notactuallyaseriousproblem

zombiemaster22

i like caliper brakes

Crandall

wsteve464

just unclip the hose from the frame and move the rear caliper to the front, 4-6 bolts and its done.

From my experience over the last two years or so with hydro discs they are pretty much a set and forget. Bleeding and doing the initial set up does not take much more if any more time the the initial install of rim brakes.

pillows_

Bike Rader did a video reviewing a new bike, or specifically new hydraulic brakes (I cant remember which and the video may have been deleted because I cant find it now). In that video Ben Delaney and friends trekked up a mountain in Colorado and on the decent one of Ben's hydros overheated and sprung a leak rendering it useless. Fearing the other brake would overheat and fail, he had to hold on to his friends as they slowly coasted back down

There is also the possibility of warping your rotors from excessive heat

jefnvk

Short of a really long down hill road route, I cannot see how one could get brakes to a temperature that warped rotors are really a concern. Even then, swapping between front and rear and letting them cool is incredibly simple.

Maelochs

if the brakes get so overheated they boil the fluid and blow a gasket, i don't think warping the discs would be impossible ... or important, because you'd already be careening down a mountain with only one brake ... and the other had already overheated when using two brakes, meaning you chances of failure were vastly increased.

I am not anti-disc ... i am pro-Truth. I have seen rim brakes heat a tire so much iot blew off the wheel (on TV in races, but i saw it.) Now I hear this story.

I am not voting for one or the other ... that is nonsense. But I like to know the limitations of the machinery which I might call upon to save my life some day so ... information s a Good thing.

BirdsBikeBinocs

I'm still leaning towards Rim Brakes. Nearly every bike I'm interested in comes with disc's standard. Scott seems to be among the few that offer rim brakes on a new bike.

It might be hard to avoid disc brakes on a new bike. Kinda ticks me off.

Can a bike shop change out disc brakes to rims.?? Can they order a bike without disc brakes, a sort of custom order.??

Maelochs

Unfortunately, a bike with discs will have a fork and chain stays with holes for mounting discs--- and likely no hole in the fork for rim brakes, and no brake-bridge in the back. So ... no go.

fietsbob

Though rare, I have 2 bikes which can use Disc or V brakes ..

One of them is from Bike Friday,

this is the other one .. 04 model , 03 came with discs ..



of course disc mount is seen on the NDS.. it Came with these, Magura , the hydraulic rim brake..





...

jefnvk

Getting brakes on cars to their failure point is part of my job. Even though I have seen people catch corners of the car on fire doing that testing, and regularly in my own development and testing get them to the point of smelling pungent burnign smells, does not mean it has ever once been a concern of mine driving around regularly. Just because one can, does not mean 99.99% of people ever have to worry about it.

I'd have locked up the brakes and brought the bike to a halt well before you ever worried about cooking rotors. IMO, it is such a small corner case for most of the world that it is not a concern, and to those whom it is, they know what they are doing already.

Maelochs

Whereas, blowing a hydro line and having to reconnect the other brake is a common experience? This whole thread is silly. We all know the many braking systems and we all know they all work. Some have minor advantages in certain situations ... and as you note, most people Never test Any of their mechanical systems to the limit anyway.

NoWhammies

I bought a new bike this year and it came with disc brakes. I like the brakes but it seems to me they are way more hassle than rim brakes. The front disc brakes is continually going out of alignment. So I keep this annoying 'tick tick tick' while riding. Then there's the maintenance. The brake dust needs to be cleaned out on a fairly regular basis. Definitely more work than what I'm used to.

That said, the brakes work damn well and I have no fear of brake fade or issues with my carbon wheels from lots of intense/consistent braking.

jefnvk

I think you missed the "/notactuallyaseriousproblem"

But yeah, if I were picking between two hypothetical and fairly implausible scenarios, I would still say cutting a hydro line is more plausible than a warped rotor. I've cut brake lines on a car before, I've never warped a rotor to the point of concern