Originally Posted by
cyccommute
Been riding mountain bikes on techical descents since the end of the last ice age
...or at least how it seems. Honestly, I bought my first mountain bike in 1984. Cantilever brakes, no suspension and I've ridden through enough mud and muck to fill a swamp. I've even done high speed descents in pouring rain and never found that I lacked for brakes. A slightly less powerful brake has its place like on ice or wet slick rock.
Ok, you've got about 6 or 7 years of mountain biking on me, which is duly noted, but I've never wished I had slightly less powerful brakes, so I just don't view that as a disadvantage of disc brakes.
Originally Posted by
cyccommute
Rim brakes also clear quickly after intermittent wetting.
Sometime quickly is not quick enough. In my experience, this is a major advantage of discs over rim brakes. Mind you, the bulk of my riding has been in New England, which is fairly technical, and fairly wet. Maybe that's a factor.
Originally Posted by
cyccommute
Huh? Have you looked at the gap between a pad and a disc brake rotor? There's a only about a millimeter clearance on either side of the rotor. If the rotor is bent only slightly out of true, you'll have to straighten the rotor or walk.
Have you ever had this happen? I have not, nor do I know anyone who has had this experience. I'm talking about a slight rub, which happens, but is still a relatively rare occurrence. No adjustment necessary, just ride normally. On a rough trail ride, wheels can get knocked out of true much more easily than disc rotors. It's actually a bit of a moot point, because this is far from my favorite aspect of disc performance.
Originally Posted by
cyccommute
With a rim brake, you can always open them wider if the rim is out of true and still have effective brakes. I've had to ride for miles on a wheel with a broken spoke - probably the most out of true you can get a wheel and still have it rideable - and all I had to do was reposition the cable on the brake caliper so that the calipers ran a bit wider open. You can't do that with a disc.
Was this on a mountain bike? Under this scenario, how effective the brakes remain, as well as how rideable the bike remains, is open to interpretation. One of my riding buddies tacoed his front wheel about 10 miles from the trail head. He was able to straighten it enough to clear the fork, but the rim was cracked, so he wrapped a length of inner tube around the cracked rim section, tire and all. Stuffed the tire with leaves and grass. Remarkably, he was able to ride back to the car (gingerly) with a fully functional front disc brake. I suppose there will always be a scenario, real or imagined, wherein one type of brake is superior to the other. However, in my 20 or so years of mountain biking, the last several of which have been with discs, I can say that discs suit my riding much better, especially when I'm not grinding my expensive-to-replace rims with mud.