Originally Posted by
WhyFi
Your perspective as a service provider and race support is far different than that of the typical user; I see a lot of this as being neither here nor there or making a mountain out of a molehill.
Maintenance? I had to replace my brake cables more frequently than bleed my lines, let alone replace the lines. My experience thus far has been almost completely frustration-free (one high-spot issue), including self-install on one of my bikes with hydro. Lost TA? Don't be an idiot when you take out the TA - remove the wheel and put the TA back in immediately; why would you throw that on the ground? Racer with a flat? Wrong forum, different world. High spot? Hit the disc with a truing lever. Different tools? Yeah, people that do their own maintenance *hate* excuses to buy new tools (and you're not exactly being fair with tools/parts rundown). I mean, come on, Rob - this just comes off as some sensationalist retrogrouchery.
Are discs perfect? No, of course not. Install/maintenance is certainly more involved, when it's necessary, but the intervals between necessary maintenance have been pretty damn long and the benefits (one-finger braking, great feel/feedback, all-weather performance, not eating through my rims, etc, etc) have been worth it, IME.
Again - you're not representative of the vast majority of the riding public. I still have enthusiast riders who fight back when I suggest they need new cables and housings or a chain and they're riding carbon with 10 speed.
You can ignore a cable system for decades and it will still work. Not so with disc. The bikes I see daily are ones that have been ignored for decades. Worse are the ones that are ridden non-stop with no care or attention given to them. On a cable system that means new pads.
My position is that it's still not the right product for the application. It lacks fundamental standardization across the board and is an unecessary complication on many levels for the vast majority of riders/users. That's normally not a problem (shifting for instance. Di2, hell even basic indexed shifting...who cares) but on a brake/safety system ..... I feel differently.
Listen this is like talking about tubeless, overly large rims, etc. The fans will always drown out those who sit saying, "we didn't need this." The industry is just going that way come hell or high water. There is nothing I can say that will ever change it. The question was posed - what apart from weight would be a reason to not want hydraulic discs. I answered it. To sum up my previous post, "because to have hydraulic discs puts the majority of riders at a higher risk of having a brake system that is not functioning or maintained properly."
I may be a retro-grouch on this but I am riding on them. I had no choice. Are they better than what I had before? I'd honestly have to say no. If I was still on rim brakes I would not be sacrificing anything. If I did 10+ minute descents then I would no doubt prefer disc brakes. It's really that simple for me but like I said - I don't get to choose. I'll just keep getting more money for the increasing levels and frequency of service these customers have.
I really can't wait until the retro/vintage trend in the future though where all the hipster enthusiasts go back to only running rim brake bikes. "They're so sleek and cool. They really work better than most people think they do and they're just so fun to ride." FWIW - I will be against that move when it happens as well. They all just need to get off my yard.