Originally Posted by
sloman
There is really no downside to disc.(except grams) , but I still prefer rim brakes for looks. But I'm an old guy. Now get off my lawn
Don't know how i missed this before but you literally summed up the whole argument in the best way possible.
Originally Posted by
63rickert
Any bicycle built before 2019 is a DEATHTRAP. Attempting to ride any bike more than six months old means you certainly WILL DIE. Crazy people who rode bikes in the distant past of 2018 were CAVEMEN. Don't be like those NEANDERTHALS. Just don't get on the road without a brand new 2020 bicycle. Be sure to replace it at least twice before season is over.
Not even going to keep track of who replied to what here --- if your old horrible nasty pre-disc brake levers bottomed out on the handlebar you just told me your brakes were not maintained at all. There was nothing wrong with the brake. There was something wrong with you for being out on the road with a bike that did not work.
The rider makes the bike work. The equipment does not ride the bike.
I keep my bikes well maintained, its what I did for a living and it paid for my first house; adjustment has nothing to do with the older stuff being inferior. When V-brakes came out suddenly so did braces because they could apply enough leverage to a rim that the frames would flex, not an issue with cantis because they weren't capable of that much stopping power, none of them were. Of course new MTBs came with stronger rear stays to compensate with a slight weight penalty or new shapes to keep the weight down and the stiffness there. The very act of having that much additional leverage means they could do a better job stopping because they could apply more resistance to the rim, particularly once things stiffened up. You can't adjust a canti to match that no matter how much you try, the result is better braking. Hence why I dumped my adequate mafac cantis for v-brakes and a frame stiffener on the tandem. And funny enough it stops better, who'd have guessed. Similarly there isn't much to adjusting a single pivot, get the cable run smooth, the brake centered, the wheel true and straight and keep the bolts at the least amount of resistance and they'll work as well as they can with the best pads. When dual pivot came I tossed the singles on ebay and put on shimano 600s and they worked better, who'd have guessed? I like my older bikes though brakes are the first thing to go when I make any changes to them. Sure the old ones stopped fine in their time and might have been the best then, but no, I don't still live back then and so as needed things get upgraded. I can't upgrade the old bikes any better so they'll be fine as is but moving forward any new bikes will come disc equipped. It's a better stopping design and sometimes the difference in accidents happening or their severity is simple inches and how fast you can stop. Why would I want to compromise on that when I don't have to?