Originally Posted by
rydabent
With discs, most anyone can replace a disc or change a pad. But when the rims wear out, it is really expensive to replace a whole wheel, or have a new rim laced onto your old hub. As I say IMO disc brakes are more logical and more mechancally perfect.
All true but, bleeding hydraulic is a pain. I can do about all my own maintenance, excepting facing a b-bracket and cutting a fork steerer and won't touch the hydraulic brakes on my mt. bike. Big friggin mess the first time I attempted it, so off to the shop it went.
As well, brakes pads for disc systems are a whole lot more expensive then rim pads. Yes, swapping the pads is easy, but often times the reason for the swap is squeal. At that point in addition to changing out the expensive pads, you are also removing the rotors, cleaning with isopropyl alcohol and lightly sanding clean. That's not something easily done when in the field, where as I have replaced the cartridge pads on V brakes in about 2 minutes.
Then of course you do need to make sure the front skewer gets well tightened, as disc systems have been know to yank the front wheel off the bike when the skewer wasn't securely fastened.
So pretty good system, but they do induce additional maintenance and usage issues.