guachi

I think it goes something like this:

Clueless customer walks into a bike store looking for a bike. Looks at bikes. Asks salesman why he should spend more on disc brakes. Salesman tells customer because they stop better, especially in wet weather. Customer isn't an experienced cyclist and doesn't want to wreck. Buys bike with disc brakes. Never rides in wet weather.

Rogerogeroge

It must suck to yell at clouds all the time. Yeah, the industry does want to 'progress' each year and create new stuff, what do you expect, the engineers will sit back and design nothing? V-Brakes work fine? Yeah, I thought they did in the 90s, but do you do significant MTBing with lots of sustained (1000s of feet change)and steep drops (over 25%)? Or do you ride gravel bikes in the same environment? 29 tyres are too massive? Sorry, I'll never ride a 26 inch MTB again. So many advantages to a frame designed for 29 inch tires. Fat tire bikes offer a new way to enjoy the sport. I hear they are a blast in snow and in sandy areas on beaches. Are you against e-bikes too?

Rogerogeroge

Well, actually it's more like, 'Customer looks at bikes. All bikes have disk brakes'.

Take Trek for example. The only thing they offer in non-disk brakes is (1) their completely bottom of the line 820 MTB (2) as an option on their Project One Madones. Even their 520 touring bike is now disk.

Troul 

With todays tech & tools, staying traditional can be sustained if it's that much so desired. It'll come at a "pay to stay vintage" price. If it were a decade ago it might take more resources. 25 years ago, well, we wouldn't be debating & complaining about who's disc brake bicycle is on our lawn.

pdlamb

You missed the part about salesman wants to sell more expensive bike, and salesman never rides in wet weather.

Phil_gretz

Hi! What's this thread about?

indyfabz

26-ers vs. 29-ers, I think.

ofajen

I’m all for it! 26er wheel sets are already so cheap these days!

Otto

biketampa

my road bike has rim brakes. No issues with them. But my gravel bike has disc brakes and I definitely prefer them for that bike since I need all the stopping power I can get as gravel road conditions can require some quick stopping. My biggest complaint for disc brakes is the squealing. Riding gravel the rotors gets contaminated frequently.

70sSanO

To keep this thread spinning to parts unknown, I have not found this to be true when it comes to “good” older wheelsets. 6-8 years ago I could pick up a very nice XT-217 wheelset for $100 or less. Now I see prices in the $200-$300 range; and these are not close to NOS.

Of course, even 700c older used road components and wheels are also at a premium.

As someone said earlier “pay vintage pricing.” Man, I miss the times when things were just old.

John

Troul 

"pay to stay vintage" price....

Atlas Shrugged

So we had:
Spoon Brakes which pushed on the tire
Rod actuated brakes pulled on the bottom of the rim
Coaster brakes
Drum brakes
Center-pull brakes
Side pull brakes
Cantilever brakes
Double pivot side-pull brakes
V Brakes

Ok everyone stops development peak braking achieved!

And by the way, every tire under 53" (Pennyfarthing) is ridiculous and should be banned.

ofajen

My standards are probably low. My knobby Race King tires are on a set of old wheels with Parallax hubs that I got for $45 shipped. I bought a new machine-made rear wheel, shipped, for just over $50. The other (old) wheel set came with the RockHopper frame for a total of $50. So I have a set for smooth tires, a set for knobbies and an extra rear wheel for a home trainer tire. Your mileage (and standards) may vary.

Otto

Bigbus

Like us?

ofajen

Don’t forget the early braking method of dragging a tree behind you downhill. Now that took skill to pick the right tree. 😊

Otto

Kapusta

I think the quote from the OP has it wrong. Part of the market who were open minded or had used discs on other bikes tried them and liked them. It is absurd to call it a fad. Anyone referring to it as such reveals a deep ignorance of the subject. There’s no way these people were ever going to go back to rim brakes. Thats not what a fad is.

But then there was the big chunk of the road market that just does whatever they see the pros do. And in many cases, the pros are the last ones to the party (disc, wider tires)

This happened a LOT in pro level XC Mountain Bike racing. Slacker geo, bigger tires, wider bars, shorter stems, losing the bar ends, dropper posts.... way late to all of it. But they eventually came around.

Thankfully for mountain bikers, we are much less interested in what pro level racers are doing. The decline of the influence of XC racing in the late 90s is one of the best thing that happened for MTBs... ever.

I wish the same for Road bikes. I see some encouraging signs (rising popularity of wide tires, gravel and endurance bikes, disc...)

But hey, maybe rim brakes ARE truly the better choice for pro racers (neutral vehicle support, 3 seconds faster per mile... whatever). And to that I say.... who cares? What percentage of the people riding road bikes are pro racers? And how often is anybody actually in the middle of a competitive race where any of that even matters?

So if putting pros on disc was a ploy by companies to get the pro-cycling groupies to try disc.... good for them.

rydabent

Are you going to start a wave thread for us.

rydabent

Take your first example. Plastic gasses off then gets brittle in it old age. Unless painted CF bikes are black, they get hot in the sun, and heat ages plastic. Ultra violet light ages plastic also. Put a titanium frame and a CF frame outside in full sun light and weather, and look at them after a year and see which one has the most damage.

Atlas Shrugged

Yes that evolved from running into the tree to sticking a branch into the spokes. Both had excellent stopping distances however modulation was a issue.

rydabent

Changing their 520 touring bike to discs was a smart move. I have read more than a few touring reports where after riding many day in the rain, their rims wore thin and broke. Riding in the rain some days comes with touring, and rain and fine grit get on the rims and rim brake pads use it as a grinding compound to wear down the rims.

Eric F 

LOL. You have zero idea what you're talking about.

rydabent

Helmets or chain lube I think.

rydabent

So give me your qualifications to say that. Do you have a PhD in plastics, and from what college.

Eric F 

No need to have a degree. A little bit of common sense and Google is a quick and easy way for anyone to find reliable information from credible sources that contradicts pretty much every one of your ridiculous arguments against CF for use in bicycle frames. If you don't want to ride a CF bike, then don't. I don't care what you choose. Your continual posting of willfully ignorant misinformation, however, is bad for this forum.

Sy Reene

I get the rim wear argument, but a bit of googling tells me that disc brake pads on average are good for about 800 miles, and a pair of rotors for about 3 disc pads. Basic math is therefore about $150 every 2500 miles (2 rotors plus 6 disc brake pads)? Is this accurate and/or how does this compare to the mileage (and therefore replacement frequency and cost) impacts to rims plus rim brake pads?