Fox Farm

The OP is not mentioning what kind of frame / bike that they are considering. On one hand, disks require some increased engineering for the fork than with calipers. On the other hand, some more supple deflection can be engineered into the seat stays for increased rider comfort with disks vs calipers. I have two road bikes with caliper brakes, four sets of wheels, one of them carbon. My caliper bikes with alloy wheels stop really well in the dry and pretty well when wet but if you pump them a few times they dry out and work fine. When it is wet, you should not be riding so aggressively that stopping super fast is an issue anyway, right? My road bikes are built with Campy and their calipers are super strong and very powerful. The carbon wheels (Boyd) and calipers stop pretty well when dry and must be pumped to dry the pads and rims when wet. I have been experimenting with different brake shoes and some work better than others with carbon wheels. Right now, I have found that Campy pads outperform the others that I have used (Deda, Boyd, Swiss Stop). My gravel bike has SRAM Hydro brakes and they are very nice and powerful but not really all that noticeably more so than the calipers with alloy wheels. If I were building a bike with carbon wheels, I would advocate for disks for sure. They just work better. As for calipers wearing out the rims, hell, keep regular maintenance and cleaning of your pads and you will not score the rims such as to wear them out.

79pmooney

"As for calipers wearing out the rims, hell, keep regular maintenance and cleaning of your pads and you will not score the rims such as to wear them out" - Depends on where you ride. In the Pacific northwest, the lava dust wears out rims fast, especially in the wet (a phenomenon the PNW is well known for). A regular five day/week commmute with hill stops will kill an aluminum rim in one winter. 2-3 tmies/week and I was gettng barely two winters. Had one of those rims explode when I pushed it a little too far. Good thing I was in the nouse when it went off like a gunshot.

I'm in no hurry to make the switch to discs despite doing all my riding in the PNW. All my bikes have excellent rim brakes. They work decently in the wet and I ride slower in the wet anyway because the road surface is sliprier and I've done my lifetime's worth of crashes. Yes, I have to re-build wheels regularly but I like building wheels. And since I don't do carbon anything on my bikes, rim costs aren't exorbitant. Spokes go three winter rims regularly so the re-rimming goes fast.

Ben

JohnJ80

I just build a new gravel bike and it has disc brakes. The braking is, by and large, a wash. The disc brakes are easier to adjust than the cantilevers I had on my old gravel bike. The easy of switching wheels with different rim widths and tire sizes is really nice.

There is a weight penalty on the bike with disc brakes. But overall, it's nice.

I wouldn't build a rim brake bike going forward. I might if I was racing on the road.

J.

sirjag

WHAT??!!

I got a new road bike this year...first one actually.....no idea 11sp on the way out....whats coming next? 12?

Ive got the 105 groupset on my Giant Contend SL 1

JAG

Cypress

Top of the heap Campy and SRAM groupsets are 12-speed. Trickle-down tech usually lags a year or two, so I figure 12-speed will hit Ultegra for the 2021 model year.

Fox Farm

Thanks Ben! Interesting conditions you have there! Lets hope that it is just dust and not the hot stuff!

JLTD

Discs on a road bike aren't necessary, but I've liked having them regardless. Maintenance to me is a wash, discs maybe slightly more finicky but that's splitting hairs. Cost of maintaining, discs prob a bit more expensive, but they both wear out and neither often enough to be a real concern for most.

Similar to when a new model vehicle comes out, I originally had trouble liking the look of a road bike with discs, then somewhere along the line that changed and now I think they look just fine or dare I say good.

Ride what you like, both will do the job!