Racing Dan

Sad thing is, cheaper bikes that normally come equipped with Tektro or own brand crappy rim brakes brakes will be the last to see an upgrade to hydro disc, even if they are the ones to benefit the most. For now road hydro disc is still somewhat expensive, but when the price come down and and bikes in the Sora and Tiagra segment move from rim brake to hydro disc, it will be a massive upgrade.

Seattle Forrest

Complexity. You pull the lever, the bike slows. You need a PhD in nuclear physics to understand that ****.

Seattle Forrest

Point is rim brakes will never go away completely, nobody is being "forced" to ride a bike with discs, and nobody will be. It's not something to fret over. Rim braked bikes will be like record players and vinyl, they'll still be around and some people will keep riding them.

waters60

When I bought a new bike last year I found discs to be predominant on most bikes I was considering. After 45 years on Campy sidepulls it was a leap, especially after some early squeaky disc hiccups. Since I bought the bike, the Mid Atlantic area has seen countless rainy weekends. Normally I would have been hesitant to ride on wet roads, but disc brakes are a game changer and allowed me to salvage many weekends. The braking experience is confidence inspiring. No regrets here.

Sy Reene

Sure, it's why we now have CF frames, electronic shifting and 12-speed cassettes

Lemond1985

"You may find yourself aboard a 12 speed carbon fiber bike with electronic shifting and disc brakes
You may find yourself in a beautiful house with a beautiful wife
You may ask yourself, well, how did I get here?"

waters60

Perfect! This is not my beautiful wife, this is not my Di2 disc equipped bike...

Sy Reene

Ev'rything looks impressive
Do not be deceived
You don't have to wait for more instructions
No one makes a monkey out of me

indyfabz

"Arm me with harmony."

jon c. 

I ride a vintage bike with downtube friction shifters. In all probability, I'll continue with that until I'm too old and feeble to continue riding. So I'm really not seeing disc brakes in my future.

firebird854

I'm currently building a new bike with hydro discs, I've never used them before but have lost confidence with my rim-brakes as they've melted for me before and they're awful in the rain.

colnago62

Trek has removed all rim brakes from next years lineup.

cthenn

Wow really? That's interesting considering they made this year's Madone with both versions, and seemed to make a point about giving people options.

colnago62

According to the local Trek Store, gone. I have only seen one rim brake Madone which was from a guy who wanted to build the bike up with Campy. I bet it is not a big seller.

caloso

Heavier, less aero, requires a heavier fork, more expensive, and uglier. But other than that, sure great.

jackb

I've had a Trek Domane SLDisc 5 for almost a year now. My wife has the next model up. Already I"ve have had to fiddle with brake adjustments more than I've had to do with any previous bikes with rim brakes. To be honest with myself, I simply do not notice superior braking power with discs. I've never had a problem with rim brakes, so the discs are overkill for me. The only advantage to me is that the discs allow for wider tires, and I definitely like that. My bike has 32s, which I much prefer to narrower tires, but as far as stopping is concerned, the differences are lost on me. I prefer simple over complicated, so in the long run I prefer rim brakes. Why couldn't manufacturers come up with a rim brake that allowed for wider tire? I'm sure such a thing is possible. I prefer minimum maintenance on my bikes, and hydraulic brakes are a move away from that.

Seattle Forrest

If your #1 priority is looking at your brakes instead of stopping your bike with them, sure.

base2 

Will I ever go disc? Yes.
After a bout of super lame 160mm rotors & OEM garbage Tektro, I was ready to swear them off forever. But then I upgraded to 180mm rotors & I could see a glimpse of promise to the whole idea. So I then upgraded to Avid BB7's calipers. Then again to TRP Spyres calipers. Then finally to 180mm RT99 XTR Icetech rotors.

OMFG! That's what "stopping" is all about.

Currently, I'm getting a 26 inch wheel travel bike built with a 180mm Icetech rotor in front, 180mm Rohloff proprietary rotor in the rear & TRP Spyre calipers all the way around. Being S&S coupled sort of dictates cable operated, but at a nominal weight of 300 pounds of person, camping gear + bike, I see no problem going down 20% logging road grades or mountain passes indefinitely & keeping it all at a safe speed.

The second biggest benefit (for us all weather riders) is not needing to buy rims every 2 years. Dynamo's & Rohloffs get expensive being laced into new hoops when a disk swap is <$100

Seattle Forrest

Dave Mayer

I love new tech. Carbon is great. Clipless, electronic shifting and brifters too.

I absolutely will buy a road bike with discs when it meets the following criteria:

1. The disc setup, including the frame and fork is lighter than an equivalent level rim brake setup. I make it a point of buying new stuff only if it is lighter than my previous. Par is now 15.5 pounds; I love lightweight gear.

2. The rear stay spacing is no greater than 130mm. I don't want heel strikes or having to increase my crankset q-factor. Cranksets are too wide and biomechanically inefficient already.

3. No PITA thru-axles. First thing I do when I get a new fork is grind the #@^±»!! lawyer tabs off, so the quick release operates like it should. You flip the lever, and the wheel drops out.

Otherwise I wholeheartedly welcome disks.

carlos danger

From my experience hydros are great when everything is working and not so great when stuff isn't
I've had shimanos and formulas. And they all developed some weird problem within a year. The formulas needed bleeding every year and the shimanos had multiple problems. I basically got tired of it and went cable instead. Its very easy to fix and troubleshoot cable discs. I run bb7 on all bikes.

nesdog

Will I go disc?

Yesterday. Picked up my SLR7 Disc. I have no opinion on them yet, but inasmuch as we live in an area with a ton of hills, I'll be interested in seeing if I notice the differences.

sdmc530

I have disc on my mtb and I have them on the cross bike...that is as a much disc as I really want. Road bike has rim, I like rim on the road.

So no, not on a road bike!

79pmooney

There have been good rim brakes that allow big tires forever. Mafacs for one. I ride Open Pro and Velocity Areo rims and can run up to 35s easily. 37s require small forcing. (All I do is pop off the bridle cable.) Of course, they are (agast!) center pull. I am pretty certain that 32c tires are doable with my setup if I use Tektro style levers with releases as well as the releases on dual pivot brakes. Haven't tried simple because 32s would be a tight fit on my two dual pivot road bikes.

Ben

base2 

Evidently you have never experienced them in action.

I guess you may right; Losening a nut 2-3 full turns is just so much more troublesome than dental work.

Broken teeth are so under-rated. I recommend everyone get them. I have 2. They're wonderful.








(Serious. I do have broken teeth from a bike accident.)