illjustride

Been riding for 13 years road, gravel, mtb. My current bikes have disc brakes with the exception of my road bike. I have never updated it as it's been working quite fine until recently when I discovered a huge dent in the chainstay due to chain drop. It's a Trek Emonda ALR that I purchased in 2019 that's been holding on for the long haul. Recently was on ebay checking out framesets that I can swap my parts to. I saw a few Specialized Tarmac SL6 rim brake framesets on there at a reasonable price. This is when I began to fall down the rabbit hole about this bike. So now, i'm in the market for an SL6 S-Works frameset. It was that simple I suppose. Anyone here prefer rim over disc for road?

merlinextraligh

Me. My Willier Zero 7 with rim brakes weighs 13 pounds. I’ve raced it in the Alps, the Dolomites, the Rockies, and never been limited by the braking.

TiHabanero

The SWorks SL6 is a great ride. Rented one a ways back for a week and had zero complaints about it. Braking is just fine, albeit in wet conditions it takes about 30 feet for the water to move out from between the rim and the brake pad. No big deal as long as you are aware of it. Controlled descents is no big deal either as long as you do it. As you know from experience one descends differently with disk brakes than they do with rim brakes.

aliasfox

For the sheer lack of braking noise - rotor warping, metallic pad induced, or otherwise - rim brakes rule. For light weight and simplicity of maintenance, rim brakes rule.

For the confidence to be able to control a -16% descent with my too-heavy body weight… disc brakes.

Does the S-Works SL6 have a press-fit BB or threaded?

vtje

I live in a relatively hilly area, I ride Cervelo R3 with rim brakes, my wife rides Spechi Roubaix with discs, Love the simplicity of rim brakes, the bike is lighter as well. The discs on my wife bike are nothing but a constant pain to maintain, I much prefer rims. I also dontt like the fact that hydraulic shifters are a bit longer, changing the fit of the bike.

blacknbluebikes 

Two road bikes carry campy record and shimano ultegra. Both provide as much stopping power as I've ever needed, unless it was raining. I avoid the rain, anyway. Don't feel like I'm missing a thing.

seypat

I stay away from hills/descents because of the reliability issues of both kinds of brakes.

Iride01 

The braking issues I hear about for rim brakes going down mountain roads are usually with tubular tires rolling off the rim when the rim gets too hot. And still that issue gets back to braking technique for most incidents.

Certainly with both disc or rim brakes and with clincher or tubeless tires the issues also seem to be mostly poor braking technique. People have been using rim brakes to go down mountain roads for many years. I'm sure you'll get down those roads safely if you aren't one to keep the brakes on continuously all the way down.

SoSmellyAir

My road bike has rim brakes (with SwissStop Black Prince pads) on CF wheels. They stop fine but squeal quite loudly, occasionally scaring pedestrians.

aliasfox

Ironically, on today’s ride, the one time I wanted to announce my downhill approach to a stop sign (some pedestrians right on the side of the road), I couldn’t actually modulate my brakes to squeal. They were reliably loud just about everywhere else on the ride though…

DaveSSS 

I switched to disc brakes 3 years ago. Using wider tubeless tires and rims allows me to use 60 psi tire pressure and produces a much better ride. I'd never invest in a rim brake bike again.

Disc brakes often squeal because the pads are dirty or the brakes are used seldom and gently, glazing the pads.

merlinextraligh

highly likely, they just need toe’d in. The front of the pad needs to hit the rim first, so it is just a mm or so closer to the rim than the back of the pad.

loosen the brake shoe, put a dime between the back of the pad, and the rim. Squeeze the brake on, tighten the brake shoe, and dollars to donuts your squeezing is gone.