Originally Posted by
bblair
By "obsolete," if you mean not sold much for high end use, then I would say yes. But if you mean don't work very well, then I would say no. My LightBicycle wheels have a special "graphene" (whatever that is) textured track and work just fine. However, I have not tried them in the wet, 'cause as a friend advised me, "being retired means never having to ride in the rain." I use the LB brake pads that I bought with the wheels.
lol, no one is debating that rim brakes in the right conditions are right up there with disc brakes but the issue is when rims brakes are used in dusty and especially wet/icy conditions the track surface becomes like glass. Yeah rim brakes in the wet are usable but just sub optimal and take a ton more skill and planning to brake properly. It's one thing if you have an existing rim brake bike I am not advocating to go out and buy a disc brake bike instead, but on the other hand if you are looking at getting a new bike yeah I would avoid rim brakes period. Disc brake bikes are cheaper than ever and now as light as a lot of rim brake bikes were