Originally Posted by
Polaris OBark
The main point is rim brakes + carbon rims can be a challenge, especially in wet conditions.
If you have aluminum rims, I wouldn't worry about rim brakes unless you deal with very steep hills and/or a lot of wet weather.
Get the bike that gives you the most comfortable and enjoyable ride. The Litespeed sounds ideal.
Thanks!
Yes, I doubt I need to worry about extremely steep hills, and I'm not generally going out to ride on purpose in rain.
I always had a puzzle over why disc brakes were said to be desirable for hills and such -- physics-wise I always thought that way more braking torque could be applied farther out at the rim, but I guess that the increased hydraulic leverage of disc brakes makes that advantageous. Certainly videos like this (
) gave me pause about believing what everyone was saying as undisputed advantages of disc brakes (at least when the mass market writes up articles about it).