sjanzeir

More often than not, the progress that some of us like to lament really does bring actual, tangible benefits, to both us the consumers and to the manufacturers. Fortunately, this tends to be the case far more often than it being just progress for its own sake, and at the end of the day, consumers will always figure out what's best for them eventually and vote with their wallets.

I, for one, used to be a staunch advocate of rim brakes on this forum, and sometimes I used to be a complete ash-hole about it, going so far as to label people who purchased bikes with disk brakes as "pretentious" and wealth-signaling. That was until I - on a complete whim - bought my first bike with disk brakes (in late 2020) and until I realized just how many problems disk brakes solve as opposed to the very few ones that they create.

And I was just as big of a fudgehole when it came to square taper bottom brackets and cranksets - until (again, on a whim) I decided to upgrade one of my bikes from its very cheap factory square taper to external bearings (a Hollowtech II knockoff out of China in this case, just to test the theory before I splash out on the real thing, and not because I wanted external bearings but because I needed shorter cranks, which created the opportunity.) And just as I did with disk brakes, I quickly found out just how many problems external bearings solved while creating virtually none.

Now, you, the OP, will be doing yourself a big favor if you start seeing the move from rim brakes to disk as more of a routine, incremental change (which it is) and stop seeing it as this whole paradigm shift that threatens to upend your entire cycling life (which it isn't,) take it in stride and move on.

Now, in 2022 and beyond, have little or no interest in buying a bike with rim brakes, new or used, and neither should you or anyone else, be they seasoned riders or beginners. Don't get me wrong - I still enjoy all four of my rim-brake bikes and will continue to enjoy them for years to come, and so should you enjoy yours; they are still great bikes with components - rim brake included - that are still just as excellent now as they were when they were new. But today, in 2022 and beyond, my (and your) time and money would be better invested in bikes with disk brakes. I'm actually on the prowl for used hybrids and folding bikes in the local classifieds, and the first thing that I eliminate from the search results is bikes with rim brakes. And if and when I end up buying a used bike to upgrade, the first upgrade I would be making is from square taper to external bearings. Not because I have cash to burn (I don't) but because they just simplify and improve the whole riding experience: With external bearings, you need just one special tool whereas with sealed square taper you needed two (a crank puller and a notch socket.) And whereas with square taper you had to make sure that you bought a replacement with just the right spindle length to get the chain line right (or return the wrong one and wait for yet another replacement,) with external bearings it's just a matter of swapping spacers around. And trust me, once you get the hang of it, bleeding a hydraulic disk brake system (with mineral oil, that is) really isn't any harder than recabling your rim brakes.