Originally Posted by
cyccommute
Frankly, I wouldn’t agree that disc brakes give superior braking. In my experience disc brakes give about the same braking as rim brakes. There’s really no noticeable difference. I even have bikes with disc front and rim rear where there is no difference in function or brake feel. I’ve never been in any situation where I thought the brakes wouldn’t stop me…even in high speed mountain descents in rain storms.
I would also suggest you look at one other line of bikes: Cannondale touring bikes. I’ve owned steel touring bikes and Cannondales. The Cannondales are far better touring bikes than any steel bike I’ve owned or tested. The “stiff” ride becomes much less so when the bike is loaded and the bike handles better because it is stiffer. I’ve never been able to climb out of saddle on a steel bike because the bike flexes too much. That’s not a problem on a Cannondale.
Yes, yes, I “know” just like everyone says (incorrectly) that steel can be welded by the village smithy while you are entertained by his lovely daughter under the shade of a spreading chestnut tree but that is simply not true. Aluminum can be welded as a temporary repair by anyone with MIG welder just as steel can be. Any weld to fix a bicycle should be considered to be temporary no matter which metal is used. A frame repair is usually due to a crack in the material. If the aluminum or steel cracks, there is an underlying problem that needs to be addressed. Simply welding over the break isn’t a long term solution.
And, just to be clear, I’ve broken two steel frames and two aluminum frames. Both aluminum frames had more mileage on them before they broke than the steel frames did. One of those steel frames broke multiple times…the steer tube broke at the crown, the chainstay cracked at the bridge, the rear dropout broke, and the chainstays cracked again above the welded repair.
Like your village smithy story gets more intriguing and gets added embellishments with every retelling, I too gain more and more experience from disc brakes with every new bike and set of brakes I buy.
I wonder if in ten years time the village has gained a mariachi band and a cowboy gunfight one can indulge in whilst waiting their bike frame being forge welded with damascus steel. Time will only tell.
Anyhoo, it's possible (though unlikely) to get a permanent fix for a steel frame on the road. However that's not the case for aluminum as you'd need to heat treat the whole frame. But that's beside the point.
As for Disc brakes having more braking power, I'm sure we're discussing accuracy of braking and not in fact absolute braking power which we all know can be achieved with any brake on the market as well as with a long stick.
In terms of accuracy or modulation or whatever you want to call it, in my experience mechanical disc brakes with 160mm rotors are on par with very good rim brakes, eg. ultegra dual pivots. With 203mm rotors the mechanical disc brakes of course take the lead. Cantilevers don't come close to the best rim brakes and are in fact probably the least accurate rim brake out there.
With hydraulics you get brakes which are bad (SRAM in general), brakes which are very good indeed and far better than any rim brake on the planet (magura MT models for example) and then there are brakes where the performance and accuracy is nothing short of otherworldly (Shimano GRX). I'm rarely blown away by anything bike related because, well, it's just bikes. But the GRX brakes are just ridiculously good. So good in fact that I've almost crashed multiple times because of them. They're so confidence inspiring and recoverable from skids that I've frequently ridden faster than my skills / reaction times allow for only to be saved by the brakes in question.
I mean One finger panic brake to a full stop rear lift from the hoods type of power but still accurate enough to feather on loose sand, wet leaves, gravel on asphalt with no issues whatsoever. I kinda want them on my mountain bike.
Makes me angry when I'm forced to use mechanical fisc brakes on my disc trucker. If GRX came with a tripke I'd swap in a heartbeat.