Noonievut

Both my road and all-road bikes use rim brakes. For road riding (where I live) it’s perfect. When I’m on gravel / dirt trails on my all-road bike I sometimes want disc brakes (I’ve had them on numerous bikes). For gravel roads, and paved, the rim brakes are fine. For single track mountain biking I love(d) my hydraulic brakes (had V brakes on my first mountain bike...it’s night and day difference).

Black wallnut 

yessir Deets is my hero. I don't give up on a garment just because it needs a patch. I have no immediate intention on replacing any of my bikes. I have a couple with rim brakes and one with disc. The disc is newer but of lower level groupset. My other two can share wheelsets. To "upgrade" to disc would cost far more than just a couple of new bikes...

1989Pre 

Not just heavier. All of the stuff is on one side, so imbalanced.

mstateglfr 

There are others out there AND you are an old fossil.


I am not getting rid of my rim brake bikes. They still work and I still like them, so of course I will keep riding them.
If my main road bike were stolen or the frame broke, I would buy a disc brake road bike to replace it...but those are the only scenarios I can think of where I would no longer use my main road bike that has rim brakes. And even then, I would still use some extra road bikes which all are rim brake.

mstateglfr 

You dont need to project your insecurities and shortcomings on others.
Nobody of consequence will think someone is not a serious cyclist just because they have rim brakes. Nobody of consequence will look down upon another person just because they have rim brakes.

mstateglfr 

Like how rim brake bikes have the chainrings, chain, cassette, and derailleurs all on the right side?

79pmooney

I'll probably never have a disc brake bike. One more thing to learn. A whole new set of standards to introduce to my stable. Wheels (even fronts) that aren't interchangeable. And all my bikes have excellent brakes that fit their usage very well. (Mafac front, Weinmann rear for my two winter/rain/city bikes, cantis depowered with V-brake levers for the Mooney, dual pivots depowered with V-brake levers for my tow good road bikes and super short Cyclone sidepulls with regular levers on my Pro Miyata that will not go out when it's wet.)

All six bikes are stoppers with power fitting for their use. All six have brakes that require little attention. All six have brakes that can sit there for a years or years and be ready for the next ride with me doing nothing. Pad wear is easy to see and easy to deal with. (Pretty sure KoolsStop is going to be around a while.) An occasional cable replacement is easy. (Well starting those cables at the aero lever wasn't so easy until I learned that hanging the bike with the levers at eye level and using a headlamp made it child's play.)

Oh, and caliper brakes are cheap to own. Many good ones cheap to buy. My two best bikes have Shimano dual pivots I picked up used at bike shops for not a lot of money and they are world class stoppers. Mafac Racers are becoming popular but I bet in smaller US cities you can still find them for $50 at garage sales with the usual UO-8 attached. The consumables (pads, cables and housings) are cheap.

I also like that there is little that is delicate about the rim brake systems. If you snag a cable or housing on something, usually everything works once you untangle it and it it doesn't the issue is usually very obvious. They can be fixed with a couple of Allen wrenches and perhaps a small crescent. Anywhere. The levers usually work even after being trashed in hard crashes. (Now, stuffing an intricate shifting device into those crash vulnerable levers is something I just don't get.)

Happy retro here. Ben

wolfchild

Insecurities ???...Do you really believe that I worry about what others think of my bikes ?

veganbikes

Wait are people actually getting rid of bikes because of their braking system? Look until Cane Creek stops making the eeBrakes or Paul stops making the MotoLites or their two canti brakes or the Racer brakes and also Kool Stop and SwissStop would have to stop making pads, rim brakes aren't dead or close to it. Yes sadly plenty of rim brake bikes in some manufacturers catalogs are relegated to the bottom end but there are plenty of rim brake bikes no in that position and plenty of custom builders as well who can build you whatever you want with whatever brakes you want.

All brakes to a point have some advantages and disadvantages just like everything else in cycling. You have to choose for yourself what you want and ride it and enjoy it. If you want to toss bikes away, send them my way I can help out and if you want to keep riding them go for it they are bikes nothing has changed the bikes haven't been suddenly downgraded in anyway unless you have done that yourself. The bike you had is still the same bike with the same braking you had and if you thought the braking was fine it isn't going to change like that because another brake exists.

Atlas Shrugged

Talk about preaching to the choir. These old school forums are mostly populated by people in their 60’s and older and in no way representative of what is happening in the current cycling community. The most popular sub forum is C & V by a long shot, when in the general cycling world people are indifferent and see these old bikes for what they are, interesting vestiges of a time gone by. People love disc brakes because the work fantastic and are a definite improvement over the rim brakes of the past.

wolfchild

I hope you're right....maybe I'll just go and purchase another rim brakes bike and not worry about parts shortage in the near future.

smd4

Disk brakes are ugly, inelegant, heavy, and by many accounts a PITA to deal with, in terms of maintenance, installation, etc. In my admittedly limited experience, they provide little modulation, and are basically an "ON/OFF" proposition. I can stop my bike using single fingers on the levers, so I have plenty of stopping power available. Do disk brakes stop good in wet conditions? Sure. But I don't ride in wet conditions. I have a road racing bike--so for me, what other benefit to them is there?

We'll see what happens to them when everything old becomes new again. Vinyl records, anyone?

Rolla

I love my rim-brake bikes and never plan to part with them. But, as with non-tubeless wheels, I also never plan buy another bike that has them.

veganbikes

Currently there are 88 options for road caliper brakes, 47 linear pull brakes and 13 cantilever brakes plus 196 options for all the rim brake pads on QBP one of the largest U.S. bike parts distributors. I think things are going to be OK. Yes cantilevers are less common but everything else is pretty easy to find and abundant and I don't think that is going to change right away.

Maybe in 10-15 years it will shift a little but not significantly enough where stuff is unavailable. I can get all manner of less common parts these days still from threaded headsets to freewheels to 26" mountain bike forks (of quality I should say). Sure there is some obscure stuff that is tough to get but if it was commonly available and decently widely used it is still a thing it takes a good amount of time for that stuff to completely die off.

Get whatever bike makes you happy rim or disc or both or none or whatever.

Eric F 

The supply of parts will not suddenly cease to exist.

phughes

Sorry, just got here.

Eric F 

I have rim brake bikes and disc brake bikes. For bikes that I ride in the dirt, on steep terrain, I prefer disc brakes. On the road, I'm fine with rim brakes. If I buy a new(er) road bike sometime in the future, it will probably have disc brakes simply because that's what top-end bikes are currently equipped with. However, I'm not in any hurry to replace my current #1 road bike.

Iride01 

When I started looking for a new bike to buy back at the end of 2019, I was of the mentality that I didn't want disc brakes on my road bike. Not really for any other valid reason than rim brakes were good enough for the previous 50 or so years of riding then why change. However I realized that that severely limited my choices of new bike along with the fact that choices in rim brake wheels are getting ever so slightly limited.

So when I eliminated that silly requirement I had, then I quickly found a bike I liked. And I can honestly say it's the most fun bike I've ever owned. Since purchasing it, I've since gotten rid of my other bikes though they were enjoyable rides, I just never rode them much after getting the new bike.

Do disc brakes make it more enjoyable. No, but certainly not less enjoyable. You'll have more options today for a new bike if you allow disc brake equipped bikes to be a choice.

Eric F 

If your disc brakes are "on/off" only, there's something wrong with how they are set up. That said, you're not wrong about the rest of it.

Koyote

What complete and utter drivel.

I've participated in more races than I can count, charity and other organized rides, group rides, etc...In at least a half dozen different states. I've seen riders on all sorts of bikes, wearing all sorts of clothes. And I've never seen nor heard anyone disparage another rider for their gear. Never.

Koyote

I highlighted the key portion of your statement.

Eric F 

Can you offer an example of when that happened to you in the real world?

Right: Serious cyclist
Left: Un-serious cyclist

tomato coupe

I thought the recently implemented buy-back program meant you were not allowed to keep your rim brake frames, except for legitimate historical uses.

drz400

I have two rim brake bikes cyclocross and road. Both fit well and are a joy to ride. Upgrading the cyclocross from 2x9 to 2x11 with an 11-34 cassette. Depending on the smooth shifting I've read about ,I may upgrade my roadie too. I just can't fathom upgrading to a new frame yet, still putting on miles and I guess that's the point

veganbikes

Clearly you missed this disaster kit:



Or these:



To those curious yes I am joking wear whatever the heck you want but some of this stuff gets kind of goofy.