Atlas Shrugged

It’s not the slow artisanal process you were led to believe.

Eric F 

That's going to require a lot of Luigis.

smd4

It's a Supercorsa. I'm good.

Back when my Supercorsa was built, it was pretty much by one guy (not a "Luigi," BTW. But a Mario instead). Not every Cinelli got this treatment. This is what's skewing your numbers.

PeteHski

We all value different things. For you, a vintage frame hand-built in Italy by a minimum number of people appears to be important. For others, maybe not so much. Personally I prefer the results of modern design and manufacturing technology. But I do also appreciate the classics, while you appear to deride modern bikes and often talk rubbish about them.

Chuck M 

Now that this thread had reached 24 pages, has anyone come up with a definitive answer as to which braking system is better? I need to know which bike/bikes to keep.

smd4

So? What’s your point? We can’t all like everything. My opinion is that modern black plastic bikes with hidden cables and disc brakes and underinflated semi-mountain bike tires are butt-ugly, and I would never, ever own one. While at the same time admitting they are lighter and in some respects function better.

Glad you appreciate the classics. I have little appreciation for modern bikes. My opinion should mean nothing to you.

Rolla

Nothing wrong with valuing aesthetics over performance, especially if one doesn't care about or isn't going to realize the advantage. I have a three-bar "klunker" that looks cool and is a blast to ride, even though it's heavy and impractical. The difference is, I also own a modern-ish mountain bike. I've always found purists to be boring.

smd4

It's not just about aesthetics, of course. I have a top-of-the-line frame with top-of-the-line components. Just a few years older. I'm not looking to win the TDF in my little neck of NC. Whatever. I'm not even sure what that means, but it sure seems to paint with a broad brush.

PeteHski

The point is that you talk a load of nonsense.

Rolla

Huh. I thought it was pretty clear. It means that I think people who "only ride singlespeed" or "only drive air-cooled engines" or "only listen to classic rock" or "only ride 80s road bikes" are uninteresting.

Well, as someone here recently said, "My opinion should mean nothing to you."

smd4

Lemme guess…you were on the debate team in high school?

smd4

Oh, it doesn’t.

e0richt

I have 4 bikes, 2 that have rim brakes, 2 that have disk brakes...
Of course, I am keeping my rim brake bikes they work fine.
the disk brakes are cable brakes (not hydraulic) and they work fine as well (though there was that initial fiddling with due to it needing the pad seated and due to cable stretch)

my opinions:
hydraulic brakes probably work best in adverse conditions, but I like to wrench on my bikes and just can't make the leap of dealing with bleeding hydraulic brakes.
cable disk brakes are fine but I still prefer the simplicity of rim brakes and I generally ride in fair weather conditions.
just upgraded one of my bikes to 105 calipers and am pleasantly surprised how much better they work compared to the tiagra level calipers.

Camilo

I think I'm about in the same boat as you, more or less. Multi bikes, discs and rims, happy with all of them, and no need to get rid of any of them just because of the brakes.

I might comment on the wrenching aspect. I do like the simplicity of the rim brakes and the comfort of knowing how to deal with them without having to look things up and/or muddle through a learning curve. But I will say that even though I kind of resented having to do it, it was good for me (age: late 60s) to have to build up two hydro disc brake bikes a couple of years ago. By the time I have to re-bleed them (maybe this summer, maybe not), I'll have to start at zero again because I never remember technical stuff (computers, bikes, engines, whatever) if I go very long between working on them. But I'll do it and learn again. Not as comfortable as mechanical bike stuff but what the heck, I was in that boat with indexed shifting, bearing pre-loads, etc, etc.

georges1

I am keeping my rim brakes frames and all my bikes are rim brake bikes.I don't do disc brakes or electric transmission, call me a traditionnalist.

Doge

Sure. And buying more. Where we ride, where my kid (24) races you don't need brakes so much and the lighter weight is nice. I have discs and spikes for the snow and ice riding.
On dry clean roads, I like the lighter weight and better deals on rim brakes.

rosefarts

This thread made me think of a variation of the “a rim is a disc” thing.

Let say you had one of those bikes with cantilever posts and disc mounts.

The experiment would be to stop it from a set speed on a known surface with hydro discs. Then to stop it again, using Magura rim brakes.

Is there a difference in stopping distance?

Start with 140mm rotors and work up until the disc gets superior. Does it? Honest question I don’t know.

Now repeat it using panniers full of bricks.

Hydraulic because it eliminates so many variables of user error with the cables.

This of course doesn’t cover the nuance of rims wearing quicker, pad compound (either), rotor contamination, QR+disc pearl clutching, and overall “feel”. Still, some data on raw power would be pretty cool to look at.

48 pages here we come!!

Trakhak

The post you quoted reminded me of this from Charles Portis's novel True Grit:

LaBoeuf: "I guess you don't think much of me."

Rooster Cogburn: "I don't think about you at all when your mouth is shut."

PeteHski

Any reason why you particularly like bikes from that specific decade? Genuine question, I'm curious.

wolfchild

The consensus on what type of brakes all cyclists should use has not been reached yet, The debate continues...Hopefully by 50 pages we'll have a definitive answer.

tomato coupe

Air brakes.

georges1

I am more into late 80's early 00's quality of the steel tubing (mostlyReynolds and Deddacciai), original paint , spareparts durability and originality of the designs. As far what the designs are today there are nothing that catches my eyes except a few brands that produce lugged steel frames or fillet brazed frames with high quality steel tubing. Aluminium is too stiff for my back even though I liked older caad 3-caad4-caad5 canondale frames and trek alpha slr a road bike frames,titanium frames, the ones I tried were fine but not enough stiff.Carbon, I tried a while back a OCLV and a look KG181 not for me as well. When I have a build in plan or an upgrade of an existing build I only stick for the best. I am also going to upgrade restore my raleigh castorama maxi sports with some campy c record stuff and new wheels.

genejockey 

Ugarte: You despise me, don't you, Rick?
Rick: I probably would if I gave you any thought.

big john

If not, maybe in the next rim vs disc thread. Or the one after that.

Eric F 

I rode a bike with disc brakes this weekend. The brakes worked really well. They slowed me when I needed to go slower, and stopped me when I needed to stop. I also rode a bike with rim brakes this weekend. The brakes worked really well. They slowed me when I needed to go slower, and stopped me when I needed to stop. I'm keeping both bikes because they're excellent bikes, and bikes are awesome.