Phil_gretz

These type of threads bring out the very best of BikeForums. Carry on, you heros!

genejockey 

I'm sure we can find other reasons.

genejockey 

Bing - and I cannot stress this enough - go.

genejockey 

Shop smart! Shop S-Mart!

tyrion

I bet a walmart bike with these shiny things will sell much more than one with V-brakes.

rickpaulos

I manage a local bike coop and the coop gets scores of boxmarts bikes with disc brakes. Wallyworld has been selling bikes with disc brakes for 15+- years.
The bso disc brakes are rubbish just like the bikes. Brake pads as small as a dime is standard. Noisy, a ***** to adjust to get them working at all. I see the discs rusted. Calipers seized up from water and corrosion. All the mounting bolts solid rust. Plain steel cables rusted solid in the housing. Plastic levers that have so much flex you can't lock up a rear wheel with discs. They resell fast because everyone thinks they want disc brakes. A cast aluminum v-brake with fresh pads will out perform any Promax or Quantex or other garbage disc caliper. It is the same for every bike component. Some are good some are junk. The overall design doesn't determine "good". It's the material choices and implementation that makes one better than another. Upgrading to a good disc brake (Shimano, Tektro, Avid, etc) on the front of a bso will surely destroy the cheap welded steel fake-shock forks all that much sooner or mangle the headset bearing cages with too-few bearings in it to handle sever braking loads. A recipe for a header. I don't see Walmart ever selling a bike with a useful disc brake.

urbanknight

Thank you. I basically came in here to say that. Decades of pro cyclists bombing down mountains at 50+mph means disk brakes were never "needed". I still want them, of course.

rickpaulos

I get bikes at the local coop every saturday with a sticker that reads "SHIMANO Equiped" and there is often just 1 lowest grade Shimano part on the bike. It's usually a rear derailleur that is made of stamped sheet metal and plastic with riveted on jockey wheels. Do buyers know that "Shimano is better"? Or is just having the sticker enough implied prestige to make the sale. It might add $1 to the cost of the bike but it's a selling point just like shock forks, full suspension, disc brakes, etc. Calling your own products "Quality" is bogus but the whole point of advertising is to get more buyers.

Charliekeet

Right, good point - they’re highlighting SOMETHING (“Shimano equipped”) and apparently even buyers who don’t know what the heck that means are conditioned to pay attention when a sticker tells them to!

livedarklions

Shimano makes great stuff. It also makes crap, It has somehow managed to keep the reputation of the good stuff flow to the crap without the reverse happening. Definitely an impressive feat of branding.

Now that I think about it, maybe not that hard to explain. The people who would actually pay for the good stuff are discerning enough to know the difference from the crap, while people looking for ultra-cheap bikes probably aren't.

CheGiantForLife

Looks the the thread got derailed b/c of the Walmart mention.

Let's try again. Modern cars no longer use drum brakes. Even the cheapest cars use disc brakes.
Is the bike market also headed that way, from Huffy to Giant to Trek and all in between.
Is there a price point where rim pad brakes still make sense 50 years from now, or are they an obsolete safety hazard ?

phughes

Gee, will we get another five pages without the OP ever showing up again. Seriously, these nonsense posts are getting tiresome.

wolfchild

A properly adjusted good quality rim brakes with good quality brake pads can have as much stopping power as disc brakes, so I wouldn't call them a safety hazard....Cheap disc brakes used on some WallMart bikes are more of a safety hazard then rim brakes on a more expensive brand name bike.

phughes

The horror.

50PlusCycling

No bike "needs* disk brakes.

Atlas Shrugged

No bike “needs” a saddle

Oldsledz

Once we get the disk brake thing settled , can we decide how many gears a bike should have? My area is vary flat, on the roads you shouldn't need more than a 3 speed.

Troul 

bicycles don't neeeeeeed cage mounts.

Gresp15C

I can't speak for the cheapest bikes, but I know that there's a growing preference for disc brakes among entry level and "casual" cyclists. I've known more than one person who has tried out a bike with disc brakes, and is instantly a convert and evangelist for disc brakes. One friend thinks the difference is so profound, that bikes with rim brakes are outright dangerous and should be banned. He asked me: "When are you going to get disc brakes on your bikes?" People form the impression that disc brakes are more secure and effective. Whether this is real or not, is another matter. Folks tell their friends, and then everybody wants disc brakes.

I believe part of the problem is that many people are comparing new disc brakes on good bikes, to poorly maintained, deteriorated vee brakes with hardened pads on old bikes. That's not a fair comparison, but it's what they experience. When they try out one of my bikes with well maintained dual pivot calipers, they agree that they're pretty snappy. To make a case for rim brakes, you have to make them work.

This isn't an argument pro or con disc brakes, but a glimpse into how people experience bikes.

indyfabz

My killer gamms.

shelbyfv

Garbage in, garbage out. Repeating the process will not result in a different outcome.

Reflector Guy

LOL I grew up in a family where things like bottle mounts were viewed as unnecessary expenditures. I was 12 or 13 or so and a friend got a new bike with bottle mounts.... Actually, they might've even been some sort of add-on thing that attached using hose clamps. I wanted to get one for my bike too. My mom said I shouldn't ride so far away that I'd get thirsty!

rydabent

Oh I wouldnt say that. How about a rider coming down a mountain in the rain with clay mud that turns his rim brakes into little more than added weight?

Time to give up that wrong headed thinking. At 83 years old I have seen things like clipless pedals and click shifting being rejected by the "real cyclist" for a long time. But just like those two disc brakes are superior and and will finally be accepted as the norm.

Troul 

Growing up, all the cage mounts were in some way no useable. So when liquid was needed, I'd look for a garden hose attached to a house & purge it before replenishing. Sometimes I wonder how I made it this far in life. lol

Reynolds 

Pics please!
Just kidding...