dream bike musings: disc or rim brakes

[R3awak3n]

I would say if you have no other road bikes rim brake but since you already have a ton of other road bikes I would get something different so I would go disc.

If gravel bike I would go disc.

[gibbo]

How big do you want your tires to be? If it’s more than 28s then go disc.

Rim brakes are simple, light, less expensive, and provide more than enough stopping power for most of us. Will rim brakes continue to decline in popularity???? Yes, they absolutely will. Will there come a time when you can’t buy new rim brake callipers or replacement pads and cables? Not likely.

There is no wrong or right choice, both work great so just follow your heart and get what you like.

“When you listen to fools the mob rules”
:-)


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[Kirk007]

tire size, wet or dry, big mountains or not, braking/descending style, those are the factors I'd consider, the braking system should follow not drive the decision. Flat land dry riding? Disc makes no sense to me. Flat land Miami riding - yeah discs make sense unless you're a fair weather rider that never gets caught out. Big mountains with descending wet switchbacks a regular feature of riding - discs make sense.

That said - two points about custom carbon: both Nick Crumpton and Bill Holland and maybe others - Gaulzetti - roll/mold their own, which unless you think they are lying, allows them to tune the frame to the rider. As the owner of an F10 disk that has a back end that has a propensity, on rough roads, to chatter over bumps more than track, I don't see that the big guys have much of an advantage on tunability given what they are pumping out, over someone who is going to layup the carbon based on your particular size, desired ride etc. My Hampsten carbon, built with Enve tubes, doesn't suffer this character flaw, rather it rides exactly how I asked it to - like a C50/Marcelo love child.

Another point - one well known carbon builder that I spoke to recently says that demand for his rim brake frames is so low that he's not sure he'll continue to offer them for a whole lot longer.

[Bob Ross]

I kinda get OP's conundrum: I currently own two perfectly wonderful custom made rim brake road bikes. Were I to buy a third wonderful custom made rim brake road bike -- which, believe me, is on the radar -- there's a part of me that thinks "sweet jesus, everybody's raving about disc brakes, maybe I should just go for it?".

And there's another part of me that thinks disc brakes on a road bike look like ass.

So I dunno. This or this? It's win-win either way...

[gibbo]

Originally Posted by Bob Ross

I kinda get OP's conundrum: I currently own two perfectly wonderful custom made rim brake road bikes. Were I to buy a third wonderful custom made rim brake road bike -- which, believe me, is on the radar -- there's a part of me that thinks "sweet jesus, everybody's raving about disc brakes, maybe I should just go for it?".

And there's another part of me that thinks disc brakes on a road bike look like ass.

So I dunno. This or this? It's win-win either way...

Yes and yes! I would also challenge ANYONE who thinks a stock off the shelf frame can be as good or better than a custom to consider this, a frame made for you, with your weight, power output, and personal preferences will be very different from a frame made to suit a very wide range of power output, weight, and riding styles. Add on custom paint and geometry and custom should win hands down. The price of a custom Crumpton compared to any top end frames from big manufacturers makes me why anyone would prefer a stock bike, other than you don’t have the long wait....


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[NHAero]

Equal opportunity brake user here

My Firefly with Dura Ace 9000 rim brakes and 25mm tires is all I could want for a fast road bike (if I wuz fast...). My Anderson all-rounder, wearing 700x35 tires and used for D2R2, and built for touring as well, has terrific hydro discs. So, where and how you'll ride it tells you the answer.

Originally Posted by wallymann

if you were to drop big dollar on a custom carbon dream bike, would you go disc or rim brakes?

i'm a retro-grouch and my gut reaction is: rim brakes.

the dream bike is for my heart and "better modulation" doesnt really make my heart pitter-patter and disc brakes kinda hurt my eyes.

rim brake bikes just look better and the braking is fine for a flat-lander like me. hell, i'd probably opt for fully external cables, too!

what does the mob think and why?

[qnz]

one benefit of having your braking systems the same between your stable of bikes is that you can swap wheels between them.

[wallymann]

Originally Posted by jtakeda

What kind of bike?

Pure roadie, classic go-fast mode. 23 profile rubber, maybe 25 but prolly not.

[vqdriver]

i like my rim brake bike just fine. does everything my disc bike does, including stop. HOWEVER, the wheel choice and having the rim/tire consideration completely independent of brake system is really nice.

but let's not kid ourselves, the current 'standard' of flat mount & axle dimensions are not set in stone, and will eventually change themselves. just because you get today's standard built in doesn't future proof you. one thing with rim brakes is that they're so old school that those standards are likely to remain

[thirdgenbird]

Originally Posted by wallymann

Pure roadie, classic go-fast mode. 23 profile rubber, maybe 25 but prolly not.

In this case, rim without thinking twice. The only debate would be ee calipers or Campagnolo.

[bigbill]

I love my Coconino Dirt Road Racer with disc, but on the pavement, since the early 90s, rim brakes have done everything I wanted. I ride Campy on most of my bikes and have Mavic SSC's on two of them, there is no finer rim brake.

[wallymann]

Originally Posted by vqdriver

one thing with rim brakes is that they're so old school that those standards are likely to remain

Word.

[Elefantino]

Rim brakes because I'm with Joe Biden.

[tomato coupe]

Originally Posted by gibbo

Yes and yes! I would also challenge ANYONE who thinks a stock off the shelf frame can be as good or better than a custom to consider this, a frame made for you, with your weight, power output, and personal preferences will be very different from a frame made to suit a very wide range of power output, weight, and riding styles. Add on custom paint and geometry and custom should win hands down. The price of a custom Crumpton compared to any top end frames from big manufacturers makes me why anyone would prefer a stock bike, other than you don’t have the long wait....

My wife has a custom, carbon fiber road bike. My best bike is an off-the-rack carbon fiber road bike. As beautiful as her bike is, mine outperforms it in almost every way. But, you would expect it to be better, considering how much more money was spent on the design, engineering, and testing of the off-the-rack frame.

[lavi]

Originally Posted by wallymann

Pure roadie, classic go-fast mode. 23 profile rubber, maybe 25 but prolly not.

Since you asked, and then told us the bike: rim brake (atmo).

UNLESS you do lots of wet weather riding, then disc.