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In todays episode we discuss where rim brakes fit in compared to disc brakes and the pro’s and con’s of both…
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46 Comments
Rim brake bikes are awful, I would advise everybody who rides rim brake bikes to give them to me to dispose of.
I really want to embrace disc brakes, and I have them on my eBike and MTB, but God are they a pain to deal with. So glad my road bikes have always had rim brakes.
A big point you missed is heat transfer, coming down hill disc brakes get hot ,, really hot and fade. Or worse become glazed and fail. Ive just rescued a DBS bike, i believe from the 70 s,, she has drum brakes front and rear, this is something ive not seen before and im looking forward to playing with them.
I love your title: Time to move on. The first time I’m on disc brakes, I told myself it’s a no return to rim brakes.
I work on my bikes and prefer not to take it into the shop. I have both rim and disc bikes and love rim brakes. I started out with single pivot calipers in the late 80’s and dual pivot brakes are a revelation.. so yes, in my opinion, rim brakes are as good as disc brakes
I have heard about some issues with discs beeing transportet in airplanes. There might be problems with the hydraulic oil and therefore bleeding the hydraulics might be nessesary after the flight. This is not an issue with mechanical rimbrakes.
I dont like to bleed my brakes, because I am not sure about how to do it, and what tools to get, so I go to the bikehopmechanic.
On my gravel bike I regularly wanne switch between 40mm and 35mm wide tyres. Disc brakes give me that freedom
In wet condictions, and when you know you might need to brake and slow down fast, you just keep your brake pad close to the rim while riding to get the water away from the brake surface of your rim. Old school technique still works
In my experience disc brakes are much more tolerant and require less maintenance, just set and forget, while rim brakes always require fiddling, getting out of alignment, one pad touching rim, pads getting rotated on center fastening nut etc. Disc brakes are not harder to adjust, and if your wheel is not perfectly straight, that's GG for a rim brake, but not a problem for a disc brake.
The question is why ever go disc brakes? It’s a product born of monopoly power driving higher prices. Likely the best case are for hard core MTB black trails. Other use cases rim brakes are lighter, cheaper and quieter. When every gram counts rim technically far superior when done properly. On the very high end of bikes yes anything goes.
Zero point for disc brakes on a road bike
Rim brakes are still great in 2024,simply changing to cartridge brake pads and holder's will improve your stopping power a lot.💯👌🏻🚴♂️
You can have disc brake no need to use it I have internal cable in my rim brake bike only cable is the tiny peace for from front brake out the handle bar and small cable expose by the B.B & my frame is a 2023/24 you can't get more airo anyways that this UCI approved. And its more airo than disc break versions. And I never going to go big ever than a 30mm tire ever, I still prefer 23 over my 25. or 22mm on tubs!! all pumped just under 7 bar. besides I hate hate hate hate hate the stupid nose disc brakes make in the wet, they don't in the dry if you actually use disc brake cleaner & actually know how to use it properly never rub or clean it once sprayed it cleans itself. my bikes weight with gadets on is 6.7kg take a hike dude!!
I love my disc brakes. But just having rim brakes isn't a reason to toss the whole bike out.
I’ve been riding rim brakes since the 1970’s and they have never let me down. My current road bike, a 1998 Klein Quantum Race stops very well with them. On my MTB, I run discs because that is what it came with (although I went from mechanical to hydraulics).
Don't want or need disc brakes, the way the industry has moved to discs is an insult and profit orientated – expensive crap, high maintenance £$€£
I am voting with my wallet by NOT buying anything disc at all ever.
My next bike will be direct mount rim brakes.
Don't forget the serious danger posed by disc brake lock up – plenty of crashes in the pro peloton and several deaths due to disc brakes locking
the superior brake system, if you REALLY think about it
I'll be honest — I vastly prefer disc brakes. If you keep the discs clean and change the pads, they are fuss free. Easier to pull the wheels, no worries about destroying your rims with grit, no toe in etc. Plus, they just work better in the wet.
Great Channel. For Rim Brakes i think it very much depends on the purpose of the bike, for pure performance on a road bike, for sure disc, but even then i would also question how many road users need the headaches that come along for the marginal gains, but manufacturers aren't really giving a choice. Then there are bikes that have another purpose, such as touring. I have a touring bike for long rides carrying lots of gear, that i will never install disc brakes on, if something happens i want the simplest, most reliable easy option i can fix at the roadside or at worst replace at minimal cost
Great perspectives, thank you for sharing. In your opinion, what is the best rim brake? 105,ultegra or dura ace.
The equipment on a pro bike is paid for by the team sponsors the riders dont have much choice what they ride
Rim brakes are more reliable and cheaper, for the average rider they are adequate.
From what I understand carbon wheels don't work so well with rim brakes, but aluminum are good with rim brakes, my 2009 Trek 520 seems really good in the braking department and they are rim brakes, light, effective, powerful and low maintenance. I don't need more complications.
I have my rim brake bike for around 6000km now and really start to notice the wear on the rim. I'm planning to sell it anyways, but I probably would have to buy a new wheelset soon if not for that.
I have bikes with disk and rim beakes, they have their pros and cons, don't understand the dramatic contention.
The power of steel from lever to wheel 👍
I think the only reason for disk brakes is riding on the wet
My bikes have disk brakes, but tbh when I rode a BMX to school I never felt like they were insufficient
interesting….
Not everyone. Me and my group ride rim.
Why on earth is no one ever talking about tyre clearance ? Installing 32mm tyres on a rim brake bike is a bummer;
I would never go on a long-distance trip with disk breaks. I can take some spare break pads for my rim break, but not the while maintenance kit for a disk break. I had disk breaks get stuck on my mountain bike, and it was the end of my trip that day. How often do you get into a situation where you need to break on a dime, hoping not t9 fly past the handlebar? Btw, I own 3 bikes with disk – and 3 bikes with rim breaks. To me, the service issue is most important.
I have both types, with a Bianchi Specialissima which I bought, took off Shima(NO!) garbage and replaced with Campagnolo Super Record 12-speed EPS/WTO carbon rim wheels, etc.
I recently bought a Colnago C64 disc with Campagnolo SR mechanical, but changing to SR 12-speed EPS hydraulic disc with WTO 60 carbon wheels which came with bike, but currently
waiting for the Deda Alanera RS bars to finish!
I did have a Colnago C60 with SR EPS 11 speed, but sold it as frame was too big, so had to get a short 80mm ENVE stem to rectify, but it looked wrong!
I had 4 Colnago dealers give me wrong sizing advice before I bought one, with one having 40 years experience!!!
I try not to ride much on the Rain, Only my Mountain Bike Have Disc Brakes and they are Cable actuated, I just don live in a place that justify a hidraulic brake system. All my road bikes still have rim brakes.
All my bikes are rim brakes(5 machines) I have no desire or need to change to discs, it has taken me years to build up my collection of bikes.
Now rim brake bikes are really good cuz they are sold for 300/500€ on second hand market!
There’s millions of us that don’t wanna ride on disc brakes. I’m one I would hate to have to listen to that noise all the time they’re there wind dragon so they make your bike slower. Your bike has way more to be able to withstand the pressure that the braking system adds to the frame they’re just crap and canal just came out with a brand new bike that’s rim breaks, I know hundreds of guys that don’t want your stupid if you think we need to move on I didn’t even bother to listen to your shit. Your your hook on your picture says it all.
I will not buy another disc brake bike. They are heavy, ugly, expensive and you lose that beautiful responsive front fork, using a heavier dead unpleasant to ride fork.
You did not convince me with this video, it was very incomplete
Looking at thr comments here make me smile. Your shallow presentation got ripped up pretty well.
Yuo might consider another line of work to be an expert in, perhaps pancakes.
My wife and I each have road, gravel, MTB, and fat bikes. Each runs through axles, carbon wheels, tubeless tires, and hydraulic disc brakes. We last rode rim brakes a couple years before COVID. We just can’t imagine going narrower than 30-32 mm for road tires and our frames aren’t rim brake compatible anyway. Rim brakes and tubes are history for us.
Custom made steel or titanium frame will always be better than stock carbon bike. Rim brake parts will be available for next 30-40 years
Only my opinion but I think rim brakes look better on a road bike than discs.
Lee ; you should read the social media ! There’s a whole army that thinks disc brakes look shit and work shit . Not ME . I’ve got rim brake bikes and love them ,but the braking is shit in the wet , My hydraulic disc brakes bike has far superior stopping power to rim brakes.
And if you know what you are doing, takes about 10 minutes to bleed both brakes.
Absolutely spot on, you could also mention the legion of issues that crop up when the discs are being worked by hydraulics.
Yeah rim brakes are still fine for road bikes, on balance I prefer them on touring and commuter bikes. They work far better on aluminium rims for a start plus the down tube and fork can be lighter. Not a big deal on carbon frames but noticeably heavier on steel. Having these parts lighter mean more compliance with reduced issues like numb hands. I doubt rim brakes will totally disappear but it's likely that they will be dropped from the high end, getting left on lesser groupsets like Tiagra or Sora. This would be a dam shame. Back 20 years ago you could tour with a dura ace group set. It was that solid. Now, I'm not so sure. Everything is getting more fragile and less robust. Even the cranks are too light now and prone to failure which was unheard of.
Maybe shimano should revive one of their old group sets with 9 or 10 speeds to allow a stronger back wheel with less dish coupled to those incredible shimano forged hubs that are capable of 50k miles and keep all us older cyclists and anyone else interested in a decent reliable bike happy. 🤞🏻
I think direct mount rim brakes were the way to go but they seem to have died out
Very informative video , however I think somethong you could have touched on was the fact that rim brakes will wear down the braking surface of the wheel eventually, especially if ridden through bad winter weather. I'm a rim brake stalwart but an eye does need to be kept on rim wear
Fk disc brakes… industry pushed it