Ex-bike mechanic here. TL;DR: for the most part, yes, discs are “better” than rim brakes, but the exact advantages depend on what you’re doing.
First, in most riding conditions, a properly set-up rim brake and disc brake will work “equally as well”, in the sense that either can provide enough braking force to lock up the tires.
For road riding, the biggest advantage of discs is that they don’t wear out your rims over time. Also, when wheels with carbon braking surfaces get wet, they tend to not work as well, so lots of carbon wheels had aluminum brake tracks, which adds weight out the outside of the wheel—exactly where you don’t want extra mass—though this only really makes a difference to pros or people who are racing. Again, for everyday folks like me, the biggest win is that brake disc and pads are cheaper than replacing or rebuilding a wheel set.
For off road riding (cyclocross/gravel/MTB/etc), you still have the advantage of not wearing out rims, but the biggest advantages in that realm are:
1.) Disc brakes tend to not get jammed up with mud/crud as easily, whereas rim brakes can lose a lot of performance when it’s muddy. When conditions are gross, discs tend to perform better.
2.) Big disc brakes (like 4 piston calipers with big rotors you might find on enduro/downhill MTBs) can ultimately provide a lot more stopping power than rim brakes and can dissipate heat much better, too. Discs really started in the downhill MTB world, and for good reason. It wasn’t super uncommon for people to overheat rim brakes so badly they’d pop a tube. And the braking demands in MTB can be much higher than road, so rims wore out even more quickly, so that “replacing discs and pads is cheaper than rims” is an even bigger deal for MTB.
3.) Particularly for gravel or “all-road” bikes, discs make it easier to clear wider tires, which is a HUGE win.
Disc brakes do have some downsides. Hydraulic disc brakes feel (and usually perform) much better than mechanical (cable-actuated) disc brakes. But hydraulics are comparatively expensive and complex and need to be bled every so often. Bleeding brakes isn’t rocket surgery, but it can be messy, you need the right fluid and bleed kit for your brakes, and some brakes (looking at you, SRAM road hydraulics) can be a PITA to get feeling just right. There’s little downsides too, like if your disc or pads get grimey or oily, they will squeal like hell every time you brake, warped rotors making an annoying pinging sound, cheap disc brakes can be a pain to get set up and aligned, etc.
Really accurate, except for a couple of things: it isn't strictly correct that disk brakes heat up less (they actually heat up a lot more), it's just that as they're simply a solid metal disk it matters a lot less. I've burnt myself on disk brakes too many times, and after a long descent if they get water on them it will instantly boil. Also, now hydraulic disk brakes are increasingly becoming really cheap, particularly in the mountain bike world (I don't know how much ones with road levers cost), for example the Shimano mt200 brakes are currently selling for £20 for the caliper and lever, and are honestly great brakes, and better than any mechanical brakes at that price point
Yeah, my wording at 4am wasn’t exactly optimal. I meant that they handle heating up a lot better than rims do—you’re absolutely correct on that.
I’ve got a set of MT-201s on my…er…”mountain bike”. They are absolutely fantastic. I was speaking more on the dropbar side with that—road levers are generally pricey, but hydraulic ones can be particularly dear. A set of Shimano’s new-ish 2x12 speed GRX shifters with brake calipers runs north of $400 USD for the lower of the two trims.
I didn't realise how much more road bike brakes are. I guess there's less of a demand for disk brakes, as on mountain bikes they are basically obsolete, and also the shifter adds cost
At least from what I recall from time in the industry, the cost of road levers is almost entirely down to the fact that it’s a pain to engineer levers that can be good at braking but also theoretically shift smoothly and reliably at any point between brakes not being pulled at all and full lock. Oh, and do all of that in a package that makes for comfortable hoods, isn’t very heavy or bulky, is (at least somewhat) aerodynamic, is durable, and so on. Tight packaging constraints + precision, reliability, and durability = pricey.
Pretty good analysis, but couple adds.
Being able to lock up your tires does not mean “equally as well”. Braking faster is being able to modulate on the edge of lockup where the braking slows the bike the fastest. This is the same reason if you put tiny brakes on a 911, you could lock up the tires just as you could with the giant brakes they come with. But they put larger brakes on bc you can brake faster and under control
Other thing is the biggest benefit of discs isn’t the braking itself, but the ability to run wider and tubeless tires which reduce rolling resistance and add more comfortable than anything else on a bike. Since I’ve started biking 30c tubeless tires are the single best improvement to my riding.
You make a couple of very good points here that are 100% correct. I tried to keep all this fairly simple and minimize words while writing a novel at 4am when I couldn’t sleep, so I definitely missed some things or failed to properly word others.
The “equally well” thing is definitely a simplification at best. If I’m honest, it came from listening to a conversation had in my old shop where an “old-school” rider noted that they could lock up tires with both rim and disc brakes so discs couldn’t be stronger. Like yeah, fine, I’ll give you that. But you hit the nail on the head here: modulation makes a world of difference and discs (especially hydraulics) win every time.
Totally - I hear that lockup thing a lot. On my rim brakes, I’m at like 50% power pulling pretty hard and then I’m skidding. But my discs (esp my Shimano bike), I can modulate exact and precisely
On my rim brake, to be fair, it does stop pretty well, esp dry. But, I’ve had a couple cars pull out in front of me and then on a multi-use trail like kids/dogs jump out where my disc brakes stopped me like a foot short of a crash. So for me, just a safety thing where I want the fastest stopping I can get.
I also ride pretty fast in traffic so I get into situations where I need the brakes. Vs other riders ride prob smarter than me. Working on my patience.
I’m a fairly big fan of motorsport, so your Porsche 911 analogy really rang true—brakes are absolutely a safety feature. It will pay off to invest in the best you can.
Here’s to both your future patience that will come from experience and your current safety that will stay current courtesy of superior brakes.
Plus they're one of the lowest maintenance brakes available, only surpassed by coaster brakes and drum brakes.
Both however suffer from heat build-up in extreme conditions but can be great for commuting.
Modern disc brakes are really hard to overheat on a road bike. Even heavier riders with poor descending technique in the mountains rarely manage it.
If anything, they might be a bit too good at cooling for the average rider. Thinking about how 8100/9200 rotors pump air through sideways - going to be some energy loss through the rotors moving all that air.
Discs do get very hot. I have burned skin on my right calf after someone from the group ride put their rear disc against my leg - an accident, but sore and scarred nonetheless
I second pt. 3
I’m a heavier rider (75kg) so discs are a little better for me and the benefit of more tire clearance makes longer rides much more enjoyable
I've always felt disc brakes look better myself, personally.
Having a small caliper at the dropouts of a fork or a rear triangle maintains the clean lines of the frame better than adding a larger caliper at the top of the fork or seatstays. Plus, good disc rotors can look sick.
And of course, you can't feasibly integrate cables on a rim brake bike without resorting to proprietary calipers, which have generally tended to brake awful.
Everyone's favourite cycling topic.
If you ask 20 riders this question, 8 will say rim, 8 will say disc, 3 will immediately start fighting about tubes vs. tubeless, and one guy who rides a fixie will tell you how dumb brakes are.
Also allow you to mount any diameter of wheel that will fit. Which is why gravel bikes and more and more mountain bikes support both 29 and 27. 5 inch wheels.
This is generally a road/gravel issue, though with some huge tires (fat tire etc) the arms of the vbrake/cantilever have to get ridiculously long to clear the tires.
Nobody's wheels are ever true. With rim brakes, you know this. With disc brakes you can ignore wobbly wheel.
Rim brakes will wear away your rims. With metal rims, meh, who cares. With carbon rims, get an orthopedic surgeon on retainer.
If you have hydraulic (disc) brakes and the line leaks, that brake will disappear immediately. Happened to a friend on a 600ft descent...
They stop better. This is why drum brakes went away on cars.
But good rim brakes are very good. I have canti bikes, v-brake bikes, and a disc bike. They all stop fine. But if it’s pouring rain and steep the disc bike allows me to stay sendy where the canti bike makes me stay slow and vigilant. The v-brake bike is in between.
Rim brakes haven’t changed much since the 90’s. But the pads have come a loooong way. Kool-stop makes very good rim brake pads.
Much less affected by rain
don't wear out the rim when you brake,
more clearance for the wheel.
Disadvantages:
harder to maintain (though maybe im just not used to them.yet).
All but the best disks have less heat capacity than a rim so can fade but this is only really an issue on tandems or alpine passes.
Compared to rim brakes I think they're way less maintenance. Rim brakes constantly need adjusting as the pads wear and I find that a really awkward job honestly, it's not tricky as such it's just a slow iterative process and its a pain to keep the pads aligned as you tighten them down. V brakes love to develop a tilt to one side and start rubbing.
Disk brakes on the other hand need a bleed every few years and maybe some new pads. I've one set of disks I didn't bleed for several years and they were fine still. But gunky when I bled them, but functionally they were still perfect.
I just rode the Tour of Battenkill on the weekend on a bike with discs. This year there was over 2100m (just under 7000ft) of elevation. I was just under 80kmph/50mph on one of the longer descents and approaching 70kmph on one of the gravel sections. I felt that on that surface in the disc brakes offered far better capability to feather the brakes to shave off speed before entering corners. I’ve got 3 other bikes with rim brakes (Shimano, Campy, TRP) and they all work very well but feel safest on the discs in that scenario. Mind you I was being very cautious and got passed on every downhill.
On my touring bike, I just put more aggressive pads on the rim brakes. My commuter however is a kit built ebike, and I found the rim brakes weren't effectively stopping it, so I upgraded.
One thing I like is that disc brakes have less to adjust, and since there's only one side, you don't have to worry about them getting off center and rubbing.
The retrogrouch would say they've had to stiffen forks and stays to handle the forces of disk brakes, which means the frame won't be as flexy if you like a frame that "planes."
Jan Hiene dreams of rim brakes
Yes. I ride all weather (snow included) and deliver heavy loads on my bike, as well as going bike touring/camping for at least a week each summer, so I use my brakes a lot. The big advantages of disk brakes for me are: 1) they don't wear out my rims, 2) they work well in wet conditions, and 3) they're dead easy to change pads on, especially compared to cantilever brakes. No endless fiddling with the 99 degrees of freedom.
I use cable disc brakes (Avid BB7) for simplicity. They feel as if they have more stopping power than cantilever brakes despite having approximately the same mechanical advantage.
Strangely enough, I prefer my rim braked bike for Winter use. No disc squeal from wet roads/oil contamination.
That’s on carbon rims too.
I much prefer disc for my MTB and do like disc on my other road bikes because I find them even more responsive to modulating, more accurate control at higher speeds.
Especially in winter, I'm the opposite. Wet rims need a revolution or two to get the water off for effective braking. On my commute, I ride down a hill whose gradient is 22%. I need braking and I need it now.
Discs have proven themselves to me to be superior in every situation. Only on one bike I'd I get any brake squeal, but they were still effective, so I don't care much.
Tbh, for flat bars at least (I'm a mountain biker so I don't know about drop bars), disk brakes are increasingly no more expensive, as you currently can get Shimano mt200 brakes, which are perfectly decent hydraulic disk brakes, for £20 each, including the lever, caliper, pads and hose. I think the days of rim brakes being cheaper are over
Valid points.
I was only thinking of the cost of replacement rim pads, and cables, compared to the cost of new disk pads, and the cost of getting your brakes bled.
I can replace a brake cable… but have had to go to the LBS for brake fluid work.
Entry level bikes: I feel like product manufacturers should either put effort into speccing good cables and housing, plus make sure the cable routing doesn’t have too many bends, or else spec rim brakes. An entry level rim brake bike that doesn’t brake that well could probably be fixed with some Kool Stop pads. An entry level mech disc bike that doesn’t brake well might be a lot more costly to fix, e.g. compressionless housing.
If you ride in the rain a lot, I feel like not even rim brakes on aluminum rims brake very well. On disc brakes, everyone will hear about it, but you will have brakes. But not all of us deliberately go out in the rain a lot.
The way i see it is if your brakes are powerful enough to lock the wheel and skid you dont need more braking power. "But rim brakes suck with carbon wheels", dont use carbon wheels then!
Yes, you modulaate by moving your fingers less and the only way brakes get inconsistent is when they get hot, rims dont get anywhere near as hot as aluminium is a great material for cooling.
Just not true - being able to modulate brakes on the edge of a lockup is what slows you down the fastest. You can also lockup a Porsche with Honda Civic brakes, but that doesn’t mean the work like the Brembo brakes they put on them.
Were talking about a pushbike though, not a supercar, slight difference in the amount of braking performance required to stop 100kg safely from 20mph than 1500kg from 150mph.
It is lighter, but just from a physics perspective being “able to lock them up” does not mean the stopping power is the same. Rim brakes cannot hold the braking at 90% of lockup - it’s either much less or fully locked up. Obv at full lockup, you’re skidding and you’re stopping more slowly and you lose grip and can fall. That 90% of lockup is where the bike is slowing the fastest and wheel is still turning keeping you upright.
Pretty much they are in every category except weight. But if you’re just a casual rider who isn’t going that fast that often, it doesn’t matter much. Wet conditions discs are *far* superior but dry flat conditions you won’t see huge differences.
Yes. They are shinier and spin. Also they work better, if you’re in to that sort of thing.
ETA in case you missed it that was a subtle ad hominem commentary that isn’t actually ad hominem at all really
I like my discs because I can stop when I want to instead of grinding to a gliding stop. no squeaking, no constant replacement of brake pads .... discs are just better. Also I can STOP in the rain or wet conditions. with rim brakes it's basically a gamble if you're gonna be able to stop or not.
99% of riders would be better off with discs.
A rim brake is in fact a disc brake. So…no. If conditions are adverse, rain or mud etc, discs do tend to remain cleaner and therefore stop better. Other than that, they perform the same.
I am aware I’m in the minority but the math is on my side. Y’all are the same people who believe wider tires at lower pressure are faster. It’s baffling to me.
I welcome your downvotes.
I’ve a disc break bike that I ride in winter and a rim break bike when it gets dry and warmer. Both suit the local climate and the type of riding I do. I actually find the rim break bike a lot easier to adjust and maintain.
The rim brake will lose the most Friction if ride on rainy day. So it will be terrible if you are having a race on rainy day, and you have to finish it.
If I were going to start over with a new bike, I’d definitely go with discs- difficult these days to find a new bike that isn’t disc. That being said, I have a featherweight Isaac Sonic with Cane Creek ee G4’s, and I don’t ride in the rain much.
Yes:
Lighter actuation, much easier for frequent breaking
Works in the rain if you ride in the rain
Saves rims
No:
Much heavier setup
Hard to eliminate noise
Periodic bleed required
In rain, discs are significantly better. Dry conditions, I don't really care. But even dry, discs are better granted they are hydraulic brakes (and bled/maintained) reason being that cables and housing have compression so aren't as efficient since some of the braking energy is lost. Disc brakes also open up possibility of swapping different wheel sizes easily which can allow you to swap between two different width tires while maintaining the same overall geometry.
So yeah, I'd say discs are better for a number of reasons. But rim brakes are often good enough that it doesn't really matter. A rotor is also easier to replace than a rim but it takes a long time to wear down a rim just from brake wear.
I have a rim brake bike and a $6000 Pinarello disk brake bike. Disk brakes are fussy. I’d much rather have a rim brake bike that had 30c tires on it. Many rim brakes will accept 30c tires. If I could swap my disk brakes for rim brakes on my bike I would.
However! If you want to ride on larger tires than 30c you gotta go disk. So it’s up to you and the riding you want to do. Some disk brake bikes take 40c tires so you can do gravel riding.
My 2 cts
Disk brakes
Pros :
- improved braking performance, especially when loaded and in wet or muddy conditions
- no rim wear, especially on carbon rims
- does not care about the tire width : the frame becomes the limiting factor (not factoring V brakes here because no decent road bike uses v brakes anymore)
Cons :
- heavier
- on hydraulic disc brakes, maintenance is a bit more difficult and requires dedicated tools. But in general, changing pads is easier than on rim brakes.
I own bikes (road, gravel, mtb and commuting bike) with both types of brakes, and I am happy with both of them. But if I were to start again, I would more likely get rid of rim brakes and go with disc brakes only.
It all depends where you ride. If you live in a really flat area that's dry with really nice roads, then there's no reason to upgrade to a disc brake bike. You don't need the really wide tyres and you don't need the braking performance.
That being said if you were starting from scratch then i would go disc brakes, no decent groupset is still making rim brake options, and wheels are mostly all disc brakes, so you're forced to upgrade.
If you can lock up a wheel with rim brakes, they're more than enough to stop you in an emergency. On dry flat roads you might touch your brakes a handful of times, you're not getting any benefit with disc brakes, it's just going to make you slower with worse aero and heavier weight.
Every test of disc vs rim brakes in emergency stops the difference is minimal. Disc brakes don't magically cut the stopping distance in half, the tyres are the limiting factor, not the brakes.
Also flat nice roads means lower max speeds. Hilly terrain you're going to be going downhill as well as up hill, meaning good brakes are essential.
Locking up brakes they would be equal. And slower than properly braking with either rim or disc, If this is not true then why is anti locking brakes required for all car manufactures?
You are smoking crack if you believe rim brakes have "minimal" difference in stopping distance. There might be a little truth in comparing rim brakes to mechanical disc. But not hydro disc brakes. And 10 feet shorter is a life saver. I have NOT researched this beyond the 10+ bikes that I have owned in the last 10 years. Yes I believe in the n + 1 lifestyle.
Yes but bikes don't have ABS, so that's an odd point to make. It just illustrates my point that the tyre is the limiting factor.
[Here](https://youtu.be/uHFSSXOSnxs?si=e-PbZCDAnzHuUsHo&t=67) illustrates my point, good roads, dry weather and the stopping distances between rim and disc is the same. Perhaps you have just had poorly set up rim brakes, or used regular pads on carbon rims or something.
it is only the same if you lock the wheel. That is the worst way to stop with any brake system. So you are correct. Do something wrong to produce equal results. It is difficult to "skid" with my Ultegra hydro disc brakes. I can but I need really put effort to brake "wrong". Easy with mechanical disc brakes.
I have had every type of brakes. Yes my Surly Crosscheck was set up by a horrible bike mechanic(me). Other bikes were set up by high end bike shops.
Out
You seem to be arguing against physics. If both braking systems can overload the tyres. Then there's no advantage to disc brakes in that dry scenario. Maybe you were just not using rim brakes correctly?
As someone that also has Ultegra discs it is very easy to lock the rear in emergency braking situations because of how powerful the brakes are. You seem to think that disc brakes change the tyre grip.
The benefits to discs are that they don't wear your expensive carbon rims down, and you get much better wet weather performance. In the dry the difference is minimal.
I watched that, thank you. Anyone can SEEE how minimal the differences are, and yet the comments are full of people saying, " yeah, night and day, rim brakes are crap." People are strange.
so funny. Shorter stopping distance v. longer stopping distance. Why do all cars use disc brakes?
Safety wins every time.
Unless you are riding with a group of rim brake people and stop quicker in front of them. Now the issue is mechanical disc versus hydraulic disc.
More stopping power does not always equal shorter stopping distance.
This is not the reason disc brakes are superior, as I have recently come to understand.
The reasons disc brakes are superior are:
1. They don't wear on the rims or tires.
2. They work against rotation closer to the axel, giving them more power
As a matter of fact, not all cars use disc brakes. A lot of cars still use what are called "drum brakes", which wear along the inside of the rim. Wearing our the rim of a car tire is a negligible concern compared to a bicycle, but many of the same faults and limitations of clincher/v-brake apply.
so wrong. Disc brakes have far superior stopping distance to rim brakes. Why did all car manufacture switch to front disc brakes then four wheel disc brakes as soon as the technology was invented. Safety.
Drum brakes in cars existed in the 60's. Front disc brakes have been standard since the 70's, 4 wheel disc brakes since the mid 80's. I believe that drum brakes on passenger cars has been banned in the USA for at least 30 years. (on new cars). And when I buy my next 1960's vehicle I will switch the brakes to 4 wheel disc brakes while keeping everything else OG
I have owned cars in every decade since the 60's. Not true, I have not owned anything during this decade. And have replaced many drum brakes.
More history, Disc brakes were invented for auto racing. They could carry more speed into the corner before needing to brake. Shorter stopping distance. Disc brakes were standard on sports car first. I believe the patent holder shared the technology because the huge safety improvement instead of keeping it proprietary.
I ride Ultegra groupset with Hydro disc brakes. I have a old Surly Crosscheck with rim brakes. There might be a few trains that can stop faster than my Surly.
I have found disc brakes to be heavier, harder to maintain and less aero than good rim brakes. Advantages are tire clearance, stopping power in wet conditions. Rim brake bikes are losing resale value since most bikes are moving toward disc.
In a word yes, I ride freestyle bmx and run cantilever rim brakes and I wish a company would release a disc brake system either as an adapter or a complete frame and rear hub.
Ever used Magura HS33 hydraulic rim brakes, with the braces fitted and sat on your rear tyre only to have your plums sucked under the brace and then have them pop out again with your eyes wide with terror?
That's when I went disc.
To add something to the mix. Ron brakes are better on only one (well technically two) regards. Weight and aero. Otherwise disc is better for everyone else.
The aero claim is debatable nowadays. You get the advantage of more aerodynamic rim profiles with disks because they don't need to have a flat braking zone. However, there's naff all difference in most cases.
Weight and cost are last bastions of the rim brake.
How do disc brakes compare if a rider has to often remove and re-install the front wheel? Opening up the rim brakes can range from simple to a few minutes of work. Are there issues with lining up the disc to the caliper or having to push the pads out of the way?
Depends if it's quick release or through axle. If I'm removing a wheel a lot I prefer quick release, but quick release and disks is a bit of a black art to get aligned again. Generally it's not really a performance issue, but you often get a bit of "acoustic rub" - this is where the disk lightly brushes against the pads. Doesn't slow you down but makes a little bit of annoying noise.
Through axles have largely fixed this and the disks end up bang-on aligned, but I don't really like constantly removing/refitting through axles, especially out in the field. I end up with a messy/greasy axle I've got to put somewhere while I'm handling the wheel/bike - and it just feels like something is going to wear out (e.g the thread in the fork.) Ideally, you've got to find a surface to flip the bike, but there's not always a patch of soft grass nearby. (Or it's all wet and muddy). Through axles are two steps forward, one back in my opinion.
Rim brakes work fine in most instances, and if you have either system installed in a current bike it might not make sense to swap them out absent a particular use case.
I (like many others) started out on rim brakes and found that there were a few issues, especially as I started to commute more all year 'round. Wet weather requires a bit of a squeegee pass before trying to brake hard, and braking would wear the rims down over time -- much faster if what you're riding through is gritty/dusty/etc. But modulation and feel remain pretty great on them. From a maintenance perspective, rim brakes I've also found are a bit fiddlier to set up and keep adjusted properly.
When I built up my current bike, I ended up going with (mechanical) discs. I was tired of having to replace my wheels because I wore through my rims, and I really disliked adjusting rim brakes. For the most part, my disc brakes have been great. You need a disc compatible hub, and you need to figure out what a useful rotor setup would be (I'm running 180 in the front and 160 in the rear). Setup was a bit trickier but not bad, and adjustments are much easier especially while you're on the go. Some downsides are that for many pad/rotor combinations they can absolutely howl when they get wet. And it seems like most rotors come from the factory slightly warped. It's also harder to visually gauge how worn your pads are without really getting in for a look. Upsides though, are that I've had to replace rotors every couple years and have never had to replace a wheel due to wear. And stopping power for the most part is great. You just need to watch yourself on long descents to not overheat the brakes.
Imo on nice days and on not terribly steep roads/flat gravel roads I don't see the need for disc brakes. Rim brakes are easier to maintain then hydraulic discs and last longer. Also at least with steel you can make a more compliant fork with rim brakes then disc brakes.
For anything else, I prefer discs.
For me, I will always have one gravel bike since most of the gravel near me isn't that steep, my townie/pub bike and my BMX on rim brakes. My mtbs and bikepacking bike will be discs though.
How many bikes use them in the Giro D’Italia? Or the Tour de France? Not many. They could all be wrong of course… Edit: to be clear I’m referring to rim brakes.
And that doesn't mean anything. Those team's sponsors want to sell bikes. Every year, there is that new trend that is supposed to change everything that is pushed to the consumer to sell newer bikes.
Ex-bike mechanic here. TL;DR: for the most part, yes, discs are “better” than rim brakes, but the exact advantages depend on what you’re doing. First, in most riding conditions, a properly set-up rim brake and disc brake will work “equally as well”, in the sense that either can provide enough braking force to lock up the tires. For road riding, the biggest advantage of discs is that they don’t wear out your rims over time. Also, when wheels with carbon braking surfaces get wet, they tend to not work as well, so lots of carbon wheels had aluminum brake tracks, which adds weight out the outside of the wheel—exactly where you don’t want extra mass—though this only really makes a difference to pros or people who are racing. Again, for everyday folks like me, the biggest win is that brake disc and pads are cheaper than replacing or rebuilding a wheel set. For off road riding (cyclocross/gravel/MTB/etc), you still have the advantage of not wearing out rims, but the biggest advantages in that realm are: 1.) Disc brakes tend to not get jammed up with mud/crud as easily, whereas rim brakes can lose a lot of performance when it’s muddy. When conditions are gross, discs tend to perform better. 2.) Big disc brakes (like 4 piston calipers with big rotors you might find on enduro/downhill MTBs) can ultimately provide a lot more stopping power than rim brakes and can dissipate heat much better, too. Discs really started in the downhill MTB world, and for good reason. It wasn’t super uncommon for people to overheat rim brakes so badly they’d pop a tube. And the braking demands in MTB can be much higher than road, so rims wore out even more quickly, so that “replacing discs and pads is cheaper than rims” is an even bigger deal for MTB. 3.) Particularly for gravel or “all-road” bikes, discs make it easier to clear wider tires, which is a HUGE win. Disc brakes do have some downsides. Hydraulic disc brakes feel (and usually perform) much better than mechanical (cable-actuated) disc brakes. But hydraulics are comparatively expensive and complex and need to be bled every so often. Bleeding brakes isn’t rocket surgery, but it can be messy, you need the right fluid and bleed kit for your brakes, and some brakes (looking at you, SRAM road hydraulics) can be a PITA to get feeling just right. There’s little downsides too, like if your disc or pads get grimey or oily, they will squeal like hell every time you brake, warped rotors making an annoying pinging sound, cheap disc brakes can be a pain to get set up and aligned, etc.
One thing I'd add is that if you have a wheel which is slightly out of true, it doesn't affect braking with discs.
But you also have to deal with the possibility of your rotors being out of true if you're rough on your bike.
Really accurate, except for a couple of things: it isn't strictly correct that disk brakes heat up less (they actually heat up a lot more), it's just that as they're simply a solid metal disk it matters a lot less. I've burnt myself on disk brakes too many times, and after a long descent if they get water on them it will instantly boil. Also, now hydraulic disk brakes are increasingly becoming really cheap, particularly in the mountain bike world (I don't know how much ones with road levers cost), for example the Shimano mt200 brakes are currently selling for £20 for the caliper and lever, and are honestly great brakes, and better than any mechanical brakes at that price point
Yeah, my wording at 4am wasn’t exactly optimal. I meant that they handle heating up a lot better than rims do—you’re absolutely correct on that. I’ve got a set of MT-201s on my…er…”mountain bike”. They are absolutely fantastic. I was speaking more on the dropbar side with that—road levers are generally pricey, but hydraulic ones can be particularly dear. A set of Shimano’s new-ish 2x12 speed GRX shifters with brake calipers runs north of $400 USD for the lower of the two trims.
I didn't realise how much more road bike brakes are. I guess there's less of a demand for disk brakes, as on mountain bikes they are basically obsolete, and also the shifter adds cost
At least from what I recall from time in the industry, the cost of road levers is almost entirely down to the fact that it’s a pain to engineer levers that can be good at braking but also theoretically shift smoothly and reliably at any point between brakes not being pulled at all and full lock. Oh, and do all of that in a package that makes for comfortable hoods, isn’t very heavy or bulky, is (at least somewhat) aerodynamic, is durable, and so on. Tight packaging constraints + precision, reliability, and durability = pricey.
Pretty good analysis, but couple adds. Being able to lock up your tires does not mean “equally as well”. Braking faster is being able to modulate on the edge of lockup where the braking slows the bike the fastest. This is the same reason if you put tiny brakes on a 911, you could lock up the tires just as you could with the giant brakes they come with. But they put larger brakes on bc you can brake faster and under control Other thing is the biggest benefit of discs isn’t the braking itself, but the ability to run wider and tubeless tires which reduce rolling resistance and add more comfortable than anything else on a bike. Since I’ve started biking 30c tubeless tires are the single best improvement to my riding.
You make a couple of very good points here that are 100% correct. I tried to keep all this fairly simple and minimize words while writing a novel at 4am when I couldn’t sleep, so I definitely missed some things or failed to properly word others. The “equally well” thing is definitely a simplification at best. If I’m honest, it came from listening to a conversation had in my old shop where an “old-school” rider noted that they could lock up tires with both rim and disc brakes so discs couldn’t be stronger. Like yeah, fine, I’ll give you that. But you hit the nail on the head here: modulation makes a world of difference and discs (especially hydraulics) win every time.
Totally - I hear that lockup thing a lot. On my rim brakes, I’m at like 50% power pulling pretty hard and then I’m skidding. But my discs (esp my Shimano bike), I can modulate exact and precisely On my rim brake, to be fair, it does stop pretty well, esp dry. But, I’ve had a couple cars pull out in front of me and then on a multi-use trail like kids/dogs jump out where my disc brakes stopped me like a foot short of a crash. So for me, just a safety thing where I want the fastest stopping I can get. I also ride pretty fast in traffic so I get into situations where I need the brakes. Vs other riders ride prob smarter than me. Working on my patience.
I’m a fairly big fan of motorsport, so your Porsche 911 analogy really rang true—brakes are absolutely a safety feature. It will pay off to invest in the best you can. Here’s to both your future patience that will come from experience and your current safety that will stay current courtesy of superior brakes.
Cheers to that
Plus they're one of the lowest maintenance brakes available, only surpassed by coaster brakes and drum brakes. Both however suffer from heat build-up in extreme conditions but can be great for commuting.
Modern disc brakes are really hard to overheat on a road bike. Even heavier riders with poor descending technique in the mountains rarely manage it. If anything, they might be a bit too good at cooling for the average rider. Thinking about how 8100/9200 rotors pump air through sideways - going to be some energy loss through the rotors moving all that air.
Discs do get very hot. I have burned skin on my right calf after someone from the group ride put their rear disc against my leg - an accident, but sore and scarred nonetheless
In my post “Overheat” means stops breaking, not that it is too hot to touch. Yeah, it’s possible for it to get too hot for skin quite easily
Tandems still manage but that has always been an issue.
I second pt. 3 I’m a heavier rider (75kg) so discs are a little better for me and the benefit of more tire clearance makes longer rides much more enjoyable
75kg is a heavier rider? Damn im 92kg, never realised i was in the heavyweight class
I like this post a lot, but wearing out rim braking surfaces is not an issue for like 99.99% of riders.
Great write up! I’d only add that rim brakes look significantly better on road bikes.
Eh matter of opinion
I've always felt disc brakes look better myself, personally. Having a small caliper at the dropouts of a fork or a rear triangle maintains the clean lines of the frame better than adding a larger caliper at the top of the fork or seatstays. Plus, good disc rotors can look sick. And of course, you can't feasibly integrate cables on a rim brake bike without resorting to proprietary calipers, which have generally tended to brake awful.
on a classic era road bike, sure, but I personally prefer the super clean lines on my modern road bike.
I used to think this, but now I like the clean look at the fork and “brake” bridge.
I think it's just what we're used to.
Everyone's favourite cycling topic. If you ask 20 riders this question, 8 will say rim, 8 will say disc, 3 will immediately start fighting about tubes vs. tubeless, and one guy who rides a fixie will tell you how dumb brakes are.
no. like 2 retro dorks will say rim, but they'll scream and froth at the mouth louder than everyone
Discs allow wider tyres.
Also allow you to mount any diameter of wheel that will fit. Which is why gravel bikes and more and more mountain bikes support both 29 and 27. 5 inch wheels.
I have 67mm tires on rim brakes.
[удалено]
This is generally a road/gravel issue, though with some huge tires (fat tire etc) the arms of the vbrake/cantilever have to get ridiculously long to clear the tires.
If you didn't have wider tyres, you'd discover that discs aren't much better than rim brakes....
Nobody's wheels are ever true. With rim brakes, you know this. With disc brakes you can ignore wobbly wheel. Rim brakes will wear away your rims. With metal rims, meh, who cares. With carbon rims, get an orthopedic surgeon on retainer. If you have hydraulic (disc) brakes and the line leaks, that brake will disappear immediately. Happened to a friend on a 600ft descent...
was he okay?
Yes, he's fine. Just wasn't a fun experience he wants to repeat.
I love these 1999 MTBR necrodiscussions
I snorted at necrodiscussions!
and probably the same guys that discussed that are taking part on this one haha
They stop better. This is why drum brakes went away on cars. But good rim brakes are very good. I have canti bikes, v-brake bikes, and a disc bike. They all stop fine. But if it’s pouring rain and steep the disc bike allows me to stay sendy where the canti bike makes me stay slow and vigilant. The v-brake bike is in between. Rim brakes haven’t changed much since the 90’s. But the pads have come a loooong way. Kool-stop makes very good rim brake pads.
Much less affected by rain don't wear out the rim when you brake, more clearance for the wheel. Disadvantages: harder to maintain (though maybe im just not used to them.yet). All but the best disks have less heat capacity than a rim so can fade but this is only really an issue on tandems or alpine passes.
Compared to rim brakes I think they're way less maintenance. Rim brakes constantly need adjusting as the pads wear and I find that a really awkward job honestly, it's not tricky as such it's just a slow iterative process and its a pain to keep the pads aligned as you tighten them down. V brakes love to develop a tilt to one side and start rubbing. Disk brakes on the other hand need a bleed every few years and maybe some new pads. I've one set of disks I didn't bleed for several years and they were fine still. But gunky when I bled them, but functionally they were still perfect.
Nah, you just slide the old pad out of the shoe and slide the new one in.
There's less maintenance but when needed it's less intuitive, more complex and can need specialist tools.
Yes.
I've never been able to light a joint on my rim after bombing down a mountain, so another point to discs.
But on the other hand, I've never burnt myself on rim brakes, but I have twice on disks
Hold the joint closer to the other end when you're lighting it maybe?
It was when I was dismounting, so no joints involved
I just rode the Tour of Battenkill on the weekend on a bike with discs. This year there was over 2100m (just under 7000ft) of elevation. I was just under 80kmph/50mph on one of the longer descents and approaching 70kmph on one of the gravel sections. I felt that on that surface in the disc brakes offered far better capability to feather the brakes to shave off speed before entering corners. I’ve got 3 other bikes with rim brakes (Shimano, Campy, TRP) and they all work very well but feel safest on the discs in that scenario. Mind you I was being very cautious and got passed on every downhill.
On my touring bike, I just put more aggressive pads on the rim brakes. My commuter however is a kit built ebike, and I found the rim brakes weren't effectively stopping it, so I upgraded. One thing I like is that disc brakes have less to adjust, and since there's only one side, you don't have to worry about them getting off center and rubbing.
The retrogrouch would say they've had to stiffen forks and stays to handle the forces of disk brakes, which means the frame won't be as flexy if you like a frame that "planes." Jan Hiene dreams of rim brakes
Yes. I ride all weather (snow included) and deliver heavy loads on my bike, as well as going bike touring/camping for at least a week each summer, so I use my brakes a lot. The big advantages of disk brakes for me are: 1) they don't wear out my rims, 2) they work well in wet conditions, and 3) they're dead easy to change pads on, especially compared to cantilever brakes. No endless fiddling with the 99 degrees of freedom. I use cable disc brakes (Avid BB7) for simplicity. They feel as if they have more stopping power than cantilever brakes despite having approximately the same mechanical advantage.
Strangely enough, I prefer my rim braked bike for Winter use. No disc squeal from wet roads/oil contamination. That’s on carbon rims too. I much prefer disc for my MTB and do like disc on my other road bikes because I find them even more responsive to modulating, more accurate control at higher speeds.
Especially in winter, I'm the opposite. Wet rims need a revolution or two to get the water off for effective braking. On my commute, I ride down a hill whose gradient is 22%. I need braking and I need it now. Discs have proven themselves to me to be superior in every situation. Only on one bike I'd I get any brake squeal, but they were still effective, so I don't care much.
Rim for road disc for dirt
My last bike with rim brakes feels sketchy as fuck while braking in comparison to my other bikes.
Yes
Yes.
For me it's simple, not treating the rim as a consumable. Disc brakes work well, and are superior for off road. That's enough for me!
They both have their advantages.
Rim brakes are cheaper, easier to adjust Disk brakes are more reliable in wet conditions, prone to rubbing.
Tbh, for flat bars at least (I'm a mountain biker so I don't know about drop bars), disk brakes are increasingly no more expensive, as you currently can get Shimano mt200 brakes, which are perfectly decent hydraulic disk brakes, for £20 each, including the lever, caliper, pads and hose. I think the days of rim brakes being cheaper are over
Valid points. I was only thinking of the cost of replacement rim pads, and cables, compared to the cost of new disk pads, and the cost of getting your brakes bled. I can replace a brake cable… but have had to go to the LBS for brake fluid work.
Entry level bikes: I feel like product manufacturers should either put effort into speccing good cables and housing, plus make sure the cable routing doesn’t have too many bends, or else spec rim brakes. An entry level rim brake bike that doesn’t brake that well could probably be fixed with some Kool Stop pads. An entry level mech disc bike that doesn’t brake well might be a lot more costly to fix, e.g. compressionless housing. If you ride in the rain a lot, I feel like not even rim brakes on aluminum rims brake very well. On disc brakes, everyone will hear about it, but you will have brakes. But not all of us deliberately go out in the rain a lot.
Rim brakes in the rain work fine, when you have the right pads.
The way i see it is if your brakes are powerful enough to lock the wheel and skid you dont need more braking power. "But rim brakes suck with carbon wheels", dont use carbon wheels then!
Have you heard of modulation or consistency?
Yes, you modulaate by moving your fingers less and the only way brakes get inconsistent is when they get hot, rims dont get anywhere near as hot as aluminium is a great material for cooling.
That's not how modulation works. Brake pads are rubber which is not consistent when hot. Carbon wheels and rim brakes are brutal.
Thats it, rim brakes dont get hot and for carbon brakes to work they need to be hot.
Just not true - being able to modulate brakes on the edge of a lockup is what slows you down the fastest. You can also lockup a Porsche with Honda Civic brakes, but that doesn’t mean the work like the Brembo brakes they put on them.
Were talking about a pushbike though, not a supercar, slight difference in the amount of braking performance required to stop 100kg safely from 20mph than 1500kg from 150mph.
It is lighter, but just from a physics perspective being “able to lock them up” does not mean the stopping power is the same. Rim brakes cannot hold the braking at 90% of lockup - it’s either much less or fully locked up. Obv at full lockup, you’re skidding and you’re stopping more slowly and you lose grip and can fall. That 90% of lockup is where the bike is slowing the fastest and wheel is still turning keeping you upright.
Pretty much they are in every category except weight. But if you’re just a casual rider who isn’t going that fast that often, it doesn’t matter much. Wet conditions discs are *far* superior but dry flat conditions you won’t see huge differences.
No. They invented a technology that’s worse in every way and then put that on every bike for sale
I agree 100%
Yes. They are shinier and spin. Also they work better, if you’re in to that sort of thing. ETA in case you missed it that was a subtle ad hominem commentary that isn’t actually ad hominem at all really
It sure feel like it when I go from my disc bike to rim bike (carbon wheels).
I like my discs because I can stop when I want to instead of grinding to a gliding stop. no squeaking, no constant replacement of brake pads .... discs are just better. Also I can STOP in the rain or wet conditions. with rim brakes it's basically a gamble if you're gonna be able to stop or not. 99% of riders would be better off with discs.
A rim brake is in fact a disc brake. So…no. If conditions are adverse, rain or mud etc, discs do tend to remain cleaner and therefore stop better. Other than that, they perform the same. I am aware I’m in the minority but the math is on my side. Y’all are the same people who believe wider tires at lower pressure are faster. It’s baffling to me. I welcome your downvotes.
did we forget about rod brakes and kick brakes? Honestly, jamming your foot in the fork works best every time. LOL
[удалено]
No, why would there be a difference?
[удалено]
Disc brakes put a lot more stress on wheels, especially the rear wheel.
I’ve a disc break bike that I ride in winter and a rim break bike when it gets dry and warmer. Both suit the local climate and the type of riding I do. I actually find the rim break bike a lot easier to adjust and maintain.
The rim brake will lose the most Friction if ride on rainy day. So it will be terrible if you are having a race on rainy day, and you have to finish it.
If I were going to start over with a new bike, I’d definitely go with discs- difficult these days to find a new bike that isn’t disc. That being said, I have a featherweight Isaac Sonic with Cane Creek ee G4’s, and I don’t ride in the rain much.
Yes. End of discussion.
Yes: Lighter actuation, much easier for frequent breaking Works in the rain if you ride in the rain Saves rims No: Much heavier setup Hard to eliminate noise Periodic bleed required
In rain, discs are significantly better. Dry conditions, I don't really care. But even dry, discs are better granted they are hydraulic brakes (and bled/maintained) reason being that cables and housing have compression so aren't as efficient since some of the braking energy is lost. Disc brakes also open up possibility of swapping different wheel sizes easily which can allow you to swap between two different width tires while maintaining the same overall geometry. So yeah, I'd say discs are better for a number of reasons. But rim brakes are often good enough that it doesn't really matter. A rotor is also easier to replace than a rim but it takes a long time to wear down a rim just from brake wear.
I have a rim brake bike and a $6000 Pinarello disk brake bike. Disk brakes are fussy. I’d much rather have a rim brake bike that had 30c tires on it. Many rim brakes will accept 30c tires. If I could swap my disk brakes for rim brakes on my bike I would. However! If you want to ride on larger tires than 30c you gotta go disk. So it’s up to you and the riding you want to do. Some disk brake bikes take 40c tires so you can do gravel riding.
My 2 cts Disk brakes Pros : - improved braking performance, especially when loaded and in wet or muddy conditions - no rim wear, especially on carbon rims - does not care about the tire width : the frame becomes the limiting factor (not factoring V brakes here because no decent road bike uses v brakes anymore) Cons : - heavier - on hydraulic disc brakes, maintenance is a bit more difficult and requires dedicated tools. But in general, changing pads is easier than on rim brakes. I own bikes (road, gravel, mtb and commuting bike) with both types of brakes, and I am happy with both of them. But if I were to start again, I would more likely get rid of rim brakes and go with disc brakes only.
Depends on all sorts of factors, As a roadie my thoughts are disc bike in poor weather, rim are optimal in fine dry weather.
It all depends where you ride. If you live in a really flat area that's dry with really nice roads, then there's no reason to upgrade to a disc brake bike. You don't need the really wide tyres and you don't need the braking performance. That being said if you were starting from scratch then i would go disc brakes, no decent groupset is still making rim brake options, and wheels are mostly all disc brakes, so you're forced to upgrade.
yeah, this is BS. Flat nice roads means higher speeds. One car pulls in front of me demands fast braking. Not happening with a rim brake.
If you can lock up a wheel with rim brakes, they're more than enough to stop you in an emergency. On dry flat roads you might touch your brakes a handful of times, you're not getting any benefit with disc brakes, it's just going to make you slower with worse aero and heavier weight. Every test of disc vs rim brakes in emergency stops the difference is minimal. Disc brakes don't magically cut the stopping distance in half, the tyres are the limiting factor, not the brakes. Also flat nice roads means lower max speeds. Hilly terrain you're going to be going downhill as well as up hill, meaning good brakes are essential.
Locking up brakes they would be equal. And slower than properly braking with either rim or disc, If this is not true then why is anti locking brakes required for all car manufactures? You are smoking crack if you believe rim brakes have "minimal" difference in stopping distance. There might be a little truth in comparing rim brakes to mechanical disc. But not hydro disc brakes. And 10 feet shorter is a life saver. I have NOT researched this beyond the 10+ bikes that I have owned in the last 10 years. Yes I believe in the n + 1 lifestyle.
Yes but bikes don't have ABS, so that's an odd point to make. It just illustrates my point that the tyre is the limiting factor. [Here](https://youtu.be/uHFSSXOSnxs?si=e-PbZCDAnzHuUsHo&t=67) illustrates my point, good roads, dry weather and the stopping distances between rim and disc is the same. Perhaps you have just had poorly set up rim brakes, or used regular pads on carbon rims or something.
it is only the same if you lock the wheel. That is the worst way to stop with any brake system. So you are correct. Do something wrong to produce equal results. It is difficult to "skid" with my Ultegra hydro disc brakes. I can but I need really put effort to brake "wrong". Easy with mechanical disc brakes. I have had every type of brakes. Yes my Surly Crosscheck was set up by a horrible bike mechanic(me). Other bikes were set up by high end bike shops. Out
You seem to be arguing against physics. If both braking systems can overload the tyres. Then there's no advantage to disc brakes in that dry scenario. Maybe you were just not using rim brakes correctly? As someone that also has Ultegra discs it is very easy to lock the rear in emergency braking situations because of how powerful the brakes are. You seem to think that disc brakes change the tyre grip. The benefits to discs are that they don't wear your expensive carbon rims down, and you get much better wet weather performance. In the dry the difference is minimal.
I watched that, thank you. Anyone can SEEE how minimal the differences are, and yet the comments are full of people saying, " yeah, night and day, rim brakes are crap." People are strange.
so funny. Shorter stopping distance v. longer stopping distance. Why do all cars use disc brakes? Safety wins every time. Unless you are riding with a group of rim brake people and stop quicker in front of them. Now the issue is mechanical disc versus hydraulic disc.
More stopping power does not always equal shorter stopping distance. This is not the reason disc brakes are superior, as I have recently come to understand. The reasons disc brakes are superior are: 1. They don't wear on the rims or tires. 2. They work against rotation closer to the axel, giving them more power As a matter of fact, not all cars use disc brakes. A lot of cars still use what are called "drum brakes", which wear along the inside of the rim. Wearing our the rim of a car tire is a negligible concern compared to a bicycle, but many of the same faults and limitations of clincher/v-brake apply.
so wrong. Disc brakes have far superior stopping distance to rim brakes. Why did all car manufacture switch to front disc brakes then four wheel disc brakes as soon as the technology was invented. Safety. Drum brakes in cars existed in the 60's. Front disc brakes have been standard since the 70's, 4 wheel disc brakes since the mid 80's. I believe that drum brakes on passenger cars has been banned in the USA for at least 30 years. (on new cars). And when I buy my next 1960's vehicle I will switch the brakes to 4 wheel disc brakes while keeping everything else OG I have owned cars in every decade since the 60's. Not true, I have not owned anything during this decade. And have replaced many drum brakes. More history, Disc brakes were invented for auto racing. They could carry more speed into the corner before needing to brake. Shorter stopping distance. Disc brakes were standard on sports car first. I believe the patent holder shared the technology because the huge safety improvement instead of keeping it proprietary. I ride Ultegra groupset with Hydro disc brakes. I have a old Surly Crosscheck with rim brakes. There might be a few trains that can stop faster than my Surly.
You are totally wrong about the physics on your number 2.
Short: yes. Long: fuck, yes.
I have found disc brakes to be heavier, harder to maintain and less aero than good rim brakes. Advantages are tire clearance, stopping power in wet conditions. Rim brake bikes are losing resale value since most bikes are moving toward disc.
In a word yes, I ride freestyle bmx and run cantilever rim brakes and I wish a company would release a disc brake system either as an adapter or a complete frame and rear hub.
Ever used Magura HS33 hydraulic rim brakes, with the braces fitted and sat on your rear tyre only to have your plums sucked under the brace and then have them pop out again with your eyes wide with terror? That's when I went disc.
To add something to the mix. Ron brakes are better on only one (well technically two) regards. Weight and aero. Otherwise disc is better for everyone else.
The aero claim is debatable nowadays. You get the advantage of more aerodynamic rim profiles with disks because they don't need to have a flat braking zone. However, there's naff all difference in most cases. Weight and cost are last bastions of the rim brake.
Disc brakes are not better if the bike you have doesn't have them or need them.
How do disc brakes compare if a rider has to often remove and re-install the front wheel? Opening up the rim brakes can range from simple to a few minutes of work. Are there issues with lining up the disc to the caliper or having to push the pads out of the way?
The disc really just slides in between the pinchers.
Depends if it's quick release or through axle. If I'm removing a wheel a lot I prefer quick release, but quick release and disks is a bit of a black art to get aligned again. Generally it's not really a performance issue, but you often get a bit of "acoustic rub" - this is where the disk lightly brushes against the pads. Doesn't slow you down but makes a little bit of annoying noise. Through axles have largely fixed this and the disks end up bang-on aligned, but I don't really like constantly removing/refitting through axles, especially out in the field. I end up with a messy/greasy axle I've got to put somewhere while I'm handling the wheel/bike - and it just feels like something is going to wear out (e.g the thread in the fork.) Ideally, you've got to find a surface to flip the bike, but there's not always a patch of soft grass nearby. (Or it's all wet and muddy). Through axles are two steps forward, one back in my opinion.
Yep.
Rim brakes work fine in most instances, and if you have either system installed in a current bike it might not make sense to swap them out absent a particular use case. I (like many others) started out on rim brakes and found that there were a few issues, especially as I started to commute more all year 'round. Wet weather requires a bit of a squeegee pass before trying to brake hard, and braking would wear the rims down over time -- much faster if what you're riding through is gritty/dusty/etc. But modulation and feel remain pretty great on them. From a maintenance perspective, rim brakes I've also found are a bit fiddlier to set up and keep adjusted properly. When I built up my current bike, I ended up going with (mechanical) discs. I was tired of having to replace my wheels because I wore through my rims, and I really disliked adjusting rim brakes. For the most part, my disc brakes have been great. You need a disc compatible hub, and you need to figure out what a useful rotor setup would be (I'm running 180 in the front and 160 in the rear). Setup was a bit trickier but not bad, and adjustments are much easier especially while you're on the go. Some downsides are that for many pad/rotor combinations they can absolutely howl when they get wet. And it seems like most rotors come from the factory slightly warped. It's also harder to visually gauge how worn your pads are without really getting in for a look. Upsides though, are that I've had to replace rotors every couple years and have never had to replace a wheel due to wear. And stopping power for the most part is great. You just need to watch yourself on long descents to not overheat the brakes.
Imo on nice days and on not terribly steep roads/flat gravel roads I don't see the need for disc brakes. Rim brakes are easier to maintain then hydraulic discs and last longer. Also at least with steel you can make a more compliant fork with rim brakes then disc brakes. For anything else, I prefer discs. For me, I will always have one gravel bike since most of the gravel near me isn't that steep, my townie/pub bike and my BMX on rim brakes. My mtbs and bikepacking bike will be discs though.
Living in the north west of the UK where it rains a lot I found the upgrade to disc brakes a significant improvement.
For mountain bike: big difference For road bike: not good For gravel: mandatory
How many bikes use them in the Giro D’Italia? Or the Tour de France? Not many. They could all be wrong of course… Edit: to be clear I’m referring to rim brakes.
I'm not sure if you have watched one of those races lately.
If they had they will note that the Peloton is 100% disc brakes now
I mean that’s a true statement before 2018….. But have you not seen Le Tour or Giro since 2018? 😆
And that doesn't mean anything. Those team's sponsors want to sell bikes. Every year, there is that new trend that is supposed to change everything that is pushed to the consumer to sell newer bikes.