61–70 of 93 posts
I like my titanium road bike with rim brakes, I really do. But 700x28 is really the maximum tire size you can possibly fit with rim brakes. With tires trending wider - and for good reason - rim brakes are really getting left out. More often than not, I ride my gravel bike with 700x38 simply because it's a cushier ride. Good rim brakes (cantilever need not apply) can't handle a tire that size.
I like my titanium road bike with rim brakes, I really do. But 700x28 is really the maximum tire size you can possibly fit with rim brakes. With tires trending wider - and for good reason - rim brakes are really getting left out. More often than not, I ride my gravel bike with 700x38 simply because it's a cushier ride. Good rim brakes (cantilever need not apply) can't handle a tire that size.
> But 700x28 is really the maximum tire size you can possibly fit with rim brakes This is patently false. Mountain bikes have been running tires over twice as wide on rim brakes for decades. I had one growing up in the 90s. Perhaps you mean caliper brakes? Even if so, I currently run 700x28c on my 10yo racing bike, I don't think I'd have any trouble going up a size or two.
Other rim brake assembly types can fit more, but those are even less common on modern road groupsets.
If you're not an avid cyclist please take this article with a grain of salt. It's largely understood that disc brakes are better, full stop. A few guys in my cycling group who are still on rim brakes will not take the really fun descents, even when it's completely dry. They don't trust them. Pad fade, overheating brake surfaces causing de-lamination and popping inner tubes. So, sure, if all you're ever going to do is…
Interesting you prefer hydraulic specifically, even the disc brake zealots mostly agree mechanical is more reliable and easier to maintain.
Sure if you get a leak on trail you're screwed, but that has happened to one bike one time in my riding group over the last 10+ years. I will be happy to have a cable-free bike someday.
Was wondering how riders like pros in Tour de France stop before disc brakes were available
A better thought is: since disc brakes were made legal 5 years ago, how many teams remained on rim brakes? the answer is almost none.
And this doesn't get into things that matter for normal riding like the fact your rims don't need replacing from wear, they aren't impacted by wet weather, the better modulation, etc.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting you prefer hydraulic specifically, even the disc brake zealots mostly agree mechanical is more reliable and easier to maintain.
I'm with the op, once you get used to servicing hydraulic I find them easier in many regards and require less frequent adjusting. Sure if you get a leak on trail you're screwed, but that has happened to one bike one time in my riding group over the last 10+ years. I will be happy to have a cable-free bike someday.
In my experience with over 40,000km on Shimano hydraulics, the only servicing is swapping pads when the pad wear spring starts screeching against the rotor.
My early 2000 era Magura hyrdros were a bit shit and required a lot of maintenance and issues with sticking callipers, but shimanos made in the last 15 years are pretty much perfected and maintenance free.
Biking for 40+ years from around the neighborhood to centuries, and do maintenance except cost-prohibitive procedures. I have road and mountain bikes with rim brakes (grew up with them), disc brakes, and a 4kW scooter with disc brakes and regenerative braking. Disc brakes are high maintenance: oil (leaks and water content), pads, and springs. Rim brakes are more-or-less maintenance-free except cleaning the rims maybe…
Wow your rim brakes don't use pads?
I've found disc brakes to be so much less hassle than rim brakes - you just remove the retaining pin, spread the pads, take out old pads, drop in new pads, re-insert retaining pin, pump the lever a few times, done.
All in all its a few minute job and less time consuming than swapping rim pads and adjusting toe in. Riding in wet conditions with sintered disc pads results in less frequent pad change than with rim brakes.
And its certainly much less time consuming than re-lacing a wheel like I used to do once the rim was worn through from rim brakes.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They stopped just fine, but their stopping distance was twice as far, and more like 3x in the rain
The limiting factor with a road bike is the tires, not the brakes. It's super easy to lock up a wheel with rim brakes.
Yes, that's one of the benefits of disc brakes, the "better modulation" you hear about equates to finer control and not locking up the brakes.
If you're not an avid cyclist please take this article with a grain of salt. It's largely understood that disc brakes are better, full stop. A few guys in my cycling group who are still on rim brakes will not take the really fun descents, even when it's completely dry. They don't trust them. Pad fade, overheating brake surfaces causing de-lamination and popping inner tubes. So, sure, if all you're ever going to do is…
Interesting you prefer hydraulic specifically, even the disc brake zealots mostly agree mechanical is more reliable and easier to maintain.
Yes, an hydraulic disc brake system is (still) more expensive than a set of rim brakes, and I guess the difference is bigger for road bicycle ones.
But disk bike pads now are in many cases even cheaper than rim brake pads - and they can last longer.
In my use case, disc brakes are way less prone to dis-alignment compared to rim brakes - and hence less prone to unnecessary wear and reduction of the cyclist's performance. And conversely, disc brakes won't be affected if the rim is not completely true for whatever reason.
And - most importantly - disc brakes don't wear the rim at all but an inexpensive rotor that lasts much longer in comparison. In my case, having to replace both rims on my commuter each 3 years or so was no joke - the first time I ignored the serious wear they had until they comically bent a bit when going over a dirty road - and fortunately nothing happened to me, as there have been cases when they make people crash due to their sudden breakage.