New bike - would you choose disc or rim brake ?

[eri]

Would disc rims be lighter than those with an unnecessary heavy disposable brake track to be worn away? A disc rim only has to support the tyre but lots of extra erodable metal is included on a brake track. Just wondering if the extra weight is more static rather than than revolving mass? Personally I wouldn't go back to rim brakes on a roadie unless it was for a cheap winter hack.

At the lunatic fringe the brake track seems to add about 60g per carbon rim. Yes it is weight in the place that most increases rotational inertia but that just hurts acceleration. The overall extra weight of disc system is more than 400g, which is more than rim tracks for two wheels x whatever magic rotational inertia benefit coefficient is fashionable today.

 

[fettler]

At the lunatic fringe the brake track seems to add about 60g per carbon rim. Yes it is weight in the place that most increases rotational inertia but that just hurts acceleration. The overall extra weight of disc system is more than 400g, which is more than rim tracks for two wheels x whatever magic rotational inertia benefit coefficient is fashionable today.

I am a lunatic and I also ride like one on occasion. I find the most most fashionable way of riding is to stay on one side of a dry stone wall. My current 2022 road bike is now over 3lb heavier than my last bike (rim braked - 2014), but faster every day for me. Pottering about on the flats and average hills then most brakes are fine. Pushing high speeds down steep descents I have often found the limit of rim brakes. Only once did I feel fade with road discs but my front disc remained blue coloured afterwards. 100kg/16stone rider.

Looking to new road groupsets then caliper brakes are becoming more limited in availability. Expensive wheels will grind away or with full carbon wheels, brake tracks will often blister and become unusable.

Back to Keith's 'Pick 2', I'd like to put forward;

Be slim
Ride slower
No steep hills
Keep buying expensive disposable wheels

I still ride lots of rim braked bikes, mainly for nostalgia but then my mum was always happy with her drum braked Morris Minor too.

 

[Nevilleblaze]

Definitely disc of rim in my opinion.

 

[wynne]

I am a lunatic and I also ride like one on occasion. I find the most most fashionable way of riding is to stay on one side of a dry stone wall. My current 2022 road bike is now over 3lb heavier than my last bike (rim braked - 2014), but faster every day for me. Pottering about on the flats and average hills then most brakes are fine. Pushing high speeds down steep descents I have often found the limit of rim brakes. Only once did I feel fade with road discs but my front disc remained blue coloured afterwards. 100kg/16stone rider.

Looking to new road groupsets then caliper brakes are becoming more limited in availability. Expensive wheels will grind away or with full carbon wheels, brake tracks will often blister and become unusable.

Back to Keith's 'Pick 2', I'd like to put forward;

Be slim
Ride slower
No steep hills
Keep buying expensive disposable wheels

I still ride lots of rim braked bikes, mainly for nostalgia but then my mum was always happy with her drum braked Morris Minor too.

I agree with a lot of what you're saying. I am not in a position to confirm or deny whether you are a lunatic.

I still like trying to ride my bike as fast as i can. One side point to this discussion is about how a bike feels. I can ride the same route on different bikes - old (35years) and modern (2023) and come back thinking "wow, that felt fast". It's normally the older bike that feels that way, but the stats show it's almost always the modern bike that is (often considerably) faster. I guess it's a combination of geometry, compliance, braking etc.

 

[jim haseltine]

Currently all my bikes are metal-based (with a few bits of carbon) and have rim brakes. Despite having a pair of brand new Super Record rim calipers sitting on a shelf I suspect that I'll be keeping them for another classic build and going for discs on my next new (as in brand new, super-duper, three-flavoured, high-tech modern) road bike. It'll most likely have a carbon frame, a 4-arm crankset too (a personal OCD trigger for me) and due to lack of availability won't have Campag ProFit pedals.
The above is, of course, predicated on the requiste permission being granted by She Who Must Be Obeyed.
Or finding somewhere secure to hide it.

 

[legrandefromage]

Just keep this little nugget of information tucked away somewhere when thinking about things.

Carbon fibre rims

Their introduction caused headaches due to the compounds required for the pads

Disc brakes on road bikes was the cheapest solution allowing manufacturers to let the marketing folk loose

I've heard this from a number of independent sources from frame builders to sales reps to spanner monkeys. Whether it's true or not, I don't know and I don't care anymore. It's not my fight as it will be very unlikely that I will be buying a new bike.

Shock and horror, I'm happy with what I've got

And for the Internet age goldfish memory spans out there, hydraulic and cable disc brakes have been available for road bikes for almost 50 years.

I've been using Hope since 1995 but noticed when spannering in the trade that brakes had become very cheap, with awful pistons, fragile levers and were difficult to service/ repair

Incidentally, the last generation of low pro cantilevers were just awful, offering the bare minimum of braking when compared to older models and designs

If anybody actually organises a retrobike meet up, I can bring along a pretty standard shimano cantilever setup that will have you questioning everything in this thread and more about brakes and bicycles

 

[4th in the devil]

I was anti-disc brakes for a long time. My rim brake bike worked (Dura-Ace 9000 Di2) really well and I couldn't see why discs would be any faster, they weighed more and the experience I had on a winter bike was that they rubbed and squealed all the time. However, time and technology moves on. My new bike for this year has Ultegra 12 speed with discs and they work so well. No rubbing or squealing and they do allow you to brake later and harder before tight corners. Plus the bonus of consistent braking on carbon rims even in the wet. Its annoying that the pads wear our quicker than rim pads do and cost twice as much but this is a small price to pay. I've since replaced the callipers on my winter bike (turns out the old ones were seeping fluid and contaminating the pads - my faulty for buying second hand on ebay) and the experience is much improved there too.

I still love riding my rim braked bikes but if you are buying new there is only one way to go and that is discs.

 

[legrandefromage]

Rollercam is the only true way...

 

[minor_LEGEND]

Rim brake is my preference. Simplicity.

My commuter/winter road bike has cable discs (garbage) which I am currently upgrading to hydro, which is fast becoming expensive & unnecessarily complex. Bike brands & component manufacturers have managed to make everyone's (not so) old bikes defunct within the last 5 years. Unforgivable.

 

[CTK]

If I was buying a new bike or getting a custom frame made I would 100% get disc brakes. As is I am more than happy with my rim brakes on my road bike and am not looking to change.