What do you think of Shimano ditching rim brakes in 105 and higher?
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Guinessisgoodforyou
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Do I have time to put the kettle on?
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I'm more worried about the humble 9mm dropout. I've already had to get nasty with stuck alloy bolt through quick releases that have bonded to forks and rounded off nicely
Discs for the bicycle have been around for nearly 50 years, I'm surprised they didn't catch on sooner but the absolute simplicity of the rim brake, will it prevail? I don't know.
The absurd complexity of changing a modern headset bearing requires disconnecting the brakes and then bleeding once you've got your internal cables routed (wireless gearing is king here). A short job made long by the industry and for what purpose? Again clueless
Discs for the road allegedly came about due to inconsistent brake compounds for carbon rims but for the average rider. But then that same rider watches videos and the Internet saying that discs and internal cable routing etc etc are the must haves to obtain cycling nervana or to at least share 0.000000376 seconds off a strava segment
What is seen as the industry poking its nose in then becomes mainstream leaving our 'normal' as outside, old and unfashionable
Elements of the cycling fraternity say ShimaNO for a reason
Discs for the bicycle have been around for nearly 50 years, I'm surprised they didn't catch on sooner but the absolute simplicity of the rim brake, will it prevail? I don't know.
The absurd complexity of changing a modern headset bearing requires disconnecting the brakes and then bleeding once you've got your internal cables routed (wireless gearing is king here). A short job made long by the industry and for what purpose? Again clueless
Discs for the road allegedly came about due to inconsistent brake compounds for carbon rims but for the average rider. But then that same rider watches videos and the Internet saying that discs and internal cable routing etc etc are the must haves to obtain cycling nervana or to at least share 0.000000376 seconds off a strava segment
What is seen as the industry poking its nose in then becomes mainstream leaving our 'normal' as outside, old and unfashionable
Elements of the cycling fraternity say ShimaNO for a reason
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jim haseltine
Senior Retro Guru
I've been able to ride a bike for over 60 years now, and spent quite a while working in both manufacture and retail in the industry. I've seen things come and go - some have been well-needed whilst others have been solutions looking for problems. In most cases, it's horses for courses - for some disciplines disc brakes are ideal, for others rim brakes are better, similar with tubed tyres and tubeless - none of them are all things to all men.
From my own point of view, I've yet to understand why threadless headsets caught on - 2 of my bikes have them but I much prefer the threaded one on my other bike (and the quill stem too).
At the most basic level, a push bike is possibly the most simple machine we use, along the same sort of level of complexity as using a piece of chalk to write but that's not good enough for some people, they have to make it as complex as they possibly can - not helped by things like national safety regulations which mandate dropout tabs because some people are too thick to understand how to correctly fasten a quick release lever.
Then you get proprietary and non-universal parts. Even just a few years ago (well, decades perhaps) if you needed a part for a bike you could walk into a bike shop (or even some hardware stores) and chances were you could buy a part that fitted the bike.
And the same part would fit your neighbour's bike and most, if not all the bikes in your street.
OK, there were things like Raleigh bikes used 26tpi threads while other UK bikes used 24tpi and there were some weird fittings for some continental bikes, but mostly the stuff was universal. If you broke your super lightweight rear gear changer on a Sunday morning before a race you could go into Halfords (which even before Sunday trading could open because it sold bike parts), buy a cheap gear change, fit it, adjust it and race. OK, maybe it wouldn't change as well as the broken one used to and probably didn't look that great, but it fitted and did the job.
Not now - oh no, the level of proprietary fittings is now such that shops simply can't hold the parts available. It's like going to a main dealer for a car part, you have to wait until an order is fulfilled. Which has a lead time - if you're lucky it'll be days but if not, it's months.
In my parent's garage there are 6 (or maybe 7) bikes which haven't been ridden in over 20 years, probably nearer 30. I could go there this afternoon, pump up the tyres and if the tubes held air, ride each one of them and the brakes would work. From my experiences with cars - especially classic cars - if they had hydraulic disc brakes the chances are that the brakes either wouldn't work at all or would blow their seals at first activation.
From my own point of view, I've yet to understand why threadless headsets caught on - 2 of my bikes have them but I much prefer the threaded one on my other bike (and the quill stem too).
At the most basic level, a push bike is possibly the most simple machine we use, along the same sort of level of complexity as using a piece of chalk to write but that's not good enough for some people, they have to make it as complex as they possibly can - not helped by things like national safety regulations which mandate dropout tabs because some people are too thick to understand how to correctly fasten a quick release lever.
Then you get proprietary and non-universal parts. Even just a few years ago (well, decades perhaps) if you needed a part for a bike you could walk into a bike shop (or even some hardware stores) and chances were you could buy a part that fitted the bike.
And the same part would fit your neighbour's bike and most, if not all the bikes in your street.
OK, there were things like Raleigh bikes used 26tpi threads while other UK bikes used 24tpi and there were some weird fittings for some continental bikes, but mostly the stuff was universal. If you broke your super lightweight rear gear changer on a Sunday morning before a race you could go into Halfords (which even before Sunday trading could open because it sold bike parts), buy a cheap gear change, fit it, adjust it and race. OK, maybe it wouldn't change as well as the broken one used to and probably didn't look that great, but it fitted and did the job.
Not now - oh no, the level of proprietary fittings is now such that shops simply can't hold the parts available. It's like going to a main dealer for a car part, you have to wait until an order is fulfilled. Which has a lead time - if you're lucky it'll be days but if not, it's months.
In my parent's garage there are 6 (or maybe 7) bikes which haven't been ridden in over 20 years, probably nearer 30. I could go there this afternoon, pump up the tyres and if the tubes held air, ride each one of them and the brakes would work. From my experiences with cars - especially classic cars - if they had hydraulic disc brakes the chances are that the brakes either wouldn't work at all or would blow their seals at first activation.
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Although it is an entirely different kettle of squirrels, drum brakes are still on new cars
And sticking with the car thing, you really do have to wait for parts from the main dealer as many are on back order, they don't exist
And sticking with the car thing, you really do have to wait for parts from the main dealer as many are on back order, they don't exist
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Yep, have not noticed a problem with my Fox 36 or RS Pike equipped bikes but since getting my XC Cube with skinny 32mm Reba's I'm noticing some rub when putting down the power. Never paid much attention to discussions around fork flex but going from 36mm enduro big boy forks to the spindly XC forks has really made a noticeable difference.
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I'd be interested to know in which situations rim brakes are better than disc? Certainly performance wise? Same for tubes tbh. Can't think of any reason to go back to tubes from my experiences.
That's a little bit rose tinted imo. How many different size seat posts were there bitd, how many headset sizes, chain rings, bottom braket lengths, etc, etc. Was as much an issue back then as it is now from what I can see.
I’ve gone back to tubes on the road now. I’m not convinced that high pressures and tubeless is a good idea/ works.
By the time the cut has sealed you’ve dropped half your psi as they are small volume. Then you risk damaging the expensive carbon rim. I didn’t have one puncture last year on the road in 4K miles so tubes it is ( on a disc , di2 , fully integrated cable bike). I like technology and development but happy to go back if something doesn’t work as well.
For the gravel and mtb they remain tubeless as it’s worth it.
By the time the cut has sealed you’ve dropped half your psi as they are small volume. Then you risk damaging the expensive carbon rim. I didn’t have one puncture last year on the road in 4K miles so tubes it is ( on a disc , di2 , fully integrated cable bike). I like technology and development but happy to go back if something doesn’t work as well.
For the gravel and mtb they remain tubeless as it’s worth it.
