@mhoye@tk@cycling@mastobikes
I came up riding tandems with sketchy canti brakes in hills, and- it was ok? We adjusted our riding to braking power.
On a road bike, I’ve never felt I needed discs. And I rode canti’s on mtbs all through the 80’s/90’s and into the early 00’s. They were fine. Until you were riding DH courses.
Are discs better? Sure. Good hydro discs have immense amounts of power. Were rim brakes enough? Yeah. Most of the time. #BikeTooter
@v_perjorative@tk@cycling@mastobikes To be clear- I’m not saying discs are bad or whatever. I’m saying that most of the time, for many, many people, they’re overkill.
Some people seem to feel that discs are necessary for a bike to be safe; that is very rarely the actual case. #BikeTooter
Adjusting the cantis I found that there's such a thing as too much and too little mechanical advantage. And in between, there's a sweet spot. Discs apparently have much more mechanical advantage, at the cost of having a tiny range of travel of the pads. Which makes them tricky to adjust, in their own way. >
The only benefit of disc brakes for the average rider, is the ease of adding fatter tires onto road bikes. That’s it. But a redesign of mechanical brakes also would have worked fine for road bikes and been hella easier to maintain.
Conventional brakes are surprisingly effective when paired with fresh, quality pads that are properly installed.
@nothingfuture@mhoye@tk@cycling@mastobikes What limits me eg from going faster on descents is not a lack of braking power but hesitating to put myself in situations where I'd have to brake hard. How I'm sitting on the bike & how much I'm at one with steering it and finding the right line has more potential for improvement, I think.
If it was really long descents or really really long rides, I guess discs would make it easier on my hands. <>
@LabSpokane@nothingfuture@v_perjorative@cycling@mastobikes Has anyone done (relatively empirical) tests for stopping distance? I was fine with my rim brakes, until I had a car pull out right in front of me when I was descending (but not breaking the speed limit; daytime but with lights on and a bright jersey), and I did not have as much braking power as I wanted. I’ve been considering an upgrade to disc brakes ever since.
@hughtaylorscifi@LabSpokane@v_perjorative@cycling@mastobikes Stopping distance is primarily determined by the friction between the tires and the ground (assuming the brakes are capable of producing enough power to lock up a wheel). Beyond that, rider skill at applying maximum braking force to the front wheel determines minimum stopping distance.
Learning how to stop as quickly as possible is a learned skill. #BikeTooter
I have both types on road bikes, and there is a definite improvement in stopping distance, which can be a selling point for faster riders in cluttered areas. I haven’t quantified it nor have I seen studies, but surely someone has done them.
I highly recommend trying out Swissstop BXP blue brake pads. They are night and day better than a standard pad for far less than the cost of a new scooter.
Won’t argue that a bit. But … discs require less hand force on the brakes and are much easier to stop quickly in a panic situation.
And I say this as a rim brake advocate. I have both types and appreciate them both for different reasons.
And I agree that for the average recreational rider on flat ground, disc brakes are mostly unnecessary and a rim brake would actually be better from an all-in utility standpoint.
@LabSpokane@hughtaylorscifi@v_perjorative@cycling@mastobikes maybe, but it’s almost certainly an effect of rider modulation of those braking systems (and not a result of the power of those braking systems). Unless we’re talking about very unusual circumstances (extremely high speed, carbon rims with rim brakes, wet, etc).
Once a brake has sufficient power to lock a wheel, the limiting factor has to be tire/road friction. #biketooter
As long as we’re talking the average road bike rider, the average rider rides on the hoods, not in the drops, and disc brakes make a world of difference in the amount of force that can be applied and modulated in that case. Discs can also be appropriate for those with weaker hands/arthritis & make things safer.
But once again, a higher performance or even just a fresh rim brake pad can close a bit of the performance gap.
What makes you think that these are "quite chewed up"? That missing millimeter of brake track is probably well within spec for rim thickness. Comparing with my rims these have easily another three winters in them. Wouldn't worry too much about them.
@robertmx Probably because winter where I live lasts for maybe 2-3 months and they look like that after 13kkm in total (including nice weather). That’s not confidence inspiring. For comparison, my carbon wheels did a lot more but mostly in nice and dry conditions and still look spot-on. So IMHO it is chewed up for how much those actually did.
I still use and love that bike (it’s been around 8 years), but the next one will be disc and electronic shifting…🙈🤷🏻♂️
@ssamulczyk@robertmx@raucao@cycling@mastobikes FWIW, the decent alu rim manufacturers I dealt with used to specify something like 0.5 mm wear max (if it isn't manufactured with a wear indicator / drill spot). Beyond that the rim is beyond design limits. Mavic specs 0.4 mm for alu rims without an indicator, etc.
@jond That is actually Mavic and I just measured it with the vernier. It lands somewhere around half a milimetre. It’s an analog tool, but it’s very near… I mean, no one is forcing anyone to go disc brakes… Stick with the bicycle you like. But for me, having an expensive wheel set in a pretty bad weather - it’s just such a waste of money with rim brakes. DB do plenty for wheels longevity… @robertmx@cycling@mastobikes