We’re getting into areas of some speculation now, but I do not really buy the “we’ve always been intrigued by discs but wanted to develop them at our own pace [very very slowly]” spin on things. Rather, I think they would have been just as happy to see discs be just a passing experiment with road bikes and breathe a sigh of relief when the experiment was over. Only when it became painfully obvious that discs had serious traction in the marketplace did they have little choice but to get Magura involved in an area they had little real expertise in. They were very behind. In the end (or now), they have produced by most accounts, a very fine product. Of course the current spin on their disc brakes’ extremely slow development is going to take on a more positive tone. They can’t very well be saying anything but at this point. They’ve got a good product and a good story re discs, but this is about DM rim brakes vs Standard Mount rim brakes. I believe they were at a point, especially in light of the larger tire trend where they had to make a decision on how they were going to update their rim brakes and they just chose to make some direct mount brakes because it looked like that’s the way things might be heading in the rim brake arena. Product development life cycles take time, and gambles are made, and this decision was made well before discs began catching on for real. Now here we are today, and because of discs, which have indeed caught on, there seems little reason to come out with a completely new rim brake design, especially when it doesn’t function any better and has some added disadvantages compared to standard mounts. As for Campy, their direct mounts do have substantially more clearance than their current skeleton rim brakes, but discs blow that advantage out of the water. So why bother? Because they just spent a lot of time and resources bringing them to market, that’s why. Timing is everything.
And I certainly can’t fault Shimano for wanting to capitalize on their huge dominance in the industry. Business is business. But I see people going on about non existent virtues without taking two seconds to really think about it. I’m just trying to get them to think about whether some of these changes are really beneficial or just changes for changes’ sake, rather than flock like sheep to something new just because it’s new.
It’s a crazy time in the industry. Everyone is trying to outguess the other as to what will take hold and what won’t. The shotguns of ideas are being blasted with little aim... and cyclists are like ducks all in a row. Shoot us, shoot us now!
@Corky, ha... now THAT’S a rant.
