Dunno I'm just not convinced. My English is stiff enough and the ride quality is fantastic. Excellent road manners, handling, fit. Which I think plays a bigger role overall. I have ridden away plenty of times from guys on SL7/8s and plenty of other super bikes. When is stiff enough, enough? Only under VERY hard efforts 600+watts on short steep climbs can I notice a hint of flex. But I don't think that flex is necessarily slowing me down. I think the money spent would only net me marginal performance improvements that in actual practice won't suddenly turn me into a better rider. What I really need to do is get my hands on a demo bike.
This is not a rim vs disc debate for me. Like I said before I only ride in favorable conditions period. This is $ spent vs performance gained vs my current setup.
Back to mechanical shifting and rim brakes: My journey
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That is a fascinating story. Thank god he had you there to help him out
Aaaand now it has officially turned into a rim vs. disc debate again.
It has turned into a rim vs disk thread. Not a surprise, it's still an emotive topic it seems.
I'm not going down that rabbit hole again, there is clearly still a lot to say. I'm not even going to comment about why some people still insist full carbon wheels are practical with rim brakes in the high mountains (it's clearly a trap
)
But I will say that some of the rim arguments did resonate with me until I got my SL8. Now I don't see any disadvantages, just upsides to riding disk. My nice ride yesterday suddenly turned into a wet ride when the heavens opened far from home. I wasn't really bothered as I knew my braking would be unaffected (apart from a bit of noise). Relaxing, no hassles and still throughly enjoyable on the SL8.
I'm not going down that rabbit hole again, there is clearly still a lot to say. I'm not even going to comment about why some people still insist full carbon wheels are practical with rim brakes in the high mountains (it's clearly a trap
)But I will say that some of the rim arguments did resonate with me until I got my SL8. Now I don't see any disadvantages, just upsides to riding disk. My nice ride yesterday suddenly turned into a wet ride when the heavens opened far from home. I wasn't really bothered as I knew my braking would be unaffected (apart from a bit of noise). Relaxing, no hassles and still throughly enjoyable on the SL8.
Giant Propel Advanced SL Red Etap 11s Easton EC90 wheels CeramicSpeed BB Zipp SL70 bars 6.5kg
S-Works SL8 Dune White SRAM Red AXS Craft CS5060 wheels Roval Rapide bars 6.6kg
S-Works SL8 Dune White SRAM Red AXS Craft CS5060 wheels Roval Rapide bars 6.6kg
Blame OP for that... He literally opened with a rim vs disc comparison. What were you hoping for?
I was hoping that everyone would just let this guy enjoy his journey with x bike. But there is always this one (or several) guy(s), who have to present that one story, that made him see the light of jesus with y bike, and now he is never going back to x bike. Honestly I don't care if it's from rim to disc or from disc to rim. I'm happy for everyone who enjoys their bikes. But it's like some people just can't let other people enjoy their bikes, they absolutely have to ruin it. Some people are just spoilsports.
And cheapvega, if you feel baited, then just don't take the bait.
this post had troll all over it. I was hoping everyone would ignore. I wanted to say .. so what, because it was not enlightening in the slightest.
2024 BMC TeamMachine R
2018 BMC TImeMachine Road
2002 Moots Compact-SL
2019 Parlee Z0XD - "classified"
2023 Pivot E-Vault x2 drop and flat bar
2018 BMC TImeMachine Road
2002 Moots Compact-SL
2019 Parlee Z0XD - "classified"
2023 Pivot E-Vault x2 drop and flat bar
I mean, personally I did find the post enlightening and not a troll. What was enlightening to me was that I can have such a similar story getting into bike racing (about 10 years later and a couple hours north) and end up at such a different place.
I have zero interest in ever going back to rim brakes or mechanical shifting. I find mechanical to just require more work and less durable, particularly in a bad climate. I've worn out every integrated shifter I've had (yeah, Campy and SRAM were rebuildable, but it's still a pain). And of course, there's the "semi-friction" mode when they get old or the cables get gummy. 40K miles on my 11 speed Ultegra di2 and it works like it did the day I installed it. Unless I change something with the spacing (hubs/chinese cassette), it never needs touched.
Disc brakes? All I know if that my team-issued Propel (best braking rim brake bike I owned) just sat unless I was racing. I preferred to ride my rain bike (a heavy-a$$ steel bike with discs and "BIG" 28s). When I got a Reacto Disc, I don't think I ever rode it again (and then sold it).
It was a very fast bike. In some pretty rigorous field testing, the Reacto Disc with a good handlebar set-up was within a couple of watts, but slower. I still preferred the Reacto. Yeah, not going back.
So, different strokes and all that. As a funny aside, I was in what where probably some of the very road races with disc brakes (very early 2000's in the PNW, I think made by Sacha White/Vanilla). I just remember sliding around on carbon wheels, hoping I could stop, and thinking "those aren't going to help when I land on him...". And now, here we are.
Last edited by JWTS on Thu Oct 17, 2024 10:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
My only mechanical bike is almost permanently on my Neo trainer: the other 5 I use regularly all have AXS in one form or another. Electronic is just more fun to use and a lot less effort to maintain perfect shifting. I am also a massive tubeless fan and would never go back to tubes. However, disk brakes and wide rims and tyres don't do an awful lot for me. I am currently riding 40 mm P Zero Race tyres on 40/29 rims at 3 bar and honestly there's not a lot of difference in overall comfort from the 25s, 26s, 28s, 30s, 32s and 35s I also ride.
I do find disc brakes have an advantage in reduced lever pull effort on really steep descents (> 20%) but there's only one ride per year I do where this is an issue. Disc noise in extreme wet continues to be their biggest flaw IMO, and limited pad clearance can be a bit of a pain, but when they're quiet and adjusted right, they're great. Nevertheless, I continue to be pleasantly surprised at how well my rim brakes perform in terms of sharpness of response and modulation whenever I jump back on one of these bikes (campy red pads on carbon and swisstop bxp on alu).
No doubt there are plenty of bad rim brake bikes out there, but there are still a lot of great ones, which can be just as fast and more fun to ride and own than many of the current crop of midrange disc bikes.
I do find disc brakes have an advantage in reduced lever pull effort on really steep descents (> 20%) but there's only one ride per year I do where this is an issue. Disc noise in extreme wet continues to be their biggest flaw IMO, and limited pad clearance can be a bit of a pain, but when they're quiet and adjusted right, they're great. Nevertheless, I continue to be pleasantly surprised at how well my rim brakes perform in terms of sharpness of response and modulation whenever I jump back on one of these bikes (campy red pads on carbon and swisstop bxp on alu).
No doubt there are plenty of bad rim brake bikes out there, but there are still a lot of great ones, which can be just as fast and more fun to ride and own than many of the current crop of midrange disc bikes.
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charirider
- Posts: 396
- Joined: Tue Apr 13, 2021 3:00 am
Running both road and cx rim brake machines and not even thinking about transition to discs.
Rode top mech (Spyre SLC) and hydro (GRX) disc brakes, doesn't seem to be a huge difference for me... properly set up rim brakes with good pads and dura ace polymer coated cables = plenty of power, modulation and ease of operation!
Rode top mech (Spyre SLC) and hydro (GRX) disc brakes, doesn't seem to be a huge difference for me... properly set up rim brakes with good pads and dura ace polymer coated cables = plenty of power, modulation and ease of operation!
Last edited by charirider on Fri Oct 25, 2024 3:09 am, edited 2 times in total.
Road: 2018 Cannondale SuperSix EVO gen2 rim size 56 (raw stripped) 6.72kg
CX: 2014 Bridgestone Anchor CX6 Equipe 105 rim size 55 8.65kg
CX: 2014 Bridgestone Anchor CX6 Equipe 105 rim size 55 8.65kg
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OtterSpace
- Posts: 720
- Joined: Sun Mar 08, 2020 6:28 am
- Location: California Silicon Valley
I plan to always own and actively use at least one rim bike in my fleet. Meanwhile, since 2017 I've always had at least one disc bike and except for 2020-2022 most of my miles have been on disc in a given year.
I think every bike nerd with the ability to store multiple bikes should have at least one rim build. There is some magic that is just gone from modern disc builds. But then again I like tuning bikes while some view the bike as just a tool for them probably not worth keeping a rim build around for those people.
We are certainly in a wave of huge depreciation of rim bikes that we are not yet at the bottom of. Tons of good deals to find. After disc builds are so far from rim that parts no longer carry over at all prices will be the lowest. We are getting near there now with >30mm tubeless tires becoming standard but there is still more room to go. However, when the dust settles I think the top of the top rim builds will gain value as a collector item as not many will survive sadly. I doubt there will be much demand but the supply will become severely limiting. Time to stock up on odds and ends if you are interested.
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As a side story currently most of my miles are on a disc road ebike with 42 WAM tires but I ride rim 1-2 times a week to beat myself down and remind myself how hard some of the local climbs really are.
If I grab the ebike I have to turn on the bike by holding a button, change into the correct motor mode by pressing the same button three times after it boots up, turn on the bike computer that turns on the rear radar and light which then auto records video, turn on a front light by holding a button for 3 seconds, after it finally boots up the front light also auto records video, and press a button on the shifters to wake them up. All that stuff has to get charged separately too, most of it many times a week, and for the ebike batteries (yes more than one) multiple times a day. Amazing bike that empowers and unlocks riding I wouldn't dream of in the 23mm rim bike era but tons of faff.
On my rim builds I just turn on my bike computer and go.
I think every bike nerd with the ability to store multiple bikes should have at least one rim build. There is some magic that is just gone from modern disc builds. But then again I like tuning bikes while some view the bike as just a tool for them probably not worth keeping a rim build around for those people.
We are certainly in a wave of huge depreciation of rim bikes that we are not yet at the bottom of. Tons of good deals to find. After disc builds are so far from rim that parts no longer carry over at all prices will be the lowest. We are getting near there now with >30mm tubeless tires becoming standard but there is still more room to go. However, when the dust settles I think the top of the top rim builds will gain value as a collector item as not many will survive sadly. I doubt there will be much demand but the supply will become severely limiting. Time to stock up on odds and ends if you are interested.
----
As a side story currently most of my miles are on a disc road ebike with 42 WAM tires but I ride rim 1-2 times a week to beat myself down and remind myself how hard some of the local climbs really are.
If I grab the ebike I have to turn on the bike by holding a button, change into the correct motor mode by pressing the same button three times after it boots up, turn on the bike computer that turns on the rear radar and light which then auto records video, turn on a front light by holding a button for 3 seconds, after it finally boots up the front light also auto records video, and press a button on the shifters to wake them up. All that stuff has to get charged separately too, most of it many times a week, and for the ebike batteries (yes more than one) multiple times a day. Amazing bike that empowers and unlocks riding I wouldn't dream of in the 23mm rim bike era but tons of faff.
On my rim builds I just turn on my bike computer and go.
