I won't quarrel with Rivendell if it never makes a disc brake bike, but as to disc brake technology itself -- and I speak as a bitter, aging disparager of so much of modernity* -- I have to agree with Jeffrey. Disc brakes do work well, and solve a number of problems that other types of brakes bring with them.
Me, I use the venerable (and by now, it *is* venerable) BB7 road model; and despite disparaging reports, it is a perfectly adequate brake, even with 160 mm rotors f and r. I say "adequate" -- it's not more powerful than the best cantis or V brakes or calipers; but it works as well or better than most of these, at least IME. Hydraulics apparently are better still, but I've not use them. And discs of any sort allow you to run very light rims in dirt without fear of grinding them to destruction in short order -- those are my 2 principal reason for using the BB7s. But my main point is the adequacy of even the oldest of the cable discs: they work *fine*. Even if they're not the most powerful, or if modulation is not the best; even with the weight penalty and the careful adjustment to avoid pad rub -- they just work, and work well. Power (= retardation with respect to hand effort, as well as absolute retardation), modulation (on par with V brakes), noise (squeak when dusty), rub (you have to know the compromise between pad travel and pad force), pad wear, weight (at least the additional wheel weight is at the hub and not the rim) -- all of these are within quite acceptable limits, it seems to me, when compared to any rim brake I've used, and I've used very many. * I hope that most readers are not *too* unimaginatively earnest. On Sun, Feb 4, 2018 at 3:58 PM, Jeffrey Arita <jeffreyar...@gmail.com> wrote: > Joe, > > A bit of background for you here: Been cycling seriously since 1987. > Ever since disc brakes came out I thought they were just another way for > the cycling marketers to sell more stuff....I did not buy into this 'new > tech.' I continued to ride a v-brake equipped bike. We live here in dry > Southern California, so of course the v-brakes worked brilliantly. With > the 'old' mountain bike looking long in the tooth, I went looking for a new > one. Upon examining all of the disc-brake equipped bikes, I lamented to > the poor salesperson "why aren't there any v-brake equipped atb's out > there?? He looked at me as if I were from Mars of course.....I finally > broke down and bought a brand spankin' new mountain bike, equipped with XTR > hydraulic brakes. After riding it on my favorite off-road loop I was a > convert. The power and touch those brakes provide is amazing. Sometimes > technology is a good thing. This past year went on the Divide and used > disc brake equipped bikes. 25 mile long downhills could do some serious > abrasion to rims. The disc rotors sacrificed themselves as easily > replaceable components....... > > So, yes, I would definitely consider a disc-brake equipped Riv. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
