andrew_s
Legendary Member
- Location
- Gloucester
How fast you can stop is limited by the point at which your front wheel locks. Standard rim brakes are perfectly capable of locking the wheel, so more powerful brakes aren't going to stop you any faster.
Advantages of disc brakes over rim brakes:
a) less hand pressure required for same braking effect. Going slowly down something long and steep can be quite tiring on the hands.
relatively unaffected by mud and water
c) minor wheel buckles have no effect.
d) no rim wear
Disadvantages of disc brakes
a) can eject the front wheel
easier to lock the front wheel (a locked front wheel is likely to result in a nasty crash)
c) require stiff fork blades
d) pads not standardized, so you can't pick up the right spare in any random bike shop
The main advantage from a road point of view is reliable braking in wet weather. It can be wet enough that rim brakes won't clear the water of the rim as fast as it gets back on, in which case you've effectively got no brakes.
Disc brakes on (real) racing bikes aren't going to happen. Rim brakes are plenty good enough except for the occasional very wet day, whoever adopted them first could wave bye bye to neutral service, and probably the UCI wouldn't like them being present in a mass pile-up scenario (chainrings are also sharp, but they are often protected by the chain, and anyway are necessary, which disc brakes aren't).
Advantages of disc brakes over rim brakes:
a) less hand pressure required for same braking effect. Going slowly down something long and steep can be quite tiring on the hands.
relatively unaffected by mud and waterc) minor wheel buckles have no effect.
d) no rim wear
Disadvantages of disc brakes
a) can eject the front wheel
easier to lock the front wheel (a locked front wheel is likely to result in a nasty crash)c) require stiff fork blades
d) pads not standardized, so you can't pick up the right spare in any random bike shop
The main advantage from a road point of view is reliable braking in wet weather. It can be wet enough that rim brakes won't clear the water of the rim as fast as it gets back on, in which case you've effectively got no brakes.
Disc brakes on (real) racing bikes aren't going to happen. Rim brakes are plenty good enough except for the occasional very wet day, whoever adopted them first could wave bye bye to neutral service, and probably the UCI wouldn't like them being present in a mass pile-up scenario (chainrings are also sharp, but they are often protected by the chain, and anyway are necessary, which disc brakes aren't).
easier to lock the front wheel (a locked front wheel is likely to result in a nasty crash)
