Rim brake bikes aren't going anywhere mate.

What will you say when Specialized eliminates them? New Shiv won't be rim brake

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People said the same thing when MTB went through this transition. I recall many conversations where people were saying many of the anti-disc brake things as here. How many MTBs are available now with rim brakes? 1% of those above the Kmart level?

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And how many people hated electronic shifting too and yet won't ride a bike without it now?

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I’d absolutely sell my current bike and wheels for a new disc brake super bike...but it would have to be something really different...I wouldn’t do it for something similar to what I already have.

Can't speak for buying habits in the US, but on this side of the pond they're not going anywhere. Specialized? Who cares. The 'big brands' don't have the same type of market dominance over here, and when it comes to the TT/tri scene, there isn't the same appetite for dumping 10k into a first bike (the dentist phenomenon does happen, but it's the exception).

Comparing discs on road bike with mountain bikes is silly, as is comparing road bikes with TT/tri bikes. They all have their place and the market is large enough for all of them. When it comes to TTs, I have yet to see a single bike with discs at a race and can't recall seeing any marketing for them. Generally people over here are happier with their lot and will spend on pretty much anything else before a new frame. Look at it this way; in the US it is near impossible to find any car with a stick shift, whereas here it makes up the vast majority of cars (and no one really complains about it). In fact, if you pass your test on an automatic then you aren't allowed to drive stick. Come to think of it, it's not a wholly inappropriate metaphor for bike control...

BryanD wrote:

The people predicting that disc brakes fail and rim brake bikes come back make me laugh

It has nothing to do with that. Rim Brake bikes haven't "gone" anywhere. Even Trek's entry level MTB still has rim brakes.

At the moment, disc TT bikes are only on high end bikes. For road bikes, there's a premium for them. It's going to be quite a few years for the "standard" for road bikes to move to disc and even longer for tri bikes to do so. There's also a lot of people who frankly don't care about disc brakes and unless they become a standard, won't spend the extra money when buying a bike to get them. The only real advantage they offer on road/TT bikes is during wet conditions. And at least many bikers I know won't ride in wet conditions, they'll either swap days to ride on a dry day or hit up the trainer.

You also have to look at the severe differences with CX/MTB rides - dirt and mud are extremely common and do effect performance a lot. You also have much larger tires which makes it harder to use caliper brakes and instead relying on V brakes/Cantilever which are far inferior. Moving to disc in those segments do make sense. For road, those issues come up much less.




Again, it comes down to a price/performance thing. The gains for moving to disc right now aren't worth the cost unless you're riding in wet conditions often and are looking for a high-end bike. When that changes and prices come down to a reasonable level, you'll see more adoption in the TT/Tri crowd.

Ride with aluminium rimmed wheels. They're really safe as well.

It’ll also take awhile to get people to switch in the high end space because it’s not replacing a bike it’s replacing a wheel stable for some people.

I’m all over the place on capatibility right now just between bikes with 10spd vs 11 spd. I’d go crazy adding discs into the mix.

I'm in the same boat. Among the two adults in this house we have 5 28"/700 bikes. I have always made sure that cassettes/chains/wheels/tubes remain interchangeable between them, because I like to do stuff myself, don't want to afford having hundreads invested in spare parts filling up shelves and I don't plan on opening up a warehouse in my house for this stuff either. Whats more is that I dont see myself selling perfectly fine carbon wheels at a loss in order to get (potentially) better breaking modulation either (seeing how all my rim brakes are absolutely capable of locking my wheels in place, its really just a question of modulation/control and not of pure stopping power for me).

In my opinion what we really need is more accessible quality options in the center pull rim brake market but with the stopping power of shimano 105/ultegra/da brakes.