I vote rim.

(And I'm not anti-disc).

Disc brakes are inherently safer and becoming mainstream so that's my choice. They require more maintenance but it may be best long term unless rim brakes somehow make a comeback

Sorry to hear about your situation, best of luck

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Strava

I'd go disc. The bike is more future-proofed.

For the roadie, there will be lots of low-cost used rim wheelsets in ST Classified/eBay as others upgrade; so getting a solid training set or race-only wheels for the roadie will be a viable future option.


FWIW, I have rim brakes on both my TT and roadie....but they are 2012 and 2016 vintage respectively.

PS: Glad to hear that you and the family are safe!

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

One warning I have with the switch over to disc brakes on just one of your bikes is that it feels weird going back and forth between the bikes. With the disc brakes I find I have more stopping power and more ability to modulate the amount of braking force compared to with the rim brakes.

Last year I had a rim brake TT bike and got a new disc brake road bike - when I went back and forth between the two bikes I felt like I had way less control on the TT bike (which was never an issue until I had gotten used to the road bike braking!)

This.

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

Depending on size you need, I've got a 56 P3 with Di2 I'm trying to get rid of. Rim braked.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

Like it or not, disc brakes are the future. Go disc.

Sorry if this was covered already in other threads: how much more difficult to replace a flat on a wheels with disk breaks?
Is it even feasible during a race?

My road bike is rim brake (2014 vintage) and my gravel bike (2020) is disc. I haven't had any issues switching between the bikes and I ride both several times each week.

I don’t yet see the any advantages for disc brakes for road based bikes with the riding I do so I am sticking with rim for now. I don’t live near mountains and the weather isn’t terrible which may have forced my hand more but until the market forces me which is happening with top end road bikes I’m resisting the trend. I would stick with rim brake in your situation until gears sort themselves out as I am sure Shimano has something 12 speed in the pipeline and you can standardise everything across your new bikes. Until then I’m quite happy with 11 speed and rim brakes.

I'll chuck in a different point which may make all the other deliberations irrelevant - or maybe not

What hubs / axles on the road bike ? QR or bolt through?
More new bikes will be bolt through- so if your road bike is QR then you can't swap the wheels that easily anyway - or at least need to have hubs that have the right adaptors to allow it.

For the question of puncture repairs - no problem. In fact I flatted on the road bike (disc braked Spesh Tarmac in the near- dark about 2 hrs ago and had to do a tube swap - no problems. (I'm not on tubeless yet on the road bike as the original non-tubeless tyres are not yet worn out - I hit a rock and pinch flatted).

It takes a few more seconds to remove/install the wheel (Check this video starting at 2:55 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w6uqN_Pips). This is a big deal for cycling races, where you have to chase back after a wheel change. In a triathlon (assuming you aren't a pro how has neutral support spare wheels), the vast majority of the time fixing a flat is not removal/installation of the wheel, but getting the tire bead off the rim, swapping in the new tube, and reseating the tire.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

2 years ago I was faced with this decision and I went rim. Then I needed a new set of wheels, and had to go rim again for that

My road bike this spring was disc. I now regret having gone rim previously because of the $$ wasted before

I see almost no downside of disc... first just gotta get over the hump of “I can’t swap wheels / parts with my other bike” (which I’d surmise we all get to at some point)

Did you have any issues on your TT bike previously with braking? If so, why? There may be solutions that don't require switching to discs brakes to solve.

I'm with trail. Just get another rim braked TT bike. You'll preserve the interchangeability with your other bike, and be faster overall with that anyway.

Don't listen to the FOMO on disc brakes...

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http://bikeblather.blogspot.com/

Tom: No issues with my TT bike and the rim braking. Your right .. for the short term I will be okay. But I am a wheelset junkie and I want to choose from a variety wheelsets for particular races. If I get another rim TT bike, then any long-term decisions my give me a regrets since everything is going disc brakes.

I will be SHOCKED if any disc-braked "aero" wheel will result in a lower overall drag than a Hed Jet Plus Black wheel.

Nothing to regret...

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http://bikeblather.blogspot.com/

I have a mix of rim and disk brake bikes.

I can easily swap wheel sets on my rim brake bikes. I can swap pads. I can adjust cable tension.

On my disk brake bikes, which are all hydraulic, I really cannot work on them. I guess I could learn ... need a bleed kit, etc... swapping wheels, brake rub, pads wear out much faster... makes me hate them most of the time.

I have blue cryo pads for my rim based road bike. They are almost 5 years old and have lots of life left on them. When they go, I will replace them for a fraction of the price of the pads on my disc brakes, which wear out much faster.

I want to love disc brakes for the performance, but generally come to the conclusion that they are a PIA.

I like riding my bikes more than fiddling around with them.

First up, just want to say that I'm glad you and your family are OK.

There is little difference braking capability between rim and disc IN DRY WEATHER. In wet weather, discs are far superior. And there is greater need for good braking with road bikes - more likely to be used in bunches, on technical descents, and in wet weather, (and also perhaps with wider tires on rougher roads) than for tri-bikes which are generally raced solo in less technical terrain.

If the situation was reversed, and it was your road bike that got incinerated while your tri bike was in the shop, I'd say go disc now. But I suspect rim brakes will remain a common technology for tri/tt bikes for a while yet (especially as manufacturers have a much longer model life cycle for tri bikes) - and even once new bikes are mainly disc, you will still be able to get replacement parts for a couple of decades.

Unless you intend to get a new road bike in the next year or 2, I'd say go with rim brakes for the tri bike replacement. Even when you eventually get a new disc road bike, you can keep the wheels from your existing (rim) roadie to use in the tri bike.

Sorry to hear about the fire and your losses. Glad you guys escaped with your lives though...that's the important thing!

I would vote rim brake. My TT bike is rim brake and I have both rim and disc brake road bikes. Going to disc on the road last year was an initial "whoa". I love my disc brake road bike. However, I also love my rim brake one too. It's lighter and climbers steeper stuff faster. I've already got a ton of rim brake wheels that I can swap between the bikes. I'm perfectly happy with the rim brake. I just like the brake feel of the disc much more. I don't NEED discs on the road or TT. If I were to get a new TT bike, I would have a difficult choice since I would have to get a new disc wheel, etc. I agree that disc brake is probably much more future proof.

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"Most of my heroes don't appear on no stamps"
Blog = http://extrememomentum.com|Photos = http://wheelgoodphotos.com

Interesting that I can lock my wheels in the rain with rim brakes and I'm using 105 and Ultegra brakes, not even the top of the line.

If you are locking up your brakes, you are doing it wrong.

Sorry to hear about the fire, glad no one was hurt.

i think this boils down to a simple philosophy - do you like to be on the forefront of new tech? if so, get disc because all the new stuff (esp. high end stuff, if that's your thing) is going to be disc specific. disc is undoubtedly the future. also in that sense, if you are planning to get a new roadie in the near to medium distant future, all new offerings are going to be disc, and in that sense you can get your two bikes to match at that point, instead of now. you'll have to learn new mechanical and operational skills, but just as other things in life, change can be tough but in the end it's changing for a reason (it's just BETTER). you'll be in a better position with disc to upgrade your bike with newer tech as it comes out in the next 5 to 10 years or however long you'd keep this bike.

with rim, you'll be choosing the industry and tech as it is now (maybe even a few years go now, since most new tt bikes are disc last few years, and they're now trickling down to lower price points - Cervelo P series, QR PR4/5). You'll be able to find rim brake components for sure, but itll either be second hand, new old stock, or you'll have only slim choices from the few brands which continue to release new rim brake stuff. it'll be mechanically and operationally familiar to you. but you will miss out of the newest hottest tech because all that will be disc only.

there isn't a right or wrong here, i think it just boils down to how you want to position yourself for upgrades/new road bikes in the next X amount of years given where the industry is going. because make no mistake, it's going disc.

Respectfully disagree.
No opinion on which brake system the OP should go for, but availability of rim brake wheels/components should not be a factor. They will be available for a LONG time. Just like tubulars.

This is a good point. I didn't mean to say they couldn't be found in the years to come, just that range of choice will decrease to some degree, especially if one is looking for the latest and greatest tech from the industry. I am thinking somewhat of recent wheel launches from enve and zipp - they're disc only. I think this is a trend we will continue to see. Newly launched products could more and more be disc only. We're seeing it with bikes but now for wheels as well. So for rim brake stuff, newly developed/innovative stuff may be harder to find. Still able to be found, sure, but just that rim brake stuff will be a step behind disc stuff in a few years (if it isn't already). If that makes sense.