I wouldn't call it propaganda. But he freely admits you need an alloy brake track to get braking anywhere comparable to disc, and we, the consumer, have all but killed off aero wheels with alloy brake tracks.

There's HED, with the ~decade old C2 alloy rim on the Jet series. It doesn't go far beyond that. Flo appears pretty much done with A+C.

The Slowtwitch-certified most aero wheels right now are the DT Swiss Arc DICUT and Princeton wheels. The DT Swiss is available in rim brake, and it appears you can maybe special order rim brake Princeton wheels. But they sure ain't alloy rims.

I'm glad TriRig is still producing those rim brakes, though. I have one on my NP3. But my next TT bike will almost certainly be disc.

Their best selling item is a rim brake and the number of rim brake TT/Tri bikes in races is reducing. The big companies are no longer making rim brake TT/Tri bikes, so I'd say this is a good strategy to try and convince those shopping for a new TT/Tri bike to keep their rim brake bike and buy one of their brakes.

Another challenge they face is the reduced number of bikes that can fit thier aerobar systems. Integrated front ends of all the new TT/Tri bikes are all using proprietary parts. Aerocoach/Drag2Zero/Wattshop and others are in the driver seat with 3D printed adapters for these new bikes, while TriRig is only able to push their armrests for the new bikes.

It's tough, but the business has moved away from what TriRig has done well, offer upgrade components for rim brake bikes. Thier iceberg is melting and they need to develop a new product, or they won't be around. And I don't believe super light components is the answer.

I thought the same thing.
What performance oriented triathlete has a rim brake bike that their Omega would even be compatible on? All the old top of the line bikes I know have their own custom brake. And his Point #1 is moot because alloy brake track

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I'll put my NP3 up against anything. It may not beat, say, a new, dialed P5D. But the P5D is probably going to work up a sweat, go to several decimal places down the Cd calculation.

It's called marketing. You are surrounded by it. It is often bullshit. You finally noticed.

Noticed many years ago. I’ve been riding carbon rims for a long time. Never had an issue stopping in the wet with standard calipers. Did have a few times I almost carped on myself. Discs do stop better in the wet. How often do I ride in the wet. When it happens, played on my fat bike today in the snow. But back to a percentage of times riding maybe wet or raining 2 to 4 percent of my ride time per year.

Bigger, better and faster, nope not a reality for most new stuff out there. But they claim it is. White papers even on this site used to be the gospel and bible all rolled into one.

Block-pasting what I wrote on the thread you started of the same topic on paceline.

The title is "Rim Brake Resurgence? The TriRig Omega One". The video is made by TriRig, featuring the founder of TriRig.

I should preface this by saying that I've used TriRig brakes before. The main draw is the aero savings (and lighter mass), and not braking performance. This particular version of the TriRig brake went on sale about three years ago, and there's nothing suggesting that there is a rim brake resurgence in general or a mini-resurgence due to TriRig brakes per se.

What is the case is that at $275 a brake new, it's become increasingly difficult for TriRig to sell these, given that most who buy new are going with disk brakes, and people who modify existing set-ups aren't likely to shell out for these brakes.

All in all, much more likely that it's a marketing pitch, particularly so, because I received promotions from TriRig on this particular video, despite having previously asked to be removed from its mailing list. From its perspective, perhaps worth a try, but quite a lot of hype, and I speak as someone who commissioned a rim brake frameset last year.

I might purchase a set used, but there's no way I'd shell out $275/each.

I absolutely agree with him. I don’t get why people buy bikes with disc brakes. Rim brake bikes are better and I try not to use brake during the race as I usually race on flat bike course.

Agreed, there is no "resurgence" in rim brake bikes. That doesn't mean that disc brake TT bikes are a better solution (they are not, IMO), just that the reality is that the industry has gone in a certain direction for better or worse.

There are lots of cases where the industry has moved forward with a new standard that was not optimal for TT bikes (or sometimes road bikes in general). Things like oversized fork steerers with large bearings, leading to fat headtubes.

TriRig is heavily invested the legacy standards (both the Omega brake and their rim-only frame offering), so it's natural that they will be advocates for them. As much as I like their products, there is no way if I had to get a new TT bike/wheels tomorrow (ex. theft or a bad crash) that I'd not go disc.

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I don't think disc brakes encourage more liberal use of the brakes. We all try not to use brakes during a race. But sometimes it matters. And sometimes it is wet during a race. And when it matters, it matters.

I thought it was funny in the email they sent out today, under the link to the video, there was a testimonial with a picture of the rider. He was on a disc brake bike.

Very few options for new mid to high end road or tri bikes with rim brakes. The industry moved in.

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I have done 8 fulls. The time spent in the rain during race is about 30min and my tririg worked just fine. Just my 2c

I saw that video today. IMO the main reason why road and tri bikes switched to disk brakes was to try and make rim brakes obsolete and sell consumers new bikes and wheels etc.. It certainly wasn't for ease of maintainance, weight savings, aerodynamics and lower costs. I have a 2016 Cannondale Slice that I LOVE with 2 Tri Rig brakes and Hed 60 Jet wheels that has excellent stopping power. I think it is one of the most practical tri bikes ever made. It weights in at sub 17 lbs, handles like a road bike and you can work on it quite easily yourself. At one point it had the fastest 1/2 IM bike times in the world and I have ridden it to several top bike splits. I need to figure out a new aerobar system for it, let me know if anyone has receommendations for a reasonable priced setup.

I intend to ride this bike for many more years.

This exact reason was said many moons ago on Lance Armstrong's podcast. Basically, all bullsh*t marketing and selling new shiny shit to us.

😉

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And yet with all these people buying disc brake bikes you would be hard pressed to find any who regret it or return to rim.

I used to be anti disc... until I got a disc. So much better, especially for weekends in traffic, hills or wet.

As the saying goes if you know you know..

The problem really is the transition to carbon. Carbon was a solution to a problem that didn't really exist. It was designed to sell new wheels, and more expensive wheels. For anyone that has every used rim brakes in conjunction with HED JET+ Black rims you know that the braking is so far and above what people are used to getting from both carbon and alloy.

I like the idea of disc brakes for my other bikes, but when I am traveling and packing a bike for triathlon I like the simplicity that rim brakes provide. You think about the TBT threads, all how people have become accustomed to this sort of service. Well as triathlon bikes become more complex, less and less people became familiar with the ins and outs of their bikes. Really can't think of any races I ever did where I thought disc brakes would have helped. Most professionally riders really aren't breaking during races except coming into transition. I can see it for generally riding, but then again most professional don't even ride their triathlon bike that much outside anyways.

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What's wonderful though is that my disc brakes with the $400 wheelset work just as well as my disc brakes with the $2000 wheelset, while with the hed jet black wheels, I have to run the $2000 wheelset

Also, it's awesome how well modern textured carbon brake tracks work. My light bicycle wheels on my crit bike with their grooved graphene brake track work great, wet or dry. I'd love to try a set from enve or zipp, but I have no interest in spending that kind of money.

With the implication that disc brakes are new technology? They've been on bikes since the 1970s. Rim brakes have been around for 120+ years. The change had to happen at some point.

I sure am glad they continue to produce their rim brake bikes. I saved me a lot of money last summer when my P3 frame broke.

My options were to buy an $8 to $10k new disc brake bike and wheels or find a rim brake frame where I could transfer my tri rig brakes and front end, di2 and my 4 HED race wheels. I found a brand new in the box tri rig frame on the slowtwitch forum, sold off the parts I didn’t need that came with the frame, and now I have a new TT bike for $2k which is super fast and comfortable to ride for the next five years.

And thought I didn’t buy the frame directly from tri rig, they answered any questions I had during the build…nice guys!

Maybe a marketing video but there is a lot of truth to it. I don't see there is any issue with rim brakes on carbon wheels, Heck, I have been racing them damn near 20 years.

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BoulderCyclingCoach.com

We haved planned obsolescence with so many other products these days I guess this is the strategey for the bike business as well.

With disc brake wheels they can effectively last forever, wear out the rotor and replace the consumable.

Rim brake wheels you wear out the rim and you are up for thousands for a new wheel set..