Rim brake road bikes becoming rare

Bought my first disc-braked road bike last year. Have an MTB already. I don’t think there’s much additional maintenance on them and stopping power is excellent. I think lack of wheel rim wear is the biggest benefit to be honest. I’ve worn out so many aluminium rims….

I don’t rate tubeless as an improvement. Have had so many roadside stoppages waiting for my riding mates to put in a tube in a failed seal.

Electronic shifting is a far bigger and more useful improvement in my opinion

Thanks for your reply. Most manufacturers would advise a 56-58cm or Medium sized frame for my dimensions (88.5cm inside leg, 179cm height). So probably one of the more popular sizes and hence quickest to sell in these times. Age is really slowing me down now, so I need something lighter to help maintain the denial for a bit longer! Ta for your advice, it's appreciated.

If one's goal is old school simplicity, the bike has been a solved riddle for a very long time; two triangles welded together with attention to detail in terms of sealing of bearings, quality bearing, wheel design and build etc etc were all possible and available long before the advent of

• disc brakes
• electronic shifting
• internal cable routing
• press fit bottom brackets
• innovative cockpits
• tubeless etc etc

All of the above add complexity and often reduce reliability and off course the cost to the end user (in terms of purchase price and maintenance) but are required for the continuation of the bike industry.

As far as I'm concerned they could have stopped at 7800/Sram red 10 speed, but of course it'll never stop. Pretty soon the bike industry will be convincing users they need something else.

I'd rather if I could buy a replacement 7800 derailleur, 7900 freehub or whatever but that wouldn't be good for Shimano's share price...

I've 2 full sram red tenners on the go and I'm going to keep them alive and kicking for as long as I possibly can. Only a few short years ago over 7kg was heavy. Reading a review of the new Colnago C68, best bike in the world, all the best components, 15 grand or thereabouts.. and its 7.2 kg or something

We've 3 bikes in the low sixes and anything over 7 is a winter bike! Manufacturers and reviewers can say what they like about aero and comfort and explain away the extra pork however they like but you can't hide it out on the road. It makes a massive difference.

I know this started out as a disc V rim but really for me it comes down to weight and cost. If disc braked bikes were lighter I'd be top of the queue, but the industry conspiring to tell me lightness doesn't matter a sh1te anymore, and bigger wider heavier tires on heavier bikes were actually quicker - pissin on my boots and telling me it's raining etc, and charging for all those extra grams at pick'n mix sweet shop rates! :).

Just over 7kg? For 3 grand? Pure madness 🤣😄🤣

I think it can probably be bought for c2.5k (price reduced now to 2850). Looks like value to me compared to 3900 for new with Ultegra (albeit disc). Probably this spec if available today would be c. 4.5k new?

A lot will depend on condition and mileage on frame and components. If it’s fairly fresh (big if), then I think you could do a lot worse for 2.5k.

But, as ever, it’s only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

ill be clinging onto rim brakes for the foreseeable.

couple of disc brake bike a few years ago and just found them more of a pain than rim brakes. Likely due to first time on hydraulics, but often had issues with noise etc. Rim brakes just so simple to maintain.

Have picked up a few groupsets to see me through for a while yet.

But another reason is aesthetics. I just find most modern disc brake bikes ugly. And for me a not insignificant part of the appeal of bikes is how they look. Rim brake bikes just look nicer imo

...and are largely unnecessary on the road.

So we're all aligned I think?

I've been using disc brakes on my mountain bikes for over a decade and I'm well aware of their performance and advantages.

Bleeding brakes, fitting hydraulic hoses is significantly harder than tensioning a brake cable, so yes it is more complex and difficult for an average ROAD cyclist.

What some SNIP posted about getting cut by a disc is relevant to my post how.

I don't know why I would ask a MTB rider, this thread is very specific to road cyclist and the increase in weight and cost from an unnecessary technology for most road riders.

People btw are being "forced" by planned obsolescence by the bike industry, such that rim braked bike market is very much reduced.

Most road cyclist would benefit from improving their braking technique rather than switching technology; that improved skillset will stand to them irrespective of the braking mechanism.

My current gravel bike has discs but other than not having to clean rims I managed to never lose control on my old cx Ridley canti bike on really lumpy off road rides; circa 1000m climbing in a 40km spin with lots of 15-20% gradients. Having to re rim after 3k km was a pain but at €30 a rim cheaper than changing bikes and all the waste that goes with that.

With just road riding I've gotten 40k km from my hplus sons so the rim wear argument doesn't hold much water with me. Lots of that 40k would have been clocked up spins in wet weather in the 200km to 450km range; i.e. I wasn't anal about rim cleanliness.

If a road cyclist needs disc brakes to stop because of their undeniable advantages he should probably go back to cycling school 🙂

Sorry, I'm not getting angry that someone thinks they are unnecessary, I get frustrated when I see some of the nonsense arguments posted against them. There was a big uproar over a movistar rider who claimed he got a gash in his leg from a rotor, it turned out the disc didn't go near his leg. Also a team sky rider Owain Douall who claimed Marcel Kittel's rotor put a gash in his shoe which turned out to be more horsesh*t, he hit a barrier at 60kmh and didn't even realise he had cut his shoe until he crossed the finish line but he was still certain it was Kittel's fault. The hysteria from that formed a major part of the backlash against disc brakes but now they all use them and don't give it a second thought.

I have no issue with someone deciding that rim brakes are adequate for them and I do sympathise that the bike industry enforces planned obsolescence (believe me, it's a million times worse in MTB) but some of the strawman arguments that they add complexity, are more dangerous, don't offer any performance benefits are nonsense. It's just a fear of the unknown. I would say that if you can't follow a youtube video explaining how to bleed a brake then bike maintenance isn't for you. It's a very simple process and changing pads is far easier than changing pads on a rim brake.

I have Shimano 105 rim brakes with SwissStop pads - they're still sketchy in the wet. My next road bike will have discs.