Sheesh, I wasnt expecting a ton of folks that know less about biking than me
What the heck do you mean by wearing the rim thin? I think the rubber break pads will wear down before the rim ever does. Unless i'm seriously getting my terminology confused I don't see how this is possible.
First of all: Usually a bike lasts longer than one set of brakepads, therefor V-Brakes DO kill your rims. They will rub the metal down, sooner or later. If you look at modern rims, they have a little indicator on the braking area. Its just like a small ... trench? Once you braked so much you cannot feel that thing anymore, its time to swap the rim. If you're unlucky and you get a lot of dirt onto your brakepads a rim can be gone rather quickly. If you never completely braked through a rim, good for you, sometimes I kill mine rather quickly.
Normal rim lasts anything from a few hundred to a few thousand kilometres. My record for killing one was under 250km because it was THAT muddy and the brakepads caught little stones out of the mud, which CARVED the friggin rim down. So... => discs. It IS cheaper than v brakes in the long run, even when you dont abuse your stuff.
-Since they're in the middle of the wheel, they don't get wet as easily. It makes a huge difference in the rain.
Not really, it doesnt have so much to do with the position of the disc, but more with the way the brake works. It just doesnt "care" as much that it's wet. Also, this aint so much of a problem for me, there is a little trick: feather your brake, from time to time, once the conditions get wet. (Modern cars do that themselves, for instance) Whether you do that with a v brake or a disc brake doesnt matter all that much.
The big reason you'd want disc brakes is:
-The really expensive ones add stopping power you simply can't get with a V brake, but they're REALLY EXPENSIVE.
No, not really. Not anymore, at least, but to be honest, this wasnt even true about 2 years into the development of bicycle mounted discbrakes. Alright, depends on what you call "really" expensive. Below 200 bucks for a set (ie lever and caliper) is a LOT of money but not "really expensive" when it comes to bikeparts. and for that kind of mola, you beat EVERY rimbrake out there. Either way, I said I'm using Hayes HFX 9 with 203 discs right now. (That's enough clue for a passionate biker to tell it's probably not a motorbike
Altough there ARE plans for a motorized 40kg downhill bike... its probably using better ones than ye olde hfx 9). If I remember correctly, the whole set for front and rear chimed in at about 600 bucks, so yeah.
AND! I use double wide rims. It might not be that true these days, but back when I bought them, it was the most rigid stuff could buy for your money. Since I'm not the bestest rider I tend to screw up landings, therefore I need sturdy rims. As I already said, the stuff I picked DOESNT EVEN COME FOR RIMBRAKES. And I certainly dont plan on getting different rims.
OH! and did I mention (yeah, yeah, I know I didnt) the fork and the frame I use.... well... THEY DONT EVEN HAVE FRIGGIN VBRAKE MOUNTS ANYMORE because, sheesh, you just dont use that stuff on those kinds of bikes anymore
(Just kidding, v-brakes are fine, they are just not the right choice for my set of ... requirements)
So please people, dont lecture me on disc brakes. I know that you have to keep the discs clean, and once you really oiled the pads, it's time for some brake juvenation. I know which discbrakes I can buy to get better stuff than vbrakes, my question just was: Is anybody riding anything heavy duty and went from hydraulic to mechanical, either because they want to tailwhip/x-up or because they keep destroying their levers, and got something that offered a comparable level of performance?
And last but not least, for sneaky pete: I'm way ahead of ya! I still use the
footjam for various stuff, but that shit just doesnt fly with stairsets or, as mentioned already ... everything trial style.
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Topic: I'm considering mechanical disc brakes (Read 1695 times)