Which has better stopping power Rim Brake vs Disc Brake - Rim Brake of course!

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[timotius]

Rim brakes works really good with aluminium rim!! My favorite wheelset is dura-Ace c24. Durian rider will love this video for sure.

[mathieublandin]

100% agree with you George. If you have correct pads with the right surface roughness on your rims, stiff dual pivot calipers, no issue. And don't forget proper cables and hoses. Most of people don't do proper maintenance with there bikes so at the end, yes, with dry pads and stucked cables you have no brakes! Even on wet when you are used to them, you anticipate and no issues. A friend felt in front of me blocking his rear wheel due to too much brake power with disc brakes on a wet road...so safety with discs in emergency situations...And I don't speak of the terrific sound of disc pads under rain.
I don't understand why people are so brake focused, I have more difficulties to climb than brake in the descents😅. No issue also in fast descents with my 45 years old randonneuse with Mafac 2000 center pull brakes. I still find new pads for this bike so I don't think we will run out of parts for our modern rim bikes before a long long time...
So let them think discs are better, I continue with my rim bikes.

[aaronhamlen]

I have two road bikes one disc/one rim, disc are heavy & noisy, calipers with my aluminum rim work great.

[MrKrekkie]

I've had multiple real panic brakes with rims to the point that I was balancing on the front wheel and I had to throw my ass to the back to prevent me from flipping over. Enough stopping power, kept me safe for multiple decades. Always did the job, no complaints. We have to wait for this to turn around again.

[swites]

Very few had carbon rims back around 2008/2010 when I started riding events. Nearly everyone had alloy rims because carbon rims were ridiculously expensive. No cheap options around. Then around 2012/2014 with cheap chinese carbon rims which looked cool and were affordable, everyone wanted carbon clinchers. Which were crap in terms of braking compared with the alloy rims everyone was using just a few yrs before. Plus the de-lamination issues of carbon especially with the older non-heat stable resins(I've delaminated 2 wheels). So then they bought in disc brakes as the solution for the crappy carbon rims people were having trouble with. So you have a good product, then bring in an inferior one. Then pretend all rim brakes are bad, which just isn't true.

[darekm.]

no problems whatsoever on my carbon clincher rim brakes! i don't care braking in the wet, just don't like riding in the rain. 20000km on them alpine roads, french alp is where i live and ride my bike(s) mostly. still plenty of life on my rims. cheers.

[etr]

Pretty much agree. AND...Alloy rim brake wheels can be light and inexpensive when bought used. Same for rim brake sets. IMO, one could buy a competitive rim-braked road bike for Cat 5/4 racing on Craig's List for $1000-2500 easily, way less then the egregiously expensive new bikes for sale today. For sure, in the road racing I did, I pretty much never panic-braked, just slight braking for corners if at all. Rarely braked hard for crashes in front, mostly just steered out of the way ... or crashed. :-) Braking hard in a peloton causes all kinds of chaos behind. Same for group training rides. Same for city streets. Being a CA resident, I didn't every ride in the rain or snow. So, those who do may have different experiences.

[enduroman]

I have used both and held out a long time before buying a road bike with disc brakes. Nothing beats the bite of rim brakes on alloy.rims. Just look at the surface area of the braking surface vs tiny discs. I do find that disc brakes provide more consistent performance in all types of weather compared to rim brakes.

[timtaylor]

My carbon rim brake wheels have more than enough stopping power, if i can lock them up i don't need more power

[WeberWoodworking]

Who wants skinny, heavy, aluminum rims. My rim brake bikes are fine, but given the choice of my 50 mm carbon rims with wide internals and 30 mm tires, they are lighter, faster, & more comfortable with the great braking in all conditions.

[amitkumar-wjgn]

This was the most hearty, friendly cycling related conversation i have seen in a long, long time. Poor guy, a self acknowledged, Got a bling bing Pinarello only to realise he had fallen, just a little, for marketing. But hey, all good and this is why I love cyclists. Well done George. I got a road bike custom bike designed last year and it runs rim brakes, some DT Swiss rims, Velocity rims and supple 32c Panaracer Gravelking tires. Yes, gravel tires on road bikes because I like being comfy, long days on bike and I tend to go slow when its wet anyway. Speed is subjective!

[WilliamKerry]

George, I love you. That said, I’m an old school kid, born in 79. I’m also not a ‘true roadie’, I grew up on the mountains of Northern California, rim brakes were sketchy at best then, not non serviceable, just sketchy. Disc brakes changed the game on the mountain, and technically now, in the streets. Like I said, my opinion is worth a red cent but I’m still gunna leave it here. As an overall braking system, disc rules, situationally??? well we can always find a win where we want.

[rayFrio]

The answer is as always...It depends.
For rim brake, it depends on the wheel rim - I have HED Black and Campy WTO45's - both brake exceptionally well. However, tire clearance is limited to 30mm. And I cannot run Campy rim brake calipers because their tire size limit is 28mm, so I use Ultegra calipers with my full Campy groupset.
My disc brake bike can fit up to 38mm tires. When I was younger, I could ride narrow tires at high pressures all day long. Because I was younger and the roads were better.
But at age 64 and now riding on really rough concrete roads, I need that extra tire width and ability to run lower pressures, and disc brakes afford that option.
I still ride both bikes, both are tubeless, just for different purposes. Rim for shorter rides and racing, Disc for longer rides or previously untraveled roads.


So a person saying one is "better" would only reveal that persons inexperience with various road conditions. And saying one system brakes better or worse is only applicable to the specific bike build being ridden.

[fatpinarellorider]

Generally I agree with this, yes. A lot of the issue is with the cable housing. Get compressionless housing, and you will have even *stronger* rim brakes! 160mm and smaller discs are rather pathetic, it's true. This is the whole reason behind people now going to quad piston calipers (even for XC). What can I say? I much prefer rim brakes for on road (for one thing it's lighter, but it also looks much better, arguably easier to maintain also, no need for liquids). Rim brakes are like 26" or 27" sized-discs, so yeah.
This is why I don't like the way the industry is going. Electronic shifting, the whole thing. Don't get me started on 1x either as the jumps between teeth are HORRIBLE. Much more closely spaced rear gears if you opt for a double/triple setup.

[hddd]

rim for road, disc for dirt, 95% of cyclists will not ride in the rain so that whole debate is irreverent

[soapowejazz]

I’ve been a fan of disc brakes. Now I’m ordering a custom made steel frame for rim brakes because I don’t like the maintenance and the alignment issues with disc brakes. So I also think that rim brakes are totally fine. And there is no need for disc brakes at least in the dry.
However…this was not a test. Just a feeling. Not same speed, not same position, no measuring of braking distance…Is just a feeling of one single rider with not much expertise (according to him). That has no statistical relevance 😉

[ottovonbrak]

As long as you have enough force to lock the wheels the tyres are the real brake. Modern carbon wheels pad are decent in the wet as well where you don't brake that hard anyway because the road is slippery. Bernal won a giro descending in the wet with carbon rims

[zoufyj]

Shout out to this self-described "newby" who I guarantee rides farther and faster than 95% of the viewers watching this. Nice guy, local legend, and way too humble! The rim brake thing is old news, but what we really NEED to know is whether the red Ritchey is better than the gray Ritchey...

[MarcDuchesne]

I'm a (very) small bespoke, made-to-measure performance bicycles maker, based in the Pyrénées. Mountains, hills, sometimes foggy weather, etc. If you watch Le Tour de France, you know what I'm talking about. Guess what: Our 2 Road models (1 steel frame, 1 tube-to-tube carbon frame) are rim brakes only (TriRig Omega One), and we also have an Allroad bike with rim brakes (up to 700x30c tires). All alloy rims wheels. We do disc brakes on the Gravel models, only because of the tire clearance (although a good pair of V-brakes calipers would do the job perfectly).

[rolandmg]

I ride everyday through the British winter and rim brakes on alloy rims are superb.
I race and ride in the mountains on carbon tubular rims in the season and have no issues.
Disc brakes have been pushed onto new riders who believe the marketing.