Disc Brakes Took Over the Cycling World. Here's Why That Was a Mistake.

There are some things people never get over, even after the rest of the world moved on long ago: the Alamo; the Dodgers moving to Los Angeles; even the disappearance of the McRib. If you’re the sort of cyclist who favors simple, serviceable, and durable equipment, then I bet your Alamo, like mine, is the bicycle industry’s abandonment of rim brakes in favor of discs. Alas, unlike the McRib, mainstream bike companies have no intention of bringing rim brakes back periodically just to humor you. Rim brakes are gone forever, never to be seen on “serious” bikes again.

The rim-brake-versus-disc-brake “argument,” if there ever was one, ended years ago. Rim brakes lost, disc brakes won. While discs have been the standard on mountain bikes since the nineties, the decisive moment came in 2018, when the UCI, the world governing body of cycling, finally allowed them on road bikes. Roadies were the last line of defense for rim brakes on performance bicycles. After that, they quickly began to vanish from the big companies’ offerings across all categories, and today, no matter what kind of bike you’re buying, disc brakes are more or less the standard. Consumers simply expect them, and experts dismiss anyone who continues to look askance at disc brakes, usually labeling them a “retrogrouch.”

I’m one of those so-called retrogrouches, and with the war over I’ve got nothing left to lose. Here’s why I say putting disc brakes on everything is a net loss for humanity.

Nobody Asked For Them

When you look around you today and see all these disc brakes you’d just assume that cyclists were fed up with rim brakes’ poor braking power and demanded something better. This isn’t the case; most people were perfectly happy with the stopping power of rim brakes because they work. Cantilever brakes posed some challenges to mountain bikers, almost all of which were solved with the V-brake. Roadies were not only satisfied with their rim brakes but were horrified at the prospect of discs supplanting them. That is until they finally rolled over when the pros (who ride whatever they’re paid to ride) accepted them. Meanwhile nobody who raced cyclocross  asked for disc brakes, which is why the cantilever brake was the standard in the sport for years, even after the V-brake had succeeded it in mountain biking.

Then Why Did We Get Them?

Mountain bikes got disc brakes because as they evolved into pedal-powered motocross bikes with front and rear suspension. The overly complex frame designs required hydraulic hoses and relocation of the calipers. (Yeah, that’s right, I don’t like suspension either.) Road bikes got them because the carbon rims that took over in the pro ranks make for a lousy braking surface. Cyclocross bikes got them because cyclocross bikes became popular with laypeople, and by then the average consumer was told to believe any bike with knobby tires needed to have disc brakes—a rare example of amateurs determining what equipment the pros rode and not the other way around.

If Disc Brakes Allow You To Use Stuff Like Full Suspension And Carbon Rims, Then Clearly They’re Better. Right?

Sure, they’re better if you want that stuff, but a lot of riders don’t need it, or realize they’d be happier without it. I believe in the free market, so if you want to buy a complex and expensive mountain bike that you shuttle back and forth to the trail in the back of a pickup then go for it. But that doesn’t mean riding a simple bike can’t be just as fun, or even more fun, which lots of people are rediscovering. There’s now even a term for it: underbiking. Although I’d posit most people are just overbiking.

Mountain biking had come into its own well before disc brakes and even front suspension took over. A bike designed for repeated crash landings that spends most of its time either in a motor vehicle or up in the air has less in common with other bicycles than it does with wild extreme sports equipment like paragliding rigs and wingsuits.

As for road bikes and carbon rims, disc brakes are certainly a better solution there. But if you’re not a sponsored professional, might I ask why you are wasting money on carbon rims? Most new reasonably-priced road bikes don’t even come with carbon rims anyway, so all you’re getting is a heavier, more complicated braking system that requires bleeding and proprietary levers.

What About One-Finger Braking?

The idea that we all need one-finger braking makes about as much sense as saying we all need one-legged pedaling. Anyway, I must have my rim-brake bikes set up wrong, because I can stop most of them with one finger just fine.

What About When It Rains?

No doubt some people regularly ride in such foul conditions that they do benefit from disc brakes, which move the braking surface to a rotor and in so doing spare the rim from accelerated wear. But for the most part, there are few rim-brake wet-weather issues that can’t be solved with a good set of brake pads. Also, here’s a fact: 99% of roadies who say you need disc brakes because of superior wet-wether performance also retreat to Zwift at the very first sign of precipitation. As for the ones who don’t, I don’t know how they can stand the sound of their disc brakes howling as soon as they get wet, because I sure can’t. I’d rather crash into a tree than have to listen to that.

Rim Brakes Are Better For Most Riders Most Of The Time

It’s true that if you get on a very old bike you might be shocked at the relative lack of braking performance. But by the nineties, between V-brakes for mountain bikes and dual-pivot calipers for road bikes, the rim brake system had reached something close to perfection. Rim brakes offer ample power and modulation in most situations and are simultaneously simple and serviceable. They’re foolproof. Moreover, they are cheap and deliver minimal difference in weight or performance between entry-level models and their ultra-high-end counterparts. How could anyone sell anything new? Well, enter a new system intended for motor vehicles that requires fluids, frame reinforcements, and cumbersome axle fasteners and professional servicing for all but the most determined home mechanics.

Yes, disc brakes are better in certain situations. The same is true of aerobars, disc wheels, and 5-inch wide fat bike tires. But we don’t use those in all conditions, and in a sane world, the disc brake would remain a specialty tool as well. Disc brakes do indeed allow for one-finger braking, but if you value the simple elegance of the bicycle above all else, the only finger they’re giving you is the middle one.