Looking back on rim brakes...

Rather biased, and simply wrong. Rim brakes are not always silent.

Nice video! What's with the additional stems on the first bike?

I have a rim brake and a disc brake bike. I like them both and both have their advantages. I do really like the simplicity of rim brakes.

It's not easy finding upgrade wheels for rim brakes these days!
Manufacture's should supply more good quality aluminium rim brake wheels and not just all carbon disc brake only!

Crashes in the pro peleton have gone up since disc brakes.

What about having to buy a new set of wheels every two years because the brakes have worn them out 🤷🤷 no one ever talks about this !!!!!

So clean. When I see that rear brake I realize I need to clean my bike more often.

I owned 2 disc brake bikes with Shimano 105 hydraulics and GRX 610.

I still kept going back to rim brakes, not because it's cheaper to maintain or lighter. But, I prefer the braking power of the rimbrakes. I'm not sure is it just me or not, but I kept locking my wheel when I come to sudden stop and almost impacting the one in front of me. It's too powerful.

But, I wish rimbrakes do have a large clearance for tires/tyres and wider rim profiles, that's the only thing I missed with disc brakes.

Have ridden rim brakes for over 50 years. Still got them on my best road bike - never ever had an issue from the Pennines Dales and NY Moors to the Jura , Alps and Mortorola ( very lucky). Got discs for off road and on my winter bike because it used to be a cross bike. Callipers do the job and are easy and cheap to maintain..and a lot lighter than disc brakes. Great channel.
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Great advice as usual!!! Thanks!!

Of course there’s a place for rim brakes - the museum or bin - would not even consider on any my mtb’s on ANY for of rim brake - my tri bike with it’s aero rim brakes well let’s hope it’s a dry and flat race - ditto my TT and as for road bike disc vs rim I went disc on my F8 and yes the Shimano’s it came with are wooden and screech like a banshee but but that adds to the INCOMING warning - I’ve said so many times cyclists are a conservative bunch.

I actually prefer rim brakes to discs, for all the reasons stated about ease of set up and no noise. Is it just me but since discs have gone into the professional peloton there seems to be many more serious crashes than there used to be ?

10 out of 10 for quality information and editing, You guys are the bomb !

“looking back”. That’s all I have and at no point have they caused any issue for me.

Years ago, one of the owners of a British bicycle manufacturer said to me, a bike has zero built-in obsolescence so all we have is fashion to extract money from the public.

I currently still run rim brakes because I built my bike on a budget and I find the power absolutely fine, but they're definitely not as responsive as disc brakes.
3 of my 5 bikes have disc brakes and on those the power is there as soon as you touch them, which I can't quite say for the rim brakes even though I'm using kool stop pads on Ritchey alloy rims. And I hate using them in wet weather, knowing that I'm making a horrible grey paste that's all over my wheels and tyres.

I live on a compete pancake of a land, I have to ride for an hour to get to the closest small climbs. I do not need disc brakes. I did over 3K km on my mtb (should have bought gravel instead as well), the brake pads are like new. So I don't mind at all that my 30 years old road bike is on rim brakes, the bikes also look better with them.

Rim brakes are fine, but from the pros in this video, I think discs aren't that bad anyway

Hydraulic discs are pretty maintenance free as well and pad changes are easy. Plus hydraulics are easy to center, so it's not much of an issue

The expense for carbon wheels is coming down a lot, specially if you are willing to consider Chinese brands. The rim set up as described is not ideal on rim brakes and led to a crash. And the tech is not going in to those wheels

So yeah rim brakes do work, put a good rider on a vintage bike with rim brakes and they'll smash most people with all the current new tech, the engine is the main thing. But on the whole, disc brakes are just far better, and the tiny advantages of rim are just not worth it

I say this as someone with rim and disc brakes bikes, haven't recently made the switch to discs after initially thinking it wouldn't be much of a difference

Im not sure that good old rim brake frames could handle 30-32mm tyres freely without rubbing into frame. That is one of the reason to go for disc and also thru axle gives additional stifness and true wheel positions into frame. Riding with 28-30mm tyres are much better comfort compared to 21-25mm tyres thats is for sure. I have nothing against rim brkaes as had rim brake bike before, but also like to ride with new disk brake bike either wich feels better in handling.

Great analysis on the pros and cons of rim brakes, thanks. It is true that rim brakes have less immediate bite in the wet but this is actually a good thing because the level of grip from those skinny tyres falls off significantly as road conditions deteriorate. For those of use who are not racing, good anticipation should see-off the need for heaving braking.

I can't afford disk brakes, I have rim brake carbon Zipp wheels with aluminium brake track which is a nice combo

Some of us are not changing to disk brakes on our road bikes; not everyone wants them. Rim brakes are not in danger of becoming "obsolete" in the technical sense, but only in a marketing sense. Brilliant of bike makers' marketing teams to insist that the teams they sponsor shift to disk brakes, electronically controlled shifting, etc. Nothing sells more "luxury" bikes than the pro racing tour.

I am tired of having to upgrade my equipment. I want ease of use and not be a mechanic, not getting disc, I don’t race anymore, over 55 and really not riding fast, so rim brakes are fine

I guess I won’t buy a new bike if it requires disc brakes, manufactures wake up, you need choices just like automobiles

Unless you are riding downhill in the rain, rim brakes are the best.

We’ve got a couple of kids 24” bikes, both Giant XTRs, one with generic rim V-brakes and crap Zoom forks, the other with Shimano disc brakes and upgraded air-sprung forks. Both regularly serviced. Surprisingly the V-brakes perform far better.

With a slight buckle rim brakes are useless

Moichandising!

Rim simplicity rules in my life

Yes rim brakes easir to fix and lighter

A good quality dual-pivot rim brake with high quality brake cables was a huge improvement in braking. I dont have any disc brake bikes , all mine are rim and canteliver brakes on my mountain or tourung bikes.

We have no choice. Fuc#@rs aren't going to make em any longer. More profit making disc bikes..So what if those are not really needed...Just pay the Shills to say "You gotta have discs. Rim brakes are old.." and then they can say everyone wants disc...🤮

Rim brakes are shit

Rim brakes are a hell of a lot more maintenance. Wheel goes out of true it starts rubbing slows you down.and a lot of other issues disc brakes are almost maintenance free.

RIP rim brakes.

I’ve never had a problem with rim breaks, I have a disc break bike and I use that bike for steep downhill rides on gravel and I do like the stopping power but ultimately that is the only time I have seen a benefit to disc breaks for me.

Weird to see so many videos about rim brakes as if they are a weird thing from history that needs to be explained.
Ridden rim brakes for over 60 years. They could be useless with hard black blocks on chrome steel rims, especially in the wet! The huge change in braking was not disk brakes but dual pivot Shimano, eg 105, with good blocks on aluminium rims in 1980s. Compared with, eg Weinmann 500 even on aluminium rims, 105 was a revelation.
Of recent bikes (past 25 years) a first generation Tricross came with cantilevers which had to be recalled and replaced with V-brakes, which worked fine. Veloce on aluminium was good enough. Ultegra 2007 and Mavic Ksyrium Elite wheels for my 2007 Cannondale SystemSix are still good in wet or dry.
But I do have cable operated disks on my Orbea town bike that replaced the Tricross which I gave away when not riding during Lockdown and I'd had a massive heart attack. These disks have twice frayed to point of snapping the cables.
And I have hydraulic Ultegra on my 2018 Roubaix.
I had both bikes brakes serviced and I was shown how to do it myself. But bleeding brake hoses: wish I was cable-based.
What's the main advantage of disks? Wheel rims don't wear out - useful because I can't find my Minoura wheel building jig so I can't remake my wheels. And... you can swap wheels easily for different types of riding - 650B and 700C; wide or narrow rims; and wide or narrow tyres.

The rim brake set-up is as good as it's ever been , no-one is testing 2024 rim brakes against 1980s rim brake set-ups , it would be a larger difference than 2024 rim v disc.

Screw carbon biscuit wheels, alloy for life. Frames too. Alloy for life.

My 90's Claude Butler has centre pull rim brakes which have performed flawlessly. Never any trouble.

A questão de poder de frenagem entre o disco e o freio a aro, está na limitação do seu pneu. Minha bike com freios a aro e pneus de 30mm param tão bem quanto minha bike freio a disco com o mesmo pneu...

Is this Synapse a 2017 model? What is the widest possible tyre you could put there? :)

Useful vid Lee couldn’t agree more. Both rim and disc have their place. I truly wonder if discs are, despite what the industry seeks to push on us for road, a more reliable or better value option. Fine if you’re racing or riding a fully loaded tourer or tandem but what about the other 90% ? The cost of keeping customers on the road ( new discs , several pairs of pads) and the irritant / niggle factor of discs seem to produce way more problems and off bike time for riders. Usually by the time someone has worn out a rim they’ve paid out far more on discs and pads.

I've got a pair of Campagnolo Chorus skeleton brakes. They have stopping power aplenty. Simpler, practical, reliable, and easy to fix if you do need to fix them on the road.
No hoses or fluids to deal with, and as you mentioned much more forgiving than disc brakes. I do self-supported ultra-distance cycling sometimes in the middle of nowhere so being able to deal with any problem that may surface is important. Disc brakes? No thanks!

Excellent video.
Thanks for posting!

Disc brakes can be good if they are good enough. I dont think the discs that came with my bike was best, but upgrading to xt discs (16 cm) solved the problem. It looks like discs are more compatible with fatter tyres.

Very reasonable position and good advice about checking for available spares.

Rim brakes forever for me