Never really understood why people like disc brakes so much. Sure they're a bit more consistent in certain conditions but my brake power is usually limited by tire grip and the high center of mass instead of the brakes themselves. Even when it's wet I can send myself flying just fine with regular rim brakes.
this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2026
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micromobility - Bikes, scooters, boards: Whatever floats your goat, this is micromobility
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I'm a total reteogrouch and loves me my classic rim brake bikes.
That said, here are a few factors in favor of disc brakes: Superlative modulation, all-weather capability without resorting to highly abrasive pads (e.g. Kool Stop salmon), zero rim wear, no aluminum oxide dust getting everywhere (ridiculously destructive substance), reduced rotational mass, superlative fault tolerance, auto-adjusting for wear (in the case of hydraulics), able to use very different wheelsets without having to fiddle with brake adjustments, easier initial setup, dead simple pad replacement without any fiddling with pad toe-in.
Is there something better than Kool Stop? That's what I run on both my v-brakes.
What I like about Kool Stop is that they have a compound for every situation. https://koolstop.com/pages/brake-pad-compound-description
I think Kool Stop is the best possible rim brake pad option for most contexts. It's just super important to match the pad compound to the predominant conditions. The multi-compound pad always gives me warm fuzzies. If you need to swap pads often, consider getting cartridge pads ("holder" I'm Kool Stop parlance).
TIL: They have swappable pads, nice!
I'm proud to have used a wheel so long I wore through the breaking surface.
I like my rim brakes just fine, but IMO disc brakes are still objectively better especially if you have long descents: Rim brakes heat up the rim and cause problems, disc brakes can be easily sprayed down with water to cool them off and their heat buildup doesn't affect the rims at all. You can still cook disc brakes of course, but managing them heat-wise is definitely easier and their braking power is objectively superior to rim brakes.
That said, rim brakes are totally adequate for like 90%+ of riding. My bicycle and my folding bicycle both use v-brakes and they're fine even in wet weather (though I would recommend upgrading to Kool-stop Salmon brake pads if you're still running generic ones and find them inadequate).
It's a work of art. But jfc, starting at $10,000...