Wow, Has It Been That Long?

<Snip free thought>

". Can somebody tell me why, unless you

Quoted message said:

need extra power for downhill riding, better wet condition braking or are
just a slave to whatever high tech goodie is out there why anyone would

want

Quoted message said:

I am just a slave. Ease up. We are all going to die someday.

TJ
www.gvii.net/hundtoft

Ground Control said:

The so-called disc brake revolution is nothing more than a conspiracy...
_____________________________________

It seems like just yesterday I announced my presence with
this ill-tempered diatribe against disc brakes. Coming up
on 4 years and I still don't own a bike with them (almost
bought a 'bent with them but ended up spending money
on a new roof instead!) Needless to say, I've cooled
my jets about it ...

I pretty much eat crow on that issue. I was openly anti-disk
brakes for all the retro-grouch reasons you ranted about four
years ago. An LBS mechanic pretty much forced me to try a set
by practically giving them to me.

Now I'm riding a bike that doesn't even have canti bosses, or
seat stays designed to handle rim brakes. And I'm digging disks.
Heavy, complex, full hydraulic four-pot XT disks. I love 'em for
how they work in dry conditions. Not because they're good in the
wet, or because they spare rims from braking wear, but because
when I'm heading into a turn and I need to shed speed I can do
it late. Incredible modulation that allows two-wheel hard braking
in rubble with nary a sliding tire. V-brakes can be good, very
good; but not this good.

I still have this nagging feeling that my life needs to have a
bomb shelter bike that's completely low-tech. I don't like that
new brake pads cost what they do. I don't like the fact that a
badly bent rotor would cost me nearly what ruined rims used to
cost me. But the really do work nicely.
--
Tom "sold out retro grouch" Purvis
Salida, CO

Ground Control said:

on a new roof instead!) Needless to say, I've cooled my jets about it (and
so did some of the manufacturers for a while - now we're progressing to
discs at a more natural rate and there are much better cable operated setups
out there too!) Oh well, I don't want to get into some drawn out debate
over them. Ride, enjoy. Bring me your bike to be fixed. Ask me what brake
you need and I'll likely show you a bike with Avid Roller Bearing (formerly
CPS) brakes or something hydraulic. Ask me why I don't have one and I'll
tell you I'm a happy little retro-grouch and that's that.

Oh yeah...

...peace on dirt!

---
__o
_`\(,_ Cycling is life,
(_)/ (_) all the rest, just details.
The Nelson Paradigm =^o.o^=
http://intergalax.com
http://intbike.com
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.760 / Virus Database: 509 - Release Date: 9/10/2004

If I had a dime for every time I was wrong (or ended up wrong) I'ld be
rich.
Riding Avid Discs for 2 years now and liking them.

--
Craig Brossman, Durango Colorado
remove "mydebt" to reply

Ground Control said:

It seems like just yesterday I announced my presence with this ill-tempered
diatribe against disc brakes. Coming up on 4 years and I still don't own a
bike with them

I'd love to have disc brakes - at least on the front wheel. I have a set
of Avid arch v-brakes - supposedly good ones. When they're dry, they work
about 70% as well as cantis did; when they're wet, they're downright
scary. I still have cantis on my old bike (with the Bonty setup), and I so
wish my new bike could brake that well. I can't put canti's on it, and
that's why I wish I had disc brakes.

It was all just a series of bad decisions - I contemplated getting a
disc-ready wheel (when buying a wheelset a few years back), but I didn't
have a disc-ready fork. Since then, the fork has changed, and I'd have to
have a perfectly good wheel rebuilt on a new hub just to change the brake.
:-(

--
-BB-
To reply to me, drop the attitude (from my e-mail address, at least)

Ground Control said:

From: NELSON BINCH ([email hidden])
Subject: disc brake conspiracy

Newsgroups: alt.mountain-bike
Date: 2000-12-12 16:34:55 PST
_____________________________________

The so-called disc brake revolution is nothing more than a conspiracy of the
bicycle manufacturers to make bicycles so complicated that the only place
you can get any work done is at a bicycle shop (and for that matter, many
shops don't have a mechanic who can tie their shoes properly, let alone set
up a caliper) We should have gotten another good 10 years out of V-brakes
before the next big thing came along. Can somebody tell me why, unless you
need extra power for downhill riding, better wet condition braking or are
just a slave to whatever high tech goodie is out there why anyone would want
a system that is heavier, more complex and if something happens to your
hydraulic line, you have no brakes.

I know cantis work great if set up correctly, but the laws of leverage are
immutable, a V-brake (decent quality) is just plain more powerful.
_____________________________________

It seems like just yesterday I announced my presence with this ill-tempered
diatribe against disc brakes. Coming up on 4 years and I still don't own a
bike with them (almost bought a 'bent with them but ended up spending money
on a new roof instead!) Needless to say, I've cooled my jets about it (and
so did some of the manufacturers for a while - now we're progressing to
discs at a more natural rate and there are much better cable operated setups
out there too!) Oh well, I don't want to get into some drawn out debate
over them. Ride, enjoy. Bring me your bike to be fixed. Ask me what brake
you need and I'll likely show you a bike with Avid Roller Bearing (formerly
CPS) brakes or something hydraulic. Ask me why I don't have one and I'll
tell you I'm a happy little retro-grouch and that's that.

Oh yeah...

...peace on dirt!

---
__o
_`\(,_ Cycling is life,
(_)/ (_) all the rest, just details.
The Nelson Paradigm =^o.o^=
http://intergalax.com
http://intbike.com
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.760 / Virus Database: 509 - Release Date: 9/10/2004

nice,
Bill