Should a road bike choose disc brakes or V brakes?

[AOSTIRMOTOR]

"Disc brakes or V brakes?" - The classic debate about these two braking methods has always been a hot topic in road bikes.

Advantages and disadvantages of disc brakes:
Advantages: not affected by extreme weather such as rain and snow; no damage to the rim of the tire, easy to install and configure; rim (wet, dry) conditions do not affect brakes and braking performance.
Cons: tend to be heavier than V-brakes and a little more expensive. Your bike's fork needs to be compatible with disc brakes; disc brakes add stress to the wheel spokes.

Advantages and disadvantages of V-brakes:
Pros: Much cheaper than disc brakes; they are easy to maintain and replace, even on the go; generally do not interfere with rack or rack installation; spare brake pads and brake parts are readily available in the market.
Disadvantages: Will cause wheel frame wear; Braking performance is affected by water and mud; Brake pads need to be replaced regularly.

So, which one should you choose?

[stts]

I chose this one.

https://www.amazon.com/CNC-Bicycle-B...s%2C339&sr=8-1

I just looove me some frame wear. Hah. Hard to wear out a 30 plus year old huffy. It's got old style U brakes with small pads and lots of rattle. These new ones have lots more leverage and larger pads. I suspect they can toss me over the handlebars. I'll put the battery on a rear rack to make that harder to do. The huffy has no V brake studs. But I can weld just fine so V brakes it is. Then when I upgrade bikes if I choose, those brakes will work on newer bikes. My huffy hubs can't mount disk brakes. So these with larger pads and better leverage should handle wet weather just fine.

Oh, and don't forget. They are just a "little" bit cheaper. Hah. They can get really cheap, but I picked out ones with cast aluminum adjusters instead of plastic ones. No sense in being really cheap.

[Retrorockit]

I assume we're talking Ebikes here.
Rim brakes are weight weeny stuff. They work OK on skinny tires. This basically means no real braking power anyway. Watch any 20 bike pileup in the Tour de France to see what that looks like.
Add a few real world cars and trucks to the mix. Place your bets.
E bikes are heavy and fast. You need good brakes. That starts with bigger tires and wheels, and extends to the fork and headset also. Road bikes are so optimized for pedal power I wouldn't recommend adding power to one.
MTBs on the other hand have some headroom for the added weight and power. You can trade off road strength for street toughness by swapping tires, and brake pads for higher speed parts.
Unless you go back about 15 years or so they already have disc brakes on anything worth owning. replace the triple chain ring with a BBSHD and you have an excellent 1x8-9 street Ebike.

[Retrorockit]

You might also consider that the aero riding position results in you staring at the top of your front tire most of the time. Since eMTB has the power to ignore aero in most situations, the MTB upright position makes more sense in traffic.

[AZguy]

Really? Rim brakes? Hello!!! The 70's are calling....

[stts]

Well if I went with discs, I would be better off just getting another bike. The V brakes are a cheap way to upgrade what I have. And I have to consider what Im using it for. Sidewalk and street riding. At 20mph and less. No doubt Ill amp it up a little more when nobodies looking. But my buddy in Washington State calls me a tourist. Hah. And hes right. Nature is OK, but I just watched HeavyD on Youtube fly his rebuilt Blackhawk home. So I wont be biking out in the woods anywhere. I'm out tinkering on something. Endlessly tinkering. Another reason my bike build is going slowly. So I do a little of everything. And don't really need alot of one thing. My build should be good for a first eBike. Especially in my eBike squeemish town. When the need arises, then my second eBike would no doubt step up to my future needs. :) I'm already spending way more than I imagined and have to worry about theft. Just last week the company truck was smashed and robbed. My van has been stollen and wrecked, My catalytics have been sawed out, My house has been broke into and heavily wrecked. 12 nasty neighbor kids were nabbed for that. etc,etc. So state of the art eBike is not a trophy I want to own right now. Till I am confident I know how to keep it. Hah

[Circuitsmith]

Here's another vote for v-brakes. Kool Stop pads have never let me down.
My ebike weighs 53lb. Is that heavy? Tires 26x1.5 front, 26x1.75 rear. Are those skinny?
It can go something north of 30mph, but top gear I can pedal comfortably to 25mph.
On most of the streets I'm on I'm under 20mph. Rarely go off the pavement
It still handles like a bicycle, not a small motorcycle.
I can carry it up a flight of stairs into my house.
Fits my needs and style. Fat tires and high power not for me.

[stts]

Yea, mine will weight in the 75 pound category I think. My locks and other structures are heavy duty. And I weight 175. So it should do well on city streets. I switched up to 2 inch knobbies instead of 1.5 inch touring. So I got a half size fat bike. As fat as this Huffy will allow. That should be plenty to hold my weight. Also got Tannus liners on the way which should make the tires even stronger. Ill hold off on a suspension fork for now. They are kinda ugly and jack the front end up weird to clear the down tube. Hopefully the bigger tannus lined tire gives me cushion enough to make me happy. Got fenders and twin leg kick stand on the way too. I always like those kick stands and I will do a mod on them so they are hard to knock over. Its the weird looking one sided folding twin so its not on the chain side.

[Retrorockit]

My bike is 65# and 36mph. Tires are 26x2.15. 35mph is about 37% more energy to dissipate than 30mph.That's just the speed, not counting the extra weight.
My cable disc brakes with metallic pads are actuallt pretty retro, but a proven setup. Those are the biggest tires that fit in my vintage fork.

[stts]

Oh yea. With your speeds, Big disc brakes are sensible. My bike wont get anywhere near that fast. Id be too scared. Hah. Once I get my V brakes mounted, I will peddle around and see how they do. But the leverage alone will make the braking force powerful. Then the pad size is larger area. So those brakes will squeege the water right out of the way. And they are only $20. So for my needs, money well spent. And its less weight too. I got lots of heavy stuff to mount, so I'll take the weight savings I can get. Ill be in Ft Lauderdale in Feb, so Ill peddle around there and get a feel for the brakes, and knobby larger tire performance, as I hit the sand patches. Aint no way Ill be electric by then. So Ill just mount the standard stuff and give everything a fresh lube job.

[TwentyIsJustTooDamnSlow_!]

Rim brakes ARE disk brakes. Bigger ones.

[Retrorockit]

Until they get wet.

[BadBac]

There is no question for a 53 pound bike ... disc brakes are better. It's honestly that simple.

[AZguy]

Brakes are over-rated, they just slow you down!


But really... On my present [four pot disk] bike I can stoppie easily with fingertip control, and do so when the feeling hits me

Rode a friends rim brake bike just a few months ago and scared the poo out of myself - I'm way too used to approaching turns hot and scrubbing the speed very quickly before entering the turn... not a good idea with rim brakes... just about blew the first turn I hit and I wasn't even going fast...


If you place any value on stopping power, brake precision and modulation, and frankly safety, then this is a silly debate IMO

If you don't care about those, then why not just use cheap tennis shoes? Likely about as good (or better) as rim brakes =]

Other pluses for disks include (but far from limited to): way better brake "feel", silly easy pad (or rotor) replacement, no need to later adjust after pad replacement if hydro, wet performance night/day, far greater mechanical advantage (less finger force), tolerance for out-of-true rim, if metallic pads are appropriate they last a very long time, no rim wear, etc., etc.


It is a matter of personal preference, sure... for me I went over to disk somewhere around '90 and will never, ever buy a bike that doesn't have them and will take hydro unless going really cheap or perhaps on a bike that won't get ridden much...

[Retrorockit]

TDF= Tour de Faceplant.Even those guys have gone to discs after about 10 years of trying not to.
I see guys in the tour when they really need to stop they unclip and drag their feet. No OTB issues.