The brakes on your bike are one of the things that you should never take for granted
The brakes are the main part of the safety features of a bike and staying safe of the road should be of prime importance. Road bike brakes certainly should not be neglected. You wouldn’t drive a car on the road knowing it had poor or no brakes would you?
So there are basically 2 types of brakes used on bikes these days. They are Rim brakes and Disc brakes. Rim brakes might be considered normal brakes though some might like to try and tell you they are the old fashioned type of brakes. But most all road bikes still use them today. Disc Brakes offer greater stopping power which makes them great for heavier bikes like mountain bikes. The trend may be changing though with some road bikes utilizing disc brakes today.
Some people who are more used to riding their mountain bike with disc brakes feel that the brakes on their road bike aren’t working right when they ride it. This is mostly due to the fact that the disc brakes just give so much greater braking power.
The problem with disc brakes is weight. Every road bike rider that I know seems to be looking to reduce every ounce they can from their bike and there is a huge increase in weight with disc brakes.
Some people believe that rim brakes on high end road bikes are near the end. This is primarily due to the fact that rim brakes are truly a problem when it comes to braking performance when used on carbon wheels. In my opinion this will only become reality when they have figured out how to minimize the weight of disc’s.
The trick is to get your rim brakes set up correctly and to keep them that way. They need to have perfect toe-in so they do not squeal and they need to hit the rim dead centre not at an angle or slightly off the bottom or they won’t give you the proper braking power. Then, you have to make sure that you replace the pads when they get worn.
One of the problems with rim brakes is called by different names like v brakes or side pull brakes. I know there are differences but only the technicians’ seem to know what the differences truly are. I mean you or I could look at them and see there are differences but which is it a V or U or side pull and does it really matter. What is easy to understand is they are rim brakes. As the brake lever is pulled a cable tightens and the pads on either side of the rim tighten on the rim and cause the bike to slow down.
The thing I am grateful for is they do that because I have had a number of close calls with cars and animals including some deer one afternoon that I will never forget that I had to use all the braking power I had to avoid.
Road bike brakes are changing as it seems all things do and will but the one thing that every rider need to make sure of and that is they have good working brakes on their bike so they can ride safe.
Be safe ride safe.
