If you wanna dive down a real cycling rabbit hole, simply Google “rim brakes vs. disc brakes.” You’ll turn up a treasure trove of road tests, opinion pieces and Reddit posts weighing the relative merits of the two most common types of bicycle braking mechanisms, with plenty of passion on both sides.
Even with their disadvantages, rim brakes do offer a certain old-school charm that disc brakes can never hope to match.
In a practical sense, however, the debate is kinda over. With the newer stopping technology gaining almost universal adoption among mountain bike and gravel bike makers and UCI, the world governing body of cycling, allowing them on competitive road bikes in 2018, disc brakes have basically won.
However, just as some purists still beat the drum for fixies and rigid mountain bikes, a certain population of curmudgeons traditionalists will probably always prefer classic rim brakes. And today, those folks can rejoice, as renowned Italian cycling brand Colnago has introduced a rim brake version of its lovely C68 road bike.
ColnagoColnago C68 Rim Brake
Rim brakes vs. disc brakes
Before getting into the details, let’s briefly review the major pros and cons of rim brakes, which are increasingly hard to find, especially on higher-end bikes.
On the upside, rim brakes are typically simpler and cheaper than disc brakes, easier to adjust and repair and less weighty (though disc brake setups keep getting lighter). Some contend that certain types of rim brakes (i.e. V-brakes) have superior stopping power. And while it is somewhat subjective, their relatively minimal profile can give your bike a cleaner look, too.
