On Wednesday, June 3, 2020 at 7:12:54 PM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 6/3/2020 8:02 PM, Roger Merriman wrote:
Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 6/3/2020 3:33 PM, wrote:

The end result would be a shifting/braking system that has extremely
light touch without ever having to recharge a battery. What do you gain
by electronic shifting other than automatic compensation for front chain-line?

I'm puzzled by the high value some people place on a "light touch,"
whether braking or shifting. ISTM light acting controls are a benefit
only up to a point.

Brakes that can lock a wheel with a few ounces of lever force make no
sense to me.

Try MTB or Gravel descents, older MTB on steeper stuff the burn on the
forearms is real, and the older (tech) CX bike which had canti reminded me
of this few years back, present Gravel bike has cable disks which are okay
but not stellar, my MTB has hydro as does my old commuting beast which are
far better in high load sort of stuff. And let’s not forget the not needing
to adjust pads etc.

Adjusting pads is sort of a side issue, since I was talking only about
force on the controls. Although to me, not needing to adjust hydraulic
disc pads is kind of balanced by needing to prissily clean things with
cotton swabs when replacing pads.

I don't clean my disc calipers with cotton swabs. I just drop in a set of pads. Screw in the screw and replace the tiny little snap clip retainer. It takes less time than changing rim brake pads. Your proper complaint is price and longevity -- which can be recouped with savings on rims if you ride in the rain or dirty conditions, one hopes.

Also, adjusting caliper rim brake pads is a two second operation, and I don't see that as any reason for switching to hydro discs -- although it is a reason for going with hydro discs rather than cable discs. It's easy to forget to adjust cable disc pads, and you can end up with some braking surprises, IMO.

I understand the benefits of less lever force for long, steel mountain
bike downhills. Not that I ride those any more.

But even for road riding, there's been a long trend to less and less
lever force, long ago leading to in-line force-reducing spring gizmos so
people riding comfort bikes on MUPs didn't lock up the front wheel and
take headers. And I've seen a novice flip a bike because it had dual
pivot brakes, when she was used to single pivot.

BTW, our neighborhood paramedic just took delivery of a new gravel bike.
She asked me to solve a little problem with it, so I got a brief test
ride. It was interesting to me that her cable discs did not have
super-low lever force like some other discs I've tried. In fact, I
thought her back brake felt rather weak, which surprised me. (I don't
know the brake model; I'll have to check.)

Some cable discs are dreadful because of long, fully encased cable runs with hard turns that produce a lot of drag. You have to do some fussing to overcome it. My warranty replacement commuter frame had that problem when I threw on my old BB7 rear brake (which had notoriously weak return springs), so I switched to hydro. Works great now.

-- Jay Beattie.