I agree. My tin donkey has rim brakes and whist I would be happier with disc brakes, rim brakes work adequately for me.
I would not buy a new bike with rim brakes, but I'm not going to ditch my exiting, perfectly functional bike with rim brakes.
I often hit speeds of up to ~24 mph on downhill sections, tend to ease back at this point though. Any faster starts to feel too fast for all sorts of reasons.
It's not only about which brake type is more powerful, and offroad areas there is more data available, with riders today consistently choosing powerful 4 pot brakes and 200/200 or 220/200 rotors. They are the ones pulling on the levers, so they are the best people to judge whats working for them.
Rim brakes on the position on the wheel are the outside, which is effectively a24" or whatever rotor, more torque is applied kind of(you know what I mean)
Where disc excel is consistent performance, and its just as well we all live in California where it never rains, or snows and theres no mud... no hang on. We in the UK get lots of rain, lots of mud, in fact we're known for it.
Having a heavy bike, and lets face it gentlemen, we aint no 60kg racing snakes its a lot for the brakes to cope with, especially when the braking parts are soaking wet. And it has been shown and proven beyond any sort of doubt that rim brakes suffer badly when the system is wet. Disc on the other hand generate quite a lot of heat which arrives quickly, so sheds dampness off the braking surface and while there might be an initial lack, that vanishes very quickly and full braking power is achieved.
I, in the wet anyway, engage my brakes slightly to first clear off any sitting water, but i have the power that if i crank on the levers the nm against the rotor is going to stop me when i want it to.
So for consistent braking in the conditions we in the UK face, discs will always be superiour to rim brakes.
This test show how disc seriously out perform rim brakes in the wet, and it is al round performance we need to consider in the equation. Its all very well pointing out int he dry they are similar, then sticking your fingers in your ears and saying la la la la when the subject changes to wet performance.
Because as 365 users, we're going to face all conditions, and thats why we need our brakes to be consistent.
Keep in mind this test is conducted with the very best rim brakes available, Not afterthought cheap rim brakes and flimsy levers, and high quality road orientated rubber tyres, not cheapo plasticy ones or pseudo offroad knobbly ones that looked good in the picture.
Wet performance as you can see puts you under that bus, or across the bonnet of that impatient car
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