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Comment by exabrial | Hacker News Reader

> Disc brakes, which are now on almost every new bicycle, all have different axle designs, meaning that every vehicle now requires proprietary spare parts

There are so many errors in this article. This isn’t even close to the truth and this is just outright ignorance.

Disc brakes are highly highly standardized. Shimano for instance made public its Microspline standard and there are dozens of aftermarket choices. Shimano actually does an incredible job, making sure all of their parts between entire groupsets are cross compatible.

SRAM has their official parts, but also has myriad of aftermarket parts available.

The only issue are Walmart bikes. These are generally one off production runs that are designed not to be repairable. They will include everything from odd size tires to welded bottom brackets.

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If the primary focus is reliability and ease of maintenance, cable actuated disc brakes are by far the best. It is very easy to change pads and they just work. Hydraulic disc brakes have far better performance (important for mountain bikes) but eventually require bleeding, cable changes, etc. Caliper breaks can be lighter weight (good for high end road bikes). For a commuter bike however, cable actuated disc brakes are inexpensive and best.

I'd argue hydraulic disk brakes are easier to maintain. They automatically adjust as your pads wear down and won't have any potential problems with the cables corroding, wearing, sticking, etc.

I have hydraulic brakes on my mountain bike and cable actuated disc brakes on my commuter. The commuter bike requires no maintenance outside of changing pads. Every mountain bike I’ve ever owned has required semi-regular brake bleeds. This is a clear performance / reliability trade off.

Agreed. And you don't have "mystery" issues with mechanical discs, like when the piston gets gunked up and doesn't return properly when releasing the lever.

Isn't microspline for cassettes?

Disc brakes are either 6-bolt or centerlock, AFAIK.

And disk breaks are almost impossible to maintain for 'regular' people. Having these integrated brakes, shifters adds too much complexity. Many people would need to have the bicycle shop maintain the bicycle and a rather decent cost.

Older bikes with separate sifters, breaks handles and brake pads can be maintained by almost anyone. When commuting, you are not in a race, but just poke along around 10mph (~16kph). Plus if you have issues on your commute, you can quickly fix (or jury rig) it yourself with only a minimal set of tools.

How exactly are they impossible to maintain? You literally remove one cotter pin, take old pads out, put new ones in and you’re done. They self align. They wear themselves in.

Clincher brakes are nearly impossible to get aligned and to pull straight. They stretch over time and as the brakes wear they have to be adjusted to maintain what little power they have.

>> And disk breaks are almost impossible to maintain for 'regular' people

This may be true for hydraulic disc brakes but cable actuated are by far the easiest to maintain.

I guess I grew up in a different time when people weren't completely helpless with mechanical stuff, but bleeding the disc brakes on a car is not a difficult job for a backyard mechanic, and people have been doing this for decades. The hydraulic brakes on newer bikes aren't much different, and aren't that hard to do with a $20 bleed kit from Amazon. They are a bit more finicky in my experience than car brakes, but it's not something you have to do very often; I just replaced the fluid on my road bike after 4 years and it still looks like new.

Mountain bikes still use separate pieces. It’s the road bikes that are highly integrated (and more costly). If you can put mtb components on your bike you’ll save a lot of money.

Spoiler: on my dropbar tourism bike I was lucky enough to have post mount brake connectors, so I bought mtb (deore) calipers, saving considerable money over almost identical road calipers.

> And disk breaks are almost impossible to maintain for 'regular' people.

Can you expand on what you perceive as difficult? Sure, some people don't want to maintain anything themselves (that's fine, that's why bike shops exist), but assuming one wants to do it, bike disk brakes are easy.

Swapping pads is super easy and if the use case is "poke along around 10mph" they will last thousands of miles. If they are hydraulic you'll need to bleed them once every few years but again that's pretty easy.

It is incredibly easy to screw up cantilever brakes as well. Braking, yes. But doing it safely and efficiently? no.

Brifters are not anymore complex than separate brake/shifters and quite robust, you need no special tools or skills. These are not disc centric. Cable pull discs are no different than rim brakes when it comes the maintenance.

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