OK, so apparently someone is going to have to explain this "road bike disc brake" thing to me because none of the reviews I have read make any sense to me...even as a former race car driver where brakes are extremely critical! Take this review of the Specialized S-Works Roubaix SL4 Disc Red C2 Blady Blah Blah:
"The braking doesn’t
necessarily offer any more power than a standard setup. What it does improve,
however, is the feel at the lever – being able to feed in just the right amount
of pull to scrub speed makes it a faster bike to descend on.
It enables you
to get your braking sorted with absolute confidence and then get straight back
on the power..."
I think this is all a bunch of bike industry marketing bullshit to convince everyone that they have to run out and buy disc brakes (actually even worse, pretty much a complete new bike!). The lever feel on my rim brakes is more than adequate and I certainly can get "just the right amount of pull to scrub speed" and descend at the max when needed. To improve "feel at the lever", maybe they could add some ribs or bumps to the lever for my pleasure? As for the confidence, maybe they should just learn how to descend better!
So until they sort out all the downsides that most everyone fails to discuss in their glowing reviews (which are not trivial for road bikes), I'll stick with my sub-par rim brakes. The last thing we need is even more de-standardization in the bike industry.
