What do you think of Shimano ditching rim brakes in 105 and higher?

[ChromeChainstay]

I've been able to ride a bike for over 60 years now, and spent quite a while working in both manufacture and retail in the industry. I've seen things come and go - some have been well-needed whilst others have been solutions looking for problems. In most cases, it's horses for courses - for some disciplines disc brakes are ideal, for others rim brakes are better, similar with tubed tyres and tubeless - none of them are all things to all men.
From my own point of view, I've yet to understand why threadless headsets caught on - 2 of my bikes have them but I much prefer the threaded one on my other bike (and the quill stem too).
At the most basic level, a push bike is possibly the most simple machine we use, along the same sort of level of complexity as using a piece of chalk to write but that's not good enough for some people, they have to make it as complex as they possibly can - not helped by things like national safety regulations which mandate dropout tabs because some people are too thick to understand how to correctly fasten a quick release lever.
Then you get proprietary and non-universal parts. Even just a few years ago (well, decades perhaps) if you needed a part for a bike you could walk into a bike shop (or even some hardware stores) and chances were you could buy a part that fitted the bike.
And the same part would fit your neighbour's bike and most, if not all the bikes in your street.
OK, there were things like Raleigh bikes used 26tpi threads while other UK bikes used 24tpi and there were some weird fittings for some continental bikes, but mostly the stuff was universal. If you broke your super lightweight rear gear changer on a Sunday morning before a race you could go into Halfords (which even before Sunday trading could open because it sold bike parts), buy a cheap gear change, fit it, adjust it and race. OK, maybe it wouldn't change as well as the broken one used to and probably didn't look that great, but it fitted and did the job.
Not now - oh no, the level of proprietary fittings is now such that shops simply can't hold the parts available. It's like going to a main dealer for a car part, you have to wait until an order is fulfilled. Which has a lead time - if you're lucky it'll be days but if not, it's months.
In my parent's garage there are 6 (or maybe 7) bikes which haven't been ridden in over 20 years, probably nearer 30. I could go there this afternoon, pump up the tyres and if the tubes held air, ride each one of them and the brakes would work. From my experiences with cars - especially classic cars - if they had hydraulic disc brakes the chances are that the brakes either wouldn't work at all or would blow their seals at first activation.

continue writing please! I am now in a very good mood

 

[minor_LEGEND]

The article says quite clearly that is not the case. Rim braked bikes were very much a part of the ranges offered but people were choosing disc models instead.

Given that purchasing patterns of new bikes shifted so quickly, it’s quite understandable that Shimano would cease production, there just isn’t demand there anymore apart from on the lunatic fringe, which is where we come in.

Quoted from page 14 of this thread; those sales entirely influenced by marketing, point of sales 'blurb' & the uptake of discs/latest componentry within the pro peloton.

 

[Russell]

^^
I can only speak personally but I’ve been using disc brakes on my mountain bikes for nigh on 25 years.

When the opportunity came more recently to purchase a new road bike, I was faced with the choice between rim brakes or the same all weather performance of my MTBs, I chose discs.

No marketing blurb, POS or pro endorsement swayed my decision. It was based on decades of using discs on other genres of bicycle and an appreciation of the benefits.

 

[Rapparee87]

I love cycling, 44 years a 'proper' cyclist. I'll stay with my rim brakes, my threaded headset, my quill stem, my (skinny) tubs, my visible cables, my chrome forks and stays and my white socks thank you.

I don't remotely care about disc brakes, carbon fibre, wireless thingummies, fat tyres or whatever ugly shite is the newest thing. Beauty matters. It's like taking an art lover from the Louvre and showing them a scrawl on a toilet wall and telling them that actually this is more valid than a Van Gogh.

What day was it decided that cycling, bikes and cycling clothing had to be as ugly and overpriced as possible? Jerseys without collars, shorts down to the kneecaps. Don't even start me on socks pulled up to almost the knees, and excuse me but anything other than white ankle socks while cycling is a crime against humanity.

Everything since c.2005 or so can go and f*ck itself. It's pig ugly, overpriced and achieves nothing that the above can't, and with more exquisite beauty. And you can throw pisspot hardshell helmets into the nearest skip too while you're at it. I feel genuinely sorry for anyone who has started cycling in the last 20 years and has to ride a contraption which looks like it was designed by a particularly dim 5 year old, and one with learning disabilities at that, and he's going to charge you more than the cost of a small car too.

Someone somewhere is pissing themselves laughing on the way to the bank, but not at my expense he isn't.

I wouldn't cross the road to piss on a 'modern' bike thanks.

 

[Battersby]

looks like it was designed by a particularly dim 5 year old, and one with learning disabilities at that..

Really?

 

[ChromeChainstay]

I love cycling, 44 years a 'proper' cyclist. I'll stay with my rim brakes, my threaded headset, my quill stem, my (skinny) tubs, my visible cables, my chrome forks and stays and my white socks thank you.

Everything since c.2005 or so can go and f*ck itself. It's pig ugly, overpriced and achieves nothing that the above can't, and with more exquisite beauty. And you can throw pisspot hardshell helmets into the nearest skip too while you're at it. I feel genuinely sorry for anyone who has started cycling in the last 20 years and has to ride a contraption which looks like it was designed by a particularly dim 5 year old, and one with learning disabilities at that, and he's going to charge you more than the cost of a small car too.

Someone somewhere is pissing themselves laughing on the way to the bank, but not at my expense he won't.

I wouldn't cross the road to piss over a 'modern' bike thanks.

actually it all went to shyt' in 96' 97'. no more leather hairnets, or no helmets at all, goodbye chromed frames and forks, but the gruppos went from jewelry (metal and serviceable) to today's carbon blobs. So quick was the change to lose the ingenuity ~ so sad actually' (friend got hit today in Miami ( broken hip and concussion) probably be dead without the helmet (maybe' ) i am not a soothsayer

 

[Russell]

Really?

Quite. Raparee87 is a real poster boy for ‘proper cyclists’

 

[d8mok]

Ugly? I guess it’s a matter of taste but I can’t envisage anyone thinking this is ugly.

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

I love cycling, 44 years a 'proper' cyclist. I'll stay with my rim brakes, my threaded headset, my quill stem, my (skinny) tubs, my visible cables, my chrome forks and stays and my white socks thank you.

I don't remotely care about disc brakes, carbon fibre, wireless thingummies, fat tyres or whatever ugly shite is the newest thing. Beauty matters. It's like taking an art lover from the Louvre and showing them a scrawl on a toilet wall and telling them that actually this is more valid than a Van Gogh.

What day was it decided that cycling, bikes and cycling clothing had to be as ugly and overpriced as possible? Jerseys without collars, shorts down to the kneecaps. Don't even start me on socks pulled up to almost the knees, and excuse me but anything other than white ankle socks while cycling is a crime against humanity.

Everything since c.2005 or so can go and f*ck itself. It's pig ugly, overpriced and achieves nothing that the above can't, and with more exquisite beauty. And you can throw pisspot hardshell helmets into the nearest skip too while you're at it. I feel genuinely sorry for anyone who has started cycling in the last 20 years and has to ride a contraption which looks like it was designed by a particularly dim 5 year old, and one with learning disabilities at that, and he's going to charge you more than the cost of a small car too.

Someone somewhere is pissing themselves laughing on the way to the bank, but not at my expense he isn't.

I wouldn't cross the road to piss on a 'modern' bike thanks.

Wow, the fashion police have arrived. I ride in what I'm wearing. As for the learning disability comment. I have no comment.

actually it all went to shyt' in 96' 97'. no more leather hairnets, or no helmets at all, goodbye chromed frames and forks, but the gruppos went from jewelry (metal and serviceable) to today's carbon blobs. So quick was the change to lose the ingenuity ~ so sad actually' (friend got hit today in Miami ( broken hip and concussion) probably be dead without the helmet (maybe' ) i am not a soothsayer

Hope your friend is doing ok

View attachment 814470

Ugly? I guess it’s a matter of taste but I can’t envisage anyone thinking this is ugly.

I think it would be improved visually with rim brakes and normal section rims, but it's not ugly. Just not quite there for me. Only my opinion. I'm not keen when people criticize aesthetics on other peoples bikes or kit as beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
I bet it's fast though which would be wasted on me

 

[Takingabreak]

actually it all went to shyt' in 96' 97'. no more leather hairnets, or no helmets at all, goodbye chromed frames and forks, but the gruppos went from jewelry (metal and serviceable) to today's carbon blobs. So quick was the change to lose the ingenuity ~ so sad actually' (friend got hit today in Miami ( broken hip and concussion) probably be dead without the helmet (maybe' ) i am not a soothsayer

^^
This.

Compare Ultegra 6500 to a modern ultegra groupset - it's all gone wrong. Beauty is of course in the eye of the beholder but I find the colnago posted above to be really ugly, chunky groupset (chainset in particular), disc brakes, fat fork, fat tubes, deep section rims, they all hurt my eyes.

A colnago master on the other hand in molteni colours would be a work of art in my eyes