nina834•2mo agoProlific Poster

Rant: I saw a shop in Portland still using old school rim brakes on their rental fleet

I was up in Portland last month for a bike event and stopped by a shop near the river. Their whole rental fleet, maybe 30 bikes, was still running rim brakes. I asked the head mechanic about it and he said they're easier for tourists to fix if something goes wrong. I get that logic, but it feels off to me. We're talking about people who might not know how to adjust a barrel adjuster, riding in a city that can get wet. I've seen too many rim brakes fail in the rain after a few hard stops, especially with worn pads. For a rental, I think the safety of a basic disc brake, even mechanical, is worth the extra bit of teaching. It changed how I set up our own shop's loaner bikes. What do you all think is the right call for a public rental fleet?

3 comments

3 Comments

lee_barnes702mo ago

Had the same debate with my own shop. Swapped our loaners to cheap mechanical discs and it cut down on mid-rental panic calls by a ton. The real issue is that worn rim pads in the wet just don't stop a scared tourist who grabs a fistful of brake. Discs give them a fighting chance on that first steep hill in the rain, and the maintenance is honestly about the same once your guys know the basic setup.

lilyt9011d ago

Totally get where you're coming from. My buddy runs a rental fleet down in Seattle and he had the same debate. He switched to cheap mechanical discs two seasons ago and said it was the best call he ever made. Now he barely gets calls about brakes fading on wet hills, and the rentals come back in one piece way more often. I think that mechanic's point about tourists fixing rim brakes is valid for a sunny town, but for somewhere like Portland or Seattle, disc brakes win every time. It just makes sense to give people a brake that works when they panic and grab a handful.

the_diana2mo ago

Honestly, that's a huge liability. Rim brakes in a wet city are a bad mix. Tourists panic-brake all the time. A basic mechanical disc setup is way more reliable for that first scary stop in the rain.