Whither Rim Brakes? – Bike Snob NYC

Further to yesterday’s post, I closed out last weekend with a chilly Sunday ride on what is currently my most modern-est road bike:

Though it occurred to me that it’s really not modern at all, not even close. No, this bike is thoroughly “vintage” now. As an aging Fred it seems like only yesterday to me that stuff like integrated shifting, 1 1/8″ threadless steerers, crabon forks, and double-digit cassettes (10 whole speeds!!!) represented the cutting edge of racing bike technology. But apart from the odd newer component (the cranks, for example) the above bike is now well over 20 years old, and it’s a hoary antique compared to the plastic space bikes the pros ride today:

This compelled me to take inventory of the current state of rim brakes and road bikes–not in the highly subjective “disc brakes are evil” sense, but more in the dispassionate “I’m old and confused, can you still even still buy a road bike with rim brakes?” sense.

My “modern” bike is equipped with a Campagnolo Record 10-speed drivetrain now. I’ve had newer drivetrains since then (yes, including Di2, which is what came on the wooden bike), but to me the 10-speed Record still feels like the exotic pro-level stuff it was when it first came out–partially because I think mechanical drivetrains haven’t really changed all that much since them apart from adding a couple more cogs, and partially because, you know, I’m old.

There’s really no reason I, an aging semi-professional bike blogger, would need to replace the functionally perfect Record 10-speed drivetrain on that Litespeed. Also, it seems like the older I get the less interested I am in modern parts, which is why most of my bikes have friction shifting now. But let’s say I was a normal person, and I did need a new drivetrain with integrated shifting and lots of cogs to suit my racy titanium road bike. What’s currently available–not available as in “in stock” or “on eBay,” but available as in “the company is actually still making it”–in a rim brake drivetrain in 2024?

Well, thanks to the Internet, the global economy, yadda yadda etc. and so forth, there are all sorts of road bike drivetrains out there these days:

But if you’re shopping for a new rim brake drivetrain for your cherished classic, you’re probably old and confused, and therefore you’re also scared of new things. Yes, those scary new things are probably made by the same people who make the stuff you find familiar and reassuring, but that’s not the point. The point is you’re not plowing any new furrows at this point in your life, so let’s stick with the Big Three, which if you’re old and confused means Shimano, Campagnolo, and those young upstarts over at SRAM.

Of those, as far as I can tell, the only company still currently offering a rim brake road bike drivetrain at the higher end is Campagnolo, and their website shows mechanical rim brake options from Super Record right on down to Chorus:

Of course Campagnolo have always offered various drivetrains below Chorus, but I don’t see any of those on their website, so I don’t know if that means they don’t make them anymore or what. Obviously Campagnolo have long been overtaken by Shimano and SRAM in terms of sales, so maybe they’ve had to pare down their offerings in recent years, but I really have no idea. In any case, if you were an aging Fred and wanted to replace the old Record drivetrain on your vintage Litespeed with the modern equivalent then something like that Chorus group would be an obvious choice.

Given this, I was curious to learn more about the latest Chorus stuff, and so I read a review and was surprised to learn there’s still a notion floating around that Campagnolo is “beautiful” because it’s Italian:

I’m sure the newer Campy stuff works great, but it has not been objectively attractive since the 10-speed era, though I’m sure plenty of Campyphiles would argue it got ugly as soon as Tullio’s body was cold. Either way, there’s certainly nothing beautiful about it now. I mean look at that shifter, it looks like Cthulu:

I’m not saying I wouldn’t put the latest Chorus parts on that Litespeed, because I totally would, but I certainly wouldn’t do it for aesthetic purposes.

I think every roadie of a certain age hopes Campagnolo will relinquish their place in the pro peloton forever, keep offering high-end mechanical rim brake drivetrains indefinitely, and devote themselves entirely to developing products for mature riders who want to keep their classic road bikes running with dignity:

[Classic Cycle]

However, that’s probably not a great way to stay in business–though at least it’s easy to offer a lifetime warranty when most of your customers have already reached retirement age.

As for Shimano, it looks like they’re disc brake only all the way through 105:

Though they still offer rim brake Tiagra:

It’s a little sad that what is for all practical purposes Shimano’s top end road bike rim brake doesn’t even come with cartridge brake pads. This being Shimano I’m sure it works great, and in fact I’m sure the entire Tiagra drivetrain works great. No doubt the only reason not to put it on your old Litespeed or similar is vanity. At the same time, it’s pretty obvious that Shimano has reached the point where they’re finished refining anything rim brake-related and are instead just slowly taking away features to cut costs, and unlike Campagnolo you can’t really delude themselves that they’re going to be there for you if you want to keep your fancy rim brake road bike running well into your golden years. You may be just fine putting Tiagra on that old road bike, but you probably won’t be fine with whatever their best rim brake road group is in five or ten years.

And SRAM? Don’t even think about it. Forget rim brakes–if you want mechanical you can’t even get a front derailleur from them:

Hey, I think the Eagle drivetrain on my Jones is great. But if you’re talking about keeping a classic road bike going, SRAM is not your friend.

Of course, there’s no reason for these companies to keep making rim brake road bike drivetrains when no companies are putting it on their bikes. (Except for Campagnolo, who can do what they want, because no companies put Campagnolo on their road bikes anyway.) Most remaining rim brake road bikes from the big companies are budget models and are on closeout:

Or out of stock:

Though I was surprised to see Cannondale still appears to offer a whole range of rim brake road bikes:

Mostly though, new rim brake road bikes today are limited to heritage models:

Or frames from companies like Rivendell and Crust:

Of those, only the Master is a candidate for a full modern road bike drivetrain, whereas the Rivendell and the Crust will likely be build more esoterically, as with those bikes getting all sorts of disparate stuff to work together is kind of the point, so it doesn’t really matter what the Big Three are doing with their road drivetrains. In fact the Crust doesn’t even take matching brakes:

As for traditional road bikes, I knew the rim brake was dead, but I didn’t quite appreciate just how dead it was until now. That’s not to say they’ll be hard to come by or anything like that–a brake caliper lasts roughly forever, and I doubt supply on the used market will come close to being exhausted in our lifetime–but it is to say they’re officially “retro,” and as squarely in the past as downtube shifters and toe clips. 

Did I call it?

Or did I call it?