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?

2 comments

2 Comments

lee_barnes702d 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.

the_diana2d 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.