{"id":265210,"date":"2026-09-30T14:24:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T14:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/30\/without-rim-or-reason\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T14:24:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T14:24:15","slug":"without-rim-or-reason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/30\/without-rim-or-reason\/","title":{"rendered":"Without Rim Or Reason"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I possess many great qualities, but perhaps the greatest is my unbeatable modesty. This is why you\u2019ll never hear me brag about being the world\u2019s greatest bike blogger, or cycling\u2019s preeminent Y-Foil expert<\/a>, or the genius who coined pretty much the entire lexicon of urban cycling<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Also, I just happen to be the cycling media\u2019s foremost rim brake apologist. Okay, fine, admittedly that\u2019s a pretty low bar, and kind of like being the biggest Neil Diamond fan at the death metal concert. Still, nobody defends rim brakes as staunchly, passionately, and\u2013let\u2019s be frank here\u2013insanely as I do<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Which nets me nothing except stupid Internet comments like this:<\/p>\n

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Good point. That\u2019s why every Tour de France mountain stage prior to 2018 ended in a pile-up at the bottom of the descent. Also, two can play at the \u201cI ride more seriously than you which is why I need the new bike tech and you don\u2019t\u201d game. Guess what, Brimstone 117? I\u2019m a better cyclist than you and rim brakes are fantastic, and if you can\u2019t ride the Swiss Alps with nothing to stop you but a pair of antique Delta brakes then you suck and you\u2019re a loser:<\/p>\n

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[All bow to Bike Snob NYC, King of All Freds<\/a>]<\/p>\n

By the way, is there anybody who needs to get over themselves more desperately than the cyclists of Colorado?<\/p>\n

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Just kidding, I\u2019m not really asking, we all know the answer is \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n

So as the greatest living defender of rim brake road bikes, I suppose I should feel vindicated when I see something like this<\/a>, right?<\/p>\n

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Hey, here\u2019s the most mainstream of all cycling publications publicly stating that even today in 2026 a rim brake road bike still<\/em> rides better than a disc brake road bike:<\/p>\n

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Because a great rim-brake road bike offers ride feel and sensations that, in my considerable testing experience, disc-brake road bikes still haven\u2019t quite unlocked. At least not yet. And those qualities are worth considering because they point to something that can get lost when we talk about the evolution of road bikes strictly in terms of what newer technology makes possible.<\/em><\/p>\n

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This an astounding admission\u2013so astounding that even I don\u2019t believe it. I mean, I have my reasons for sticking with road bikes with rim brakes, but a belief that a really nice bike with disc brakes can\u2019t possibly ride as sublimely as one with rim brakes is not one of them. And yet I don\u2019t feel vindicated, just as I didn\u2019t back in 2016 when the same publication\u2013and the same writer!\u2013sang the praises of long-reach (or technically medium-reach) brakes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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See, in both cases my reaction is simply, \u201cWell, okay, great, but where were you when we really needed you?\u201d It\u2019s one thing to lie in front of the bulldozer to save an important landmark that\u2019s being destroyed to make room for a Chipotle, but it\u2019s quite another to simply watch the bulldozer roll over that landmark while actually eating a burrito bowl from a Chipotle and then write something wistful about the landmark several years later. And to me, praising rim brakes now (or medium-reach brakes in 2016) feels more like the latter.*<\/p>\n

*[And yes, I will also freely admit that I resent anybody else who stands up for rim brakes because I\u2019ve built my entire identity around it and I don\u2019t want to share it. Yeah, that\u2019s right, I\u2019m gatekeeping rim brake apologism! What do you think of that!?! The only thing that scares me more than the complete disappearance of the rim brake is the resurgence of the rim brake\u2026unless I get to take credit for it. But that would never happen. Instead, when Ultraromance designs a rim brake road bike he\u2019s lauded as a genius, whereas when I stand up for rim brakes I just get Internet comments about how I\u2019m a Luddite who doesn\u2019t ride hard enough.]<\/em><\/p>\n

And what about Firefly, the maker of the rim brake in question<\/a>?<\/p>\n

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Surely I owe them a debt of gratitude for all the thought and effort they put into this rim brake bicycle, right?<\/p>\n

Right?!?<\/p>\n

ABSOLUTELY NOT.<\/p>\n

To understand why, let\u2019s take a look at what they have to say about the bike:<\/p>\n

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No one was asking us for a new rim brake model in 2026<\/strong>. But we still believe in the value of the simplicity of rim brakes, and we realized we had all of the tools we needed to build a modern, versatile, beautiful new all Ti rim brake bike, and we couldn\u2019t resist. We just had a few gaps to close.<\/em><\/p>\n