[dirtydirtysouf]

ive riden bikes with rims brakes (fisher advance) and disk brakes (GT's)....but a buddy of mine has a K2 F/S (i think thats the name) with diskfronts and rim rears.......what is the advantage with doing this type of set up..............he clames that when he is going down steep trails that he can control his speed better with the rear brake (rim brakse) cause it doesnt "lock" down as hard as a disk brake and make him slide.

is there any real advantage with doing a set-up like this.....the bike looks factory done like that.........

 

[binary visions]

A lot of older bikes were done like that when frame mounts for disc brakes were less common than fork mounts. The manufacturers could put a disc brake on the front by just spec'ing a different fork and front wheel, whereas putting a disc brake on the rear required retooling the frame manufacturing process. Also, when disc brakes were still very expensive, only spec'ing one disc brake cut the price of the bike.

Other reasons to do this might be weight (the front rotor handles most of the braking power so you can skimp on the rear's brake strength to gain a little weight savings) or if you do a lot of rear wheel hopping, trials-style, since that puts an enormous amount of stress on that little disc mount.

I think your buddy is full of it, though, when he claims he has better control. A properly set up disc brake provides a huge amount of power but I've rarely been in a situation where I simply couldn't keep the rear wheel from locking up. Maybe he's just trying to justify his bike, or maybe he just doesn't know any better.