rtd131 said:
... I bike to school, but i do a lot of winter and x-country riding. I can't get to my bike shop today, but around how much would it cost if i got new hubs instead of new rims. Would it be just as expensive as a new wheelset? and also, is installing discs easy?
FWIW. For the time being, before you pony up for disc brakes, you may want to look into installing some
SINTERED brake pads (they are an ORANGE color) ... basically, like having an "ink" eraser in your brake holders instead of an eraser for pencils ... sintered pads were originally (?) intended for wet/all weather braking ...
A drawback to sintered pads (there
also used to pads that were only HALF sintered & half regular) is that they will wear through the rim's braking surface faster ... I suppose that some people might wear through a rim in one year, and someone else may never enduce that much wear.
Some disc calipers are easier to install than others ... I think as many people install their own as have the shop do it. I think that, other than
cabling (or hydraulic lines), you only (?) need to worry about whether or not you need to add washers to get the caliper centered over the disc ... not all hubs will locate the disc in the same offset from the center of the hub as others.
If you switch to discs, it is recommended (though not mentioned often enough) to mount the quick release so that it is on the RIGHT side (opposite the disc) to limit the likelihood of burning your hand if you've got a "hot" disc should you need to remove the wheel ...
BTW. It's probably cheaper to buy a set of disc wheels off of eBay (new OR used) than to have new hubs relaced on your current wheels UNLESS you can do it yourself ... regardless, a disc hub can use ANY rim ... I just did a "test" lacing (i.e., I miscalculated the spoke length & need to relace it with different spokes) of a
27" rim on a Hugi disc front hub ... and, I've previously laced a set of
700c rims on a set of Shimano disc hubs as well as (of course)
26" rims ...