>As a city (Amsterdam) bike rider I still shy away from needlessly expensive or complicated technology like hydraulic disc brakes Disc brakes aren't complicate

>As a city (Amsterdam) bike rider I still shy away from needlessly expensive or complicated technology like hydraulic disc brakes Disc brakes aren't complicated or needless. However, Amsterdam is flat as a pancake, and speeds are low, so you're able to get away with those shitty coaster brakes on all the bikes there; disc brakes would probably be overkill, and coaster brakes don't have the problems with weather that rim brakes have (Amsterdam is wet, and rim brakes are ineffective when it's very wet). Also, all the bikes I saw in Amsterdam were simple one-person bikes, not heavy e-bikes with child seats. If you had big hills there, disc brakes would be basically a necessity. Here in Tokyo, all the new mamachari (bikes for mothers, with 2 child seats) are heavy e-bikes with disc brakes. It's not mountainous here but we do have hills.