Another good reason to not adopt disc brakes on road bikes.

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Drago

Legendary Member
Price over safety?
I’ll stick with discs.
(This is of course my opinion, but as it’s me that rides my bikes other opinions of what I choose to ride don’t count).

Some of my bikes are disc. Some are rim. I can lock the brakes and endo all of them, wet or dry. I'm the only person who rides my bikes, so I make sure they all work properly.

I have had disc brakes that were scary bad. I have owned rim brakes that felt like someone had shoved a broom handle in the spokes. There's no automatic correlation either way. Wear is indeed a cited advantage of disc brakes, but then I've never worn out a rim yet either, and I'm a very heavy chap.

Methinks the case is overstated in all areas of this particular debate, both pro disc and pro rim.
 
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Alan O

Über Member
Location
Liverpool
One thing I've noticed recently is that when I'm riding in a group, I use my brakes a lot more than when I'm cycling alone - almost entirely for adjusting my distance from the cyclist in front. Annoyingly, I often seem to have to do it going downhill, as I appear to have more downhill momentum than others (which surely can't be anything to do with my body weight :rolleyes:).

On the subject of favourite brakes, I ride three bikes regularly - two road/touring bikes, one with calipers and one with cantilevers, and a mountain bike with hydraulic disks. And in most conditions I can lock the front wheel on any of them.

I do love the disk brakes for off-road, partly because they don't fade when the rims get muddy. But on road I think cantilevers are my number one choice (obviously out of the specific brakes I have, and I can't really make a generalization as I've only ever had one model of cantilever and one of disk brakes).
 

Alan O

Über Member
Location
Liverpool
Using your brakes when riding in close formation is poor technique and a very good way to cause a crash.
It's not close-formation club-type rides, just a bunch of pootlers riding all variety of bikes and usually quite strung out. I just don't like getting too close to the cyclist in front, and I'm always aware if someone is close behind me.
 

smutchin

Cat 6 Racer
Location
The Red Enclave
It's not close-formation club-type rides, just a bunch of pootlers riding all variety of bikes and usually quite strung out. I just don't like getting too close to the cyclist in front, and I'm always aware if someone is close behind me.

Still better to ease off the pedalling before you get that close rather than use the brakes. The other thing to do is move slightly sideways, out of the rider's slipstream - that'll slow you down surprisingly quickly.
 

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
One thing I've noticed recently is that when I'm riding in a group, I use my brakes a lot more than when I'm cycling alone - almost entirely for adjusting my distance from the cyclist in front. Annoyingly, I often seem to have to do it going downhill, as I appear to have more downhill momentum than others (which surely can't be anything to do with my body weight :rolleyes:).
I noticed that on my forum ride yesterday. I weigh 2.5 stone more than my friend who was in front of me a lot of the time. I kept catching him up every time the road dipped downwards, even though I stopped pedalling.

Still better to ease off the pedalling before you get that close rather than use the brakes. The other thing to do is move slightly sideways, out of the rider's slipstream - that'll slow you down surprisingly quickly.
I tried that. It did slow down how quickly I caught him but several times I freewheeled past him when I hadn't braked to avoid catching up.
 

crazyjoe101

New Member
Location
London
My good bike has Ultegra rim brakes and I've never really felt that I'm lacking any braking power as if it's wet enough to start to reduce braking power then I am also not on the brakes as much because I don't want to lock a wheel or slide.
I do get tired of clearing the crud off the rims and pads on my winter bike though and I think for ease of maintenance I'd rather have rim brakes on that one, on my good bike I'd not see any difference 99% of the time.
 

Milzy

Guru
I don’t have a disk bike anymore but wish I did for the Fred Whitton. Nothing worse than going down 25% hills in the wet and you are squeezing both rin brakes so tight and they just fade.
 

booze and cake

probably out cycling
PS To illustrate my point about descending scary hills ... Try going down Birchcliffe Road in Hebden Bridge without heavy use of brakes!

View attachment 401464

Those hidden hairpins you have up there are evil and can indeed scare the bejesus out of you. I have only ridden in that part of the world once, when the TDF was in town in 2014, and I remember nearly having a trouser accident as a result of a terrifying double hairpin on Stocks Lane on the descent into Luddenden. Here; https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.7...4!1sfVqceQSkzhmfL5UcqOiKcw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

I'm still not sure how I did'nt come a massive cropper and go over the barriers that day. Stunning riding around there though, wish I had that on my doorstep, well jealous.
 

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
Those hidden hairpins you have up there are evil and can indeed scare the bejesus out of you. I have only ridden in that part of the world once, when the TDF was in town in 2014, and I remember nearly having a trouser accident as a result of a terrifying double hairpin on Stocks Lane on the descent into Luddenden. Here; https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.7...4!1sfVqceQSkzhmfL5UcqOiKcw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

I'm still not sure how I did'nt come a massive cropper and go over the barriers that day. Stunning riding around there though, wish I had that on my doorstep, well jealous.
Ha ha - yes, I know Stocks Lane well and can quite imagine your reaction to that! I had the opposite problem when I first rode it, in the other direction ... I struggled up to the first of the hairpins, having somehow convinced myself that it was the top of the climb. As the second hairpin unfolded though, I realised that I was only halfway up and it was getting steeper! I very nearly came to a dead stop and had to bust a gut to continue. (I put lower gears on my bike soon after that.)

You get a good view of the hairpins in this video ...



How fit are they! :eek:
 

SkipdiverJohn

Deplorable Brexiteer
Location
London
Nothing worse than going down 25% hills in the wet and you are squeezing both rin brakes so tight and they just fade.

I wouldn't descend a gradient that steep on a bike, simple as that - I'd walk down it - at least until I was near the bottom where there was less potential for momentum to build up. I have a relative who lives at the top of a steep gradient; not as much as 25% but probably not far off 15%. I used to visit on my 3-speed roadster with 26" steel rims. Unless I got a clear run turning into the road, pedalling furiously in Low gear, I'd have to walk up the last bit as it was a leg killer, and I would only ever ride down again, with great care, if the weather was completely dry. If it was at all wet, I would walk down, as the braking on steel rims was simply too poor to be able to reliably stop at the T-junction at the end of the road!
There's no shame in getting off your bike and tackling very steep descents on foot. It's better than crashing.
 

gaijintendo

Veteran
Location
Scotchland
I was useless at adjusting my bb7s, so much so, I replacd pads way too soon...

I just stuck she first set of pads I ever owned back on my bike last week :smile: so I'm fairly glad I thought they looked surprisingly beefy when i took the out.

Ymmv.
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
Discs on bikes are no more exposed to the elements than they are on motorcycles, or even cars for that matter. Both of those have big fat tyres which throw up more crud than a skinny cycle tyre.
Car discs are rather beefier than bike ones, plus they're on the inside of the wheel, not where neighbouring cars can knock them when parked.

Anyway, they're still much more exposed than hub brakes.
 

Smokin Joe

Legendary Member
Car discs are rather beefier than bike ones, plus they're on the inside of the wheel, not where neighbouring cars can knock them when parked.

Anyway, they're still much more exposed than hub brakes.
I can't see how a neighbouring car can knock a disc on either a cycle or motorcycle without first destroying the fork. And car discs are just as exposed to the elements as any other.
 
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