Disc brakes

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si_c

Guru
Location
Wirral
I'm curious whether anyone has any experience with hydraulic brakes, cable actuated brakes and cable actuated hydraulics such as the TRP HY/RD and what they found the differences between the three are.

I'm getting a bike soon(tm) which will have cable actuated discs, it has the ports to swap to full hydraulics should I desire, but given that that would essentially require a whole new groupset (not out of the question further down the line), I was wondering whether it would be worth "upgrading" the calipers to TRP HY/RDs. Plus I like the ease of maintenance of cables, I understand how to fix problems with them, and can do so quickly and easily at the side of the road if needed.

Bear in mind that whatever brakes I go to are better than the ones I am using currently (Mafac Racer centrepulls), which whilst not terrible in the dry are terrifyingly poor in the wet.
 

Supersuperleeds

Legendary Member
Location
Leicester
Yeah the AVID BB5's were single dial. The BB7's double dial, which I think I adjust every couple/few months. I think you have just been unlucky. My bike, as you know also does a fair few miles.

Might also help if I cleaned the bike more often :whistle:
 

the_mikey

Legendary Member
There's another issue with disc brakes too. If you get a badly bent disc in a tumble, which is far easier to achieve than with the bigger MTB type discs, which you can't true at the roadside, you are more than likely going to find yourself walking home / calling in a spousal evacuation. If you can bodge it by unhooking the effected calliper and cable tying it out of the way, you're riding with one brake missing.

That's one shortcoming that doesn't seem to go away, discs are forever getting damaged in the workplace bike stand, the only way to avoid it is to wrap the bike in cotton wool or leave it at home.
 
Location
Alberta
I'm curious whether anyone has any experience with hydraulic brakes, cable actuated brakes and cable actuated hydraulics such as the TRP HY/RD and what they found the differences between the three are.

I'm getting a bike soon(tm) which will have cable actuated discs, it has the ports to swap to full hydraulics should I desire, but given that that would essentially require a whole new groupset (not out of the question further down the line), I was wondering whether it would be worth "upgrading" the calipers to TRP HY/RDs. Plus I like the ease of maintenance of cables, I understand how to fix problems with them, and can do so quickly and easily at the side of the road if needed.

Bear in mind that whatever brakes I go to are better than the ones I am using currently (Mafac Racer centrepulls), which whilst not terrible in the dry are terrifyingly poor in the wet.
My Kona CX had mechanical disc brakes, forever adjusting them and tbh I would have preferred cantis, however I now have full hydraulic on the Specialized Crux, and also used a Raleigh with hyd brakes on one race, difference is more than noticeable.
 

iZaP

Über Member
Location
Reigate
I'm curious whether anyone has any experience with hydraulic brakes, cable actuated brakes and cable actuated hydraulics such as the TRP HY/RD and what they found the differences between the three are.

I'm getting a bike soon(tm) which will have cable actuated discs, it has the ports to swap to full hydraulics should I desire, but given that that would essentially require a whole new groupset (not out of the question further down the line), I was wondering whether it would be worth "upgrading" the calipers to TRP HY/RDs. Plus I like the ease of maintenance of cables, I understand how to fix problems with them, and can do so quickly and easily at the side of the road if needed.

Bear in mind that whatever brakes I go to are better than the ones I am using currently (Mafac Racer centrepulls), which whilst not terrible in the dry are terrifyingly poor in the wet.

I used to ride a jamis bosa nova which had avid bb5's and now I ride with specialized sequoia with hydraulic brakes - Shimano BR-RS505.

Breaking with the new bike, is much better and effective I have to say, love hydraulics.
 

pclay

Veteran
Location
Rugby
I recently got some hy/rd disc brakes to replace my cable brakes. They are nearly as good as hydro brakes
 

Slick

Guru
I have hydraulic discs on my mountain bike, but for some reason, never took to it for all sorts of reasons. I bought a road bike with cantilevered brakes and loved it, except when trying to stop or even slow down on some of the down hill sections on my commute, I tried all sorts of pads, but nothing really filled me with confidence on a wet winters morning. I now have cabled disc breaks on another road bike, and have at last found my perfect combination. Not much chance of me being in a race any time soon, so can't see the problem.
 
Does anyone make a cable disc brake designed to mount on the chainstay? All of the standard seatstay mounted MTB ones have the cable exiting at the wrong angle, the cable drum rotating the wrong way and the design does little to keep the workings inboard of the mouting position.
 

ianrauk

Tattooed Beat Messiah
Location
Rides Ti2
Does anyone make a cable disc brake designed to mount on the chainstay? All of the standard seatstay mounted MTB ones have the cable exiting at the wrong angle, the cable drum rotating the wrong way and the design does little to keep the workings inboard of the mouting position.
You can use Avid bb7's on either. Current bike has them chain stay mounted, previous bike, seat stay.
 

mattobrien

Guru
Location
Sunny Suffolk
I have Avid BB7's and have ridden them over 5,000 miles with only one problem. The issue was that part of the braking material on the pad broke off and fell in between the pads when the bike was upside down having a puncture fixed. Took me a minute to work out why I couldn't get the disc back in, but quickly fixed. Pads replaced and back on the road. To be fair, I really like them as brakes.
I also have discs on my CAAD 12 (hydraulic) and they are very good too. I have also spec'd etap hrd on my next bike, so you could say I am a disc convert. The sram hrd will be paired with Enve 5.6's, so I will never wear out a rim.

I now need sram to actually make a ship the etap hrd, ordered on October on promise of early 2017 delivery, now put back to June or July. I hope they're worth waiting for...
 
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