Do bikes with disc brakes break more spokes?

[si_c]

Not had a broken spoke on my disc commuter. 5000miles so far. Ask me again next year.

 

[QFour]

I collided with my wife and she fell off and landed on the front wheel. Disc brake so although the wheel was a little bent and no spokes missing the bike was still rideable until I managed to get a new rim.

 

[MacB]

The advice I had from a number of very experienced tourers is that they would not recommend disc brakes on a heavily laden tour bike - particularly with a ‘heavier’ rider, as that was spoke bearking territory. Light load and light rider you might be OK.
I have a disc braked bike but I wouldn’t use it heavy laden.

Reg, what you could also ask yourself is just how much experience these very experienced tourers have of touring as a heavy rider with a full load and disc brakes. Properly built wheels and decent brakes and pads will be fine, I mean look at the abuse MTBers dish out to their machines. My anecdata for this are a few reviews I read in the early days of 'road' discs, in each case there were wheelbuild issues, brake choice issues or user error. The last was most noticeable as a couple of them reported alarming results on long, laden downhills. In both cases they'd tried to use the disc brakes like a drag brake all the way down and, surprise, surprise, they had overheating and fading problems.

The comments sections jumped all over them for not alternating the braking and using it late and heavy rather than long and easy as they did.

 

[Banjo]

Standard cheese wheels with chocolate spokes that came with my synapse disc broke quite a few.only good thing is with discs your more likely to be able to carry on riding .

 

[dan_bo]

Absolutely they do..
I braked hard with a front disc brake on my MTB!!
Flew over the bars into a tree and the bike cartwheels down the hill hitting a load of branches a d more trees.

I had a broken spoke!!!!!
If only id had rim brakes id have failed to stop and died.


But No disc brakes dont collapse a wheel

hahaha made me larf that.

 

[summerdays]

My husband broke quite a few on his wheel but I expect it was more to do with it being a hub geared bike and only 24 spokes. I've ridden my disk braked bike 10 times further at least and ive not had a single spoke break.

 

[MichaelW2]

I ride disc brakes on my everyday commuter bike and woukd happily chose them on a tourer. My tourer cantikever brakes on drop bar STI shifters are nowhere near as effective in the dry, let alone in the wet. Disc brakes are better in every way.

 

[gasinayr]

I bought a new Trek 6000 disk MTB was plagued with spokes breaking on the back wheel, got the wheel rebuilt with good quality spokes and never had one break since. So nothing to do with disk brakes just crap spokes.

 

[Norry1]

I hired a bike in June when I went to Tenerife. It was a BMC RoadMachine which had disc brakes. On the 3rd day it broke a spoke and I took it back to the shop. They said they had experienced lots of spoke breakages on their fleet and had written to BMC. Maybe it was just that model but they implied it was much more common to snap spokes on disc braked road bikes. I think the physics show that disc brakes apply more turning moment and any hint of poor design can cause problems.

Hasn't put me off - I bought a Specialized Roubaix recently which has disc brakes.

 

[Spoked Wheels]

Like with rim brakes, the spoke count higly depends on the weight of the rider and the rims you are using, however, I never use Sapim Laser spokes or DT Swiss Revolution spokes..... the middle part, 1.5mm, it's just not strong enough.

 

[User482]

I’m going to go against the perceived wisdom.

When I was looking for a new touring bike, I looked at a variety of brands and set ups - including a couple disc braked bikes. The advice I had from a number of very experienced tourers is that they would not recommend disc brakes on a heavily laden tour bike - particularly with a ‘heavier’ rider, as that was spoke bearking territory. Light load and light rider you might be OK.

If you look at a lot of the touring bikes designed for heavy duty touring - and aimed at the heavier riders (e.g. the German and Dutch brands) - they’re still using rim brakes.

I have a disc braked bike but I wouldn’t use it heavy laden.

A trailer, two kids, me, panniers and my bike is a combined weight of about 150kg. I have never broken a spoke on my disc-braked commuter.

 

[MacB]

A trailer, two kids, me, panniers and my bike is a combined weight of about 150kg. I have never broken a spoke on my disc-braked commuter.

Feck me you're a lightweight, I can cover the 150kg minus trailer, kids, panniers and bike

 

[Ajax Bay]

the physics show that disc brakes apply more turning moment

Care to expand on that? For a given rate of deceleration (ceteris paribus) surely both types of brake need to exert the same turning moment.

As far as spoke failure is concerned, there are greater variations in tension in the spokes of a disc braked wheel because the stress caused by the disc braking effect needing to be transmitted from the hub (to which the disc is attached) to the rim (where the tyre/surface frictional force needs to act to slow the bike down). The spokes transmit this. But compared to the variations in spoke tension experienced as the wheel goes round (and the tension in the top few spokes sequentially increases substantially) the additional stress from the forces associated with disc braking are 'small' and should not significantly contribute to spoke failure caused by fatigue. I've tried to find an article which describes/explains this better than my attempt but without success. If someone can find one, please offer a link.

a disc braked bike . . . are [more] prone to braking spokes . . . [experience anyone?]

As contributors above have said or implied, this is more about the quality of wheel building, including the choice of spoke and the number thereof.

 

[MacB]

Oi! You just nicked my response.....

You gotta be faster fat boy!!!!!

 

[simongt]

Interesting that Dawes are offering the Super Galaxy ( the Galaxy being the traditional 'tourer of choice' ) with discs as standard, but not on the more expensive Exel.
Work that one out - !