One day you will have bike like this...

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ianrauk

Tattooed Beat Messiah
Location
Rides Ti2
I suppose hydraulic discs might be good although you have to bleed them? Agree with the OP that cable discs are terrible, i had an Avid BB5 and it was a nightmare to get to work right without rubbing.


Yet BB7's are easy to set up and maintain and have had 1000's of miles of trouble free cycling.
 

Rob3rt

Man or Moose!
Location
Manchester
I saw this in one of the mags this month, I can understand all the advantages as long as they can get the weight low enough without producing brakes made from cheese

Considering the pro's look for places to add weight to make sure they are not under the UCI weight limit, weight wouldn't be much of an issue. Plus they would allow the rims to be lighter as no braking surface is required.
 
The UCI allow disk brakes for cyclocross now, but they are still banned for road racing. If/when the rules are changed to permit them, it will play havoc with neutral service until everyone switches over to disk.

number of entrants in round 1 of my local cyclocross league = 200
number of riders I saw on disk-braked CX bikes = 1

And we are now in the second season where disks have been permitted in races. I suspect the same will be true if/when disks come to amateur road racing. At that level, most people are wise enough to realise that all brakes have to do is work - the brake itself makes sod all difference to your overall performance. Currently,at least, the demand from competitors doesn't seem to be there...
 

PpPete

Legendary Member
Location
Chandler's Ford
I saw this in one of the mags this month,

And IIRC ( I didnt buy the mag, think I saw it while "just browsing" in Tesco ) the tester was not overly impressed.
I'm not going to be rushing in to disc brakes, rim wear is just an excellent excuse for me to build another pair of wheels - which is something I enjoy doing anyway.
 

Mr Haematocrit

msg me on kik for android
OMG! What a gorgeous bike! Please post a bigger picture! I loved my Kona Explosif and then my Hei Hei - what model is that beauty?

It's a Kona Honky and to be honest, it looks crap in that picture. It is so much nicer looking in the flesh so to speak, its a weird greeny blue colour which is nothing less than stunning. It's the first bike which I have truely lusted after for a long while.
It's kinda retro cool but in a really modern way, lovely bike.
 
OP
OP
Globalti

Globalti

Legendary Member
I've just come acros this interesting discussion on road discs. I learned a lot about the technical challenges from this: http://www.bikerumor.com/2012/02/14/road-bike-disc-brakes-are-coming-but-will-they-work/

I'm not surprised the writer boiled his brakes if he dragged them all the way. Look at the picture of the ridiculous discs - where did he think all that energy was going to go? It had to go into the pads and calipers.
 

Svendo

Guru
Location
Walsden
There's an informed opinion regarding road discs in para. 3 HERE. As well as issues of legality, weight, etc. already mentioned mitigating against the development of road discs, there's the issue of aerodynamics.
 

Davidc

Guru
Location
Somerset UK
In principle a good idea, but I'm not convinced about heat dissipation. When proven, and that will need UCI to allow their use in competitive cycling, I'm sure we'll see them on road bikes of all sorts from Audax to Tourers.
 

sabian92

Über Member
Rim brakes have plenty of power - it is easy to lock a wheel using just a couple of fingers on the brake levers, but I agree about rim and brake block wear, especially in the winter.

The UCI allow disk brakes for cyclocross now, but they are still banned for road racing. If/when the rules are changed to permit them, it will play havoc with neutral service until everyone switches over to disk.

Yeah, true, but it's a faff to have to centre pads. I seem to have to do it every other time I get on the bloody thing :biggrin: I do quite like rim brakes in the summer, it's not a problem but in the winter, say hello to destroyed rims, which is annoying as I can't afford to replace them every 12 months just because grit has been ground into the rims.

My next bike (probably end up being a CX rather than a full on roadbike) will be a disc bike. They look nicer too :biggrin:
 
OP
OP
Globalti

Globalti

Legendary Member
My CX with BB7 discs stops really well; you probably need about half the pressure on the levers that you do with rim brakes, which is a great help when operating the brakes with your hands up on the hoods. In fact I'm so seldom on the drops that 99.9% of my braking is from the hoods.

I really hate using my rim brakes in the wet; all I can think of is my beautiful Ksyrium rims being ground away to a nasty grey paste. It's one major reason why I don't use my roadie in the wet - the roadie is for covering miles at a good average speed in dry weather so the brakes don't get much use except on downhills and the same pads have been on it now for over 4000 miles. The CX on the other hand gets used for family rides, light touring, light offroad, wet weather and winter training so discs are perfect.
 
OP
OP
Globalti

Globalti

Legendary Member
No, I just keep riding and try not to brake! Usually I've timed it so that the rain starts towards the end of my ride and I live at the top of a long hill !
 
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