Which touring bike?

[Crankarm]

Well all I can say is that I have NEVER EVER had to grapple with the handle bars on my disc forks under hard braking due to the bars trying to twist out from my grip even when they were loaded with panniers. I think there is a lot of scare mongering going on here. Basically use common sense and a robust fork and you will be fine. Using a skinny fork something like was fitted to a 1970s Peugeot racer with a disc mount attached would be asking for trouble as there would be far too much flex. IMHO the issue is not twisting by having only one disc brake on one arm of the fork but having a fork with a strong enough crown / head tube as with a disc brake it is possible to stop so much more quickly than rim brakes. It is period. So Luddites and trolls don't start another pointless argument that rim brakes are on a par with disc brakes. They are not. Disc brakes are far more powerful. Period.

 

[rich p]

I have done many miles on my Dawes ultra galaxy and I'm generally happy with it. The components are robust and the bike has never let me down. One caveat. If you stand on the pedals when the bike is under a heavy touring load there is noticeable frame flex. I have never toured with front panniers so I don't know if a more balanced load will resolve the problem.

It does still flex with front panniers and is disconcerting for about 15 minutes at the start of each tour! After that I never think about it again and I'd happily agree that the Dawes UG has never let me down either over thousands of loaded miles.

 

[pinnacleadventure]

I've got a Hewitt too, done lots of miles, would probably choose straight bars, but that's just personal - no complaints about the bike!

 

[samid]

IMHO the issue is not twisting by having only one disc brake on one arm of the fork but having a fork with a strong enough crown / head tube as with a disc brake it is possible to stop so much more quickly than rim brakes. It is period. So Luddites and trolls don't start another pointless argument that rim brakes are on a par with disc brakes. They are not. Disc brakes are far more powerful. Period.

I can easily lift the rear wheel of my Riv with double pivot Shimano front rim brake - you cannot stop faster than that regardless of the brake type. So I don't see how a disc brake would require stronger crown/head tube, at least not for the reason you suggested.
(I also think disc brakes look ugly on a traditional road bike but that's beside the point.)

 

[Yellow7]

. They are not. Disc brakes are far more powerful. Period.

??? I thought the initial post subject was concerning TOURING bikes??? Having travelled various types of roads & routes I’ve never found a situation, or the desire for the braking power requirement to stop-on-a-penny, unless you're riding like Danny MacAskill that is. So to maintain the trend of thread diversion check Danny MacAskill here,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj6ho1-G6tw Woops, nearly forgot: “Period”

Mark.

 

[Pottsy]

Surly LHT here. Tektro CR720 cantis with decent pads. Absolutely enough stopping power fully loaded.

If people want disc brakes, fine. Can't say that there's a performance reason for them though. I like to keep stuff simple so this works for me.

 

[lulubel]

Surly LHT here. Tektro CR720 cantis with decent pads. Absolutely enough stopping power fully loaded.

If people want disc brakes, fine. Can't say that there's a performance reason for them though. I like to keep stuff simple so this works for me.

I've got CR720s on my Crosscheck, and they do a perfectly good job, and I can see how they would continue to do a good job with a touring load. If I got caught out in torrential rain like my partner did today, however, I wouldn't much fancy descending a steep hill with them (or any other rim brakes) on a fully loaded tourer. Even on my old MTB, I had the levers pulled tight against the bars before it stopped in heavy rain, and I can remember one terrifying incident on my old road bike when I crossed the A30 at 20mph because I couldn't stop in the wet.

I always thought it was just one of those things, that bike brakes don't work very well in the wet, and you just have to deal with it. That was until I got a MTB with disc brakes. Now, having tried them, I wouldn't want to be without them if I was carrying a load and couldn't be sure of the conditions.

And that's just my personal opinion, based on my own experience.

 

[clarion]

The Singular Peregrine has a disc on a curved front fork, as does the Surly Disc Trucker. I've seen similar from Hollowed Velo and Bob Jackson (though they were keen to dissuade anyone from having it)

Disc brakes on front forks for touring are commonplace now. Personally, I like the Genesis Day One range, and Croix de Fer. I know they're meant as soft CX-ers, but I've long been an advocate of such frames for all but the harshest of expedition conditions.

 

[P.H]

The Singular Peregrine has a disc on a curved front fork, as does the Surly Disc Trucker. I've seen similar from Hollowed Velo and Bob Jackson (though they were keen to dissuade anyone from having it)

I'm not sure there's much of a relationship between shape and strength, maybe if all other things were equal, but they're not. Surly and Singular use heavier tubing than in the rim brake equivalents and Reynolds don't make a fork blade they consider compatible with disks. The twisting force of a single brake at the end on one fork/lever is well documented. As are the instances of wheels forcing their way out of the dropouts in extreme circumstances. That's why we're seeing through axles, forward facing dropouts and other ways to counteract it.
I'm not against disks, I haven't yet used one, I am against the notion that you can have something for nothing. A stronger brake, placed at the end of a single fork will require that fork to be stronger than one for a brake applying less force to both sides at the crown, that isn't a matter of opinion Whether that matters to an individual, or in which direction the pros outweigh the cons, is nothing but opinion.

 

[daytonatwin]

I decided to try a front wheel disc brake system when I built a set of stronger wheels for my Dawes Sardar, which is disc compatable front and rear, well I can say without doubt that the disc on the front is much stronger and can easily lock the front wheel if desired. The pads are lasting quite well. I have just returned with this set up riding from the UK to France, Spain and Portugal with a lot of hills and mountains in Spain and Porugal, plenty of down hill braking as you would expect the front disc brake worked very well, and therefore I can recommend discs for touring bikes. Reliable, good in the wet and they seem to wear much better than rim brakes, plus no squealing just a slight scraping sound.
I used the cable operated Avid BB7 disc brake on the front, but I might consider changing to a hydraulic system, as I think they might be more controllable and progressive, especially when moving at a slower pace.