disc brakes

[TrekDianna]

Here in rainy Oregon, my commuter bike has discs and one of my winter mountain bike. I love the way they work when it's wet.

[Owlie]

no you really don't want to lock up your wheel (skid).

Caliper and canti-lever brakes properly adjusted should stop you. They have plenty of power for you to do an endo, fly over the handle. Down side is the effect of wet brake pad, wet rim, grim on the rim.

I'm not too terribly concerned with added weight of disc. full water bottles, (I've known to carry four 16+oz bottles in really hot weather), extra layers on extremely cold weather will add far more weight than the added weight of disc. Only place where the weight is of real concern is if your race is a mountain stage with finish at the pass. Most races are crits so I wouldn't worry about it.

Crashes on a bike even in a pile up, I have never gotten my body parts in someone's wheels. Come to think of it, I don't think I've been in a midst of a pile-up.

To me, choice of disc, cantilever, caliper is like choice of bike color or brand of bike frame and components. What really matters is physical and mental comfort.

I'm with you on that. My discs do feel different than the caliper brakes on my road bike. I had to learn to use a lighter touch with my discs than with the road brakes. Braking on the road bike is a sort of dignified affair--"Oh, we want to stop now? Then we shall." Much softer-feeling. Cross bike (with the discs), same pressure--"OK! STOPPING! WHY ARE YOU ON THE GROUND?!" I prefer the feel of calipers, but that may be because I've put ten times the mileage on my road bike than on my CX bike and just haven't gotten to know that bike as well. However, I've done enough riding in the rain (not here, obviously) to know that in wet and dirty conditions, I'd want the disc brakes.

[lph]

Personally I find the disc brakes on my mtb a pain in the ***, even though the extra strong stopping power can be nice to have. They may in general need less maintenance, but when they do it's a messy, finicky job in tight quarters. The v-brakes on my commuter I can disassemble completely, clean, lube and put together again while listening to the radio and planning tomorrows dinner. And if they squeal or rub I know what to do about it. On the other hand, that may be just because I lack experience doing disc brakes.

[pll]

One more thought on disk brakes is that companies are still experimenting and there are no standards. I'll wait some years before committing. If you have nice wheel sets (and I have 3 nice ones, two alu clinchers and one carbon tubular), it's an expensive affair to move to disk brakes. I've seen one nasty cut in a cross race already, where it does not take much to get two riders piling up.

[TigerMom]

TigerMOM: When you were talking about disc brakes and carbon wheels/rims, did you mean canti or linear brakes? Disc brakes do not clamp down on the rim; they clamp down on the rotor.

I do not have a road bike with disc brakes, but do have a mtn and FATBIKE with them. I will say that they are definitely better when things are wet, but like many of you, we certainly could go without them. Like TigerMOM mentioned, there is an advantage with carbon wheels.

Oops. I meant to write Caliper brakes. I just edited my post response

[SheFly]

They add more weight. At the professional cyclocross level, for that reason, you see a lot of riders reticent to use disk brakes. There is also the risk of injuries, as disks can cut someone easily in a crash (which is why many pro road racers don't want them). If you do not intend to race, I would say than it depends on where you ride. The one occasion I wished I had hydraulic disk brakes was on a 4 mile twisty descent on gravel, with grades over -5% -- I was on my cross bike with cantilever brakes. I would feel the same on a wet descent on my road bike, but I am rarely in that spot (long, twisty, descent on wet roads). My next road bike would have hydraulic brakes (not disk). And I wish there were hydraulic canti brakes... Don't know about maintenance of disk brakes.

Note -- How much weight do the add? From VeloNews: "Discs will add somewhere between 250 and 750 grams, depending on the component choices made."

My racing CX bikes at the moment, both with mechanical disc brakes (Cannondale SuperX carbon frames with carbon wheels) weigh the SAME as my Cannondale Evo carbon road bike with traditional canti lever brakes. The weight argument stopped holding water a couple of years ago. (FWIW - all three bikes are running the same components outside of the brakes). I race CX a LOT, and many of the pros are racing with discs now. Yes, there is the potential for injury in a crash, but there is with cantilever brakes as well (ever missed a remount and gotten caught in the brakes?).

I also use my CX pit bike (same setup) for the gravel road riding/racing that I do, and feel so much better with the stopping power of the disc brakes. Typically, I am riding areas with a lot of elevation, and knowing I can stop when I need to is a huge asset. I will also NEVER race CX or MTB without discs again. In fact, I am looking to move to discs on the road as well.

The only application where I would look to the hydraulics vs. mechanicals right now is on my fat bike.

All that said, I ride A LOT, and in all conditions, so the discs make sense for me.

SheFly

[SheFly]

Also not quite accurate. Disc brakes have been out for YEARS, and there are a couple of good industry standards. Do you mean there are no standards on the brakes, or on the frames they are now being put onto? It is a financial commitment to switch everything over from rim brakes to discs, and as I mentioned already, I race about 40 cross races per year, and have only ever seen one injury caused *presumably* by a rotor.

SheFly

[pll]

I think it is more on the frames. Didn't Focus just come up with a new type of thru-axle this year? Hydraulic brakes (for road and cross -- I know nothing about MTB) also seem to be in flux. Because of a hand strength issue, I would prefer hydraulic brakes, so I will hold off until I get a sense things are more settled. It's a big commitment in bikes and wheels.

[crc]

I have hydraulic disc breaks on my mountain bike and love them on there. The added stopping power is great, but you do have to get used to them. A lighter touch is needed when slowing down vs. looking for a sudden stop. They are great especially in wet weather or in muddy areas compared to caliper breaks.

I do not feel like I need disc breaks on my road bike, but I also limit myself to the weather that I ride in. I guess I typically baby my road bike more than my mountain bike too, so I don't even know if I would go out in the rain on my road bike if I had disc breaks.

[pll]

On using cantilever brakes over disk brakes in Valkenburg from Katie Compton's Facebook page, posted just yesterday:

"Katie raced her cantilever bike. It's lighter which on this course helps a lot and she has a better feel for braking traction with canti's over disc."

[Sven Nys stated the same last year, that his bike with canti brakes is lighter -- these are folks that have a choice in components and ride new bikes.]

[SheFly]

Could be, but my Cannondale SuperX with Discs is 16.5 lbs. And THAT is lighter than the bike I had with cantilevers (but I also went from aluminum to carbon). There is not that much of a weight penalty that the typical rider is going to notice it.

SheFly

[Catrin]

If I were to re-design my Gunnar, the only thing I would have changed would have been to have disc brakes. Looking back though, my V-brakes were probably the better choice at the time. Disc brakes for road use are likely better/lighter than they would have been in 2011.

[aronan]

[QUOTE=pll;697982]My next road bike would have hydraulic brakes (not disk). And I wish there were hydraulic canti brakes... Don't know about maintenance of disk brakes.QUOTE]

What does this mean? I only know of hydraulic disc brakes for bikes; what other kinds of hydraulic brakes are there out there?

I am in process of getting a new road bike, and am getting hydraulic disc bakes in part because the bike I decided I wanted for various reasons (a Volagi Liscio) only comes with discs. I have ridden with them on a friend's bike and liked them fine. I am going from an old steel road bike to a new carbon one, so a bit more weight in the brakes is just not that big a deal for me. And I do ride through the winter here in Northern CA, not necessarily though rain, but on plenty of wet roads (when we are not actually in a drought). So the thought of having disc brakes for getting down some of our curvy hilly roads is a plus.

[pll]

SRAM and Magura make hydraulic rim brakes.

SRAM: https://www.sram.com/news-articles/s...ad-brakes-2015
Magura: http://www.magura.com/en/bike/produc...im-brakes.html

Perhaps there are others, but those are the ones I have heard of.

[pll]

(ever missed a remount and gotten caught in the brakes?)

I realized this could happen and then it did. Very unpleasant, big, big bruise and a couple of abrasions. I was trying to remount more aggressively than my skills allow.