Relatively Cheap Hybrid with disk brakes?

cyclingrevmark

Hi folks.
Am looking at replacing my old 1980's Raleigh with something a bit more upto date. Looking at a hybrid for cycling round town (as I work from home no need to commute!), and may be a bit further Anyone know of a good bike with disk brakes? They seem to start around the £400 mark, but with a bit of a limited budget (and a garage full of bikes already!), my missus would start complaining if I spent too much (i.e. around £400!). :shock:
Any info welcome, links etc to point me in the right direction, though I may have to settle for "ordinary" brakes unless there are some hub ones out there as well?
Thanks
Mark
:?:

woodford2barbican

Check out the Edinburgh Bike Co-op and their Revolution Courier Disc.

marmitecp

Carrera Gryphon from Halfords. Takes mudguards and rack too.
Their boardman range of hybrids has hydro discs, but they're more expensive.

Belv

I find mechanical disc systems no better (and usually far worse) than a well set-up V-brake, so would choose better components elsewhere and stick to normal brakes.

Shadowduck

I have a Revolution Courier Race (v-brakes) and the brakes are just fine - I think discs come into their own in mud and such really, not too relevant round town.

That said I can't recommend it, or any other hybrid - they're very limiting both on road and off. I almost exclusively use the old second hand road bike I bought as a backup, the hybrid just sits in the garage...

If you'll be on road, get a road bike. If you'll be off road, get an MTB. If you really need to be able to do both, get two bikes or a cyclocrosser!

Edited 'cos I didn't proofread it very well the first time.

redddraggon

Shadowduck wrote:

If you'll be on road, get a road bike. If you'll be off road, get an MTB. If you really need to be able to do both, get two bikes or a cyclocrosser!

Quite right. Hybrids are rubbish. Cyclo-X bikes are the way forward.

woodford2barbican

I have the recolution courier with discs that I mentioned above. Don't buy it!

Buy the one with V-brakes and save yourself £50 and a lot of hassle fiddling with the brakes......I wish that I had bought the v-brake model.

BentMikey

Why disc brakes? What benefit do you expect to gain from them?

mea00csf

yep i'm with everyone else here, don't buy mechanical disc brakes. They're a hassle as you have to constantly readjust as the cable stretches (MUCH more than ordinary brakes) Unless you're cycling in mud they're just not worth it.

The only reason i had mech disc brakes was because i knew within the year i was going to upgrade to hydro disc brakes on my mountain bike, which is used solely for off road duties, any other situation, just don't bother

GEPC

I bought a Trek 7.3FX disc in the summer when I started commuting and have been very happy with it. Its fits your criteria in terms of the brakes and the price (about £350). I have really liked the bike. Its quite quick and light and it has been a great bike to get back into cycling and get me started on commuting in London traffic. It is slightly unforgiving over bumps in the road but all in all I feel I have got good value for money. If you are after something similar then I recomend it. The brakes have been good although the cable stretch another poster mentioned has started although I have not yet fixed it so can't comment on how tricky it is to remedy.

That said now that I have joined the ranks of cyclists and strted to cycle more than just for the commute, I know that in due course I will trade up to a road bike (although maybe one with straight bars as I do like the slighly more head up position in London traffic). Once you start riding in london the natural order of things quickly becomes clear. Road bikes clearly the quickest, fast hybrids second, and mountain bikes last. I want to be in the front group!

gtvlusso

What about the Boardman performance Hybrids? Seem to get good reviews for the bikes rather then the Halfords supplier. Hydro disks and well specced for the cash! www.boardmanbikes.com

cyclingrevmark

Hi, thanks to all of you who have contributed. I thought that disks might be a good idea around town as they have better control (especially in the wet and with all this rain about) but from the comments posted any benefit in performance seems to outweighed by the fuss of trying to keep them well adjusted. What about hub brakes? I seem to remember that somewhere in the late 80's these were to be the way forward as they were not affected by the wet and needed little maintenance, but I haven't seem them advertised much.

Once again, thanks for the info, I will give the who thing a bit more thought.

Mark

Bugly

We purchased (for a friend) a Norco VFR3 with compact chainset and hydraulic disks for $880 Australian dollars - a nice frame with bosses for racks not sure about mudguards on it though.
(http://www.norco.com/bikes/city_and_pat ... 3_disc.php)

BentMikey

Disc brakes don't bring an increase in stopping power, only modulation.

DavidTQ

cyclingrevmark wrote:

Hi, thanks to all of you who have contributed. I thought that disks might be a good idea around town as they have better control (especially in the wet and with all this rain about) but from the comments posted any benefit in performance seems to outweighed by the fuss of trying to keep them well adjusted. What about hub brakes? I seem to remember that somewhere in the late 80's these were to be the way forward as they were not affected by the wet and needed little maintenance, but I haven't seem them advertised much.

Once again, thanks for the info, I will give the who thing a bit more thought.

Mark

not tried hub brakes, but good quality caliper brakes with quality after market brake pads can be pretty decent even in the wet. I love the calipers on my road bike, only 105's but far better than I remember calipers to be and far better than the V-brakes on my previous hybrid.

DavidTQ

cyclingrevmark wrote:

Hi, thanks to all of you who have contributed. I thought that disks might be a good idea around town as they have better control (especially in the wet and with all this rain about) but from the comments posted any benefit in performance seems to outweighed by the fuss of trying to keep them well adjusted. What about hub brakes? I seem to remember that somewhere in the late 80's these were to be the way forward as they were not affected by the wet and needed little maintenance, but I haven't seem them advertised much.

Once again, thanks for the info, I will give the who thing a bit more thought.

Mark

not tried hub brakes, but good quality caliper brakes with quality after market brake pads can be pretty decent even in the wet. I love the calipers on my road bike, only 105's but far better than I remember calipers to be and far better than the V-brakes on my previous hybrid.

marmitecp

BentMikey wrote:

Disc brakes don't bring an increase in stopping power, only modulation.

I can assure you they do. I'm commuting on my MTB at the mo and its cheapo Tektro hydros are massively more powerful in the wet than the Ultegra caliper brakes on my hybrid.
Much cleaner and long lasting too.

BentMikey

marmitecp wrote:

I can assure you they do. I'm commuting on my MTB at the mo and its cheapo Tektro hydros are massively more powerful in the wet than the Ultegra caliper brakes on my hybrid.
Much cleaner and long lasting too.

If you can't either lock up your wheel or do an endo, then there's something wrong with your hybrid's brakes.

DavidTQ

BentMikey wrote:

marmitecp wrote:

I can assure you they do. I'm commuting on my MTB at the mo and its cheapo Tektro hydros are massively more powerful in the wet than the Ultegra caliper brakes on my hybrid.
Much cleaner and long lasting too.

If you can't either lock up your wheel or do an endo, then there's something wrong with your hybrid's brakes.

Id agree my 105's can lock up in the wet or endo in the dry. Just have to grab a handfull of lever. Dont know if hybrid brake levers pull differently to road bike ones reducing effort?

BentMikey

I think V-brakes are somewhere between road calipers and discs in terms of lever effort. I also think many people confuse lever effort with stopping ability.

DavidTQ

BentMikey wrote:

I think V-brakes are somewhere between road calipers and discs in terms of lever effort. I also think many people confuse lever effort with stopping ability.

Thinking about it another factor I forget about when comparing bike brakes is the rims, Ive long thought my hybrid brake werent as good as my road bike brakes because the V brakes had less progressive braking I found my road bike very very progresive, But that could also be in part due to the difference in the rims my hybrid had plain sided rims my road bike seems to have a different metal for the braking surface than the rest of the rim and a "textured" braking surface, I would guess that must have some effect on how I find the brakes, not thought about it before

marmitecp

There's nothing wrong with my hybrid brakes, but they won't instantly lock the front wheel in the wet from 20mph. They first need to clear the water from the rim, then overcome the rotation of the wheel. The rear wheel may lift, but they won't lock the front wheel until after a fair few metres.
Disk brakes will lock the front almost too easily whatever the conditions.
Cars/motorbikes have them for a reason.

BentMikey

Again, you're describing a lever pressure issue, not a stopping power limit. It's possible to skid the front wheel if you grab the brakes hard enough even with a wet rim.

If the rear wheel is lifting, then you've exceeded the braking potential for that bike. It's unlikely to happen in the wet as we all know, because it'll skid first - i.e. traction is the limiting factor. In the dry it's pretty much impossible to skid the front wheel unless you hit some sort of reduced traction situation. That's why endo's happen in the dry, and here centre of gravity issues are the limiting factor.