A question regarding disk breaks

mattl80

i had a kona a couple of years back (until it got nicked). It was my first bike with disk breaks, i forget which model exactly but they where a reasonably well regarded make.

The thing is they felt quite "spongy", but they still stopped me. This was probably becuase they needed bleeding/new pads etc. Anyway they felt different to v-breaks, in that good old v-breaks back in the day would grab the wheel and alow you to skid.

My question is do disk breaks do this? or is the breaking force a more gradual one? i like the feel of old v-breaks that just grasp the wheel so hard that you pull a skid, but im wondering if disk breaks are intended to not do this?

Chunkers1980

It's the power and modulation to finger force that's improved.

My Hydros lock on the back on demand with one finger, could prob get a front wheel skid going with weight over the back on tarmac if I used 2 fingers, but that just silly and as the saying goes.... Skids are for kids.

welshkev

*brakes

that is all

Silversladey

+1
BRAKES

Fully-sprung

Depends which disk brakes you have, I had mechanical ones front and rear, the back ones were useless, I got the back ones upgraded to hydraulics and it's now the big skid on the block, the problem with the mechanical ones was that the cable stretches before it gets chance to stop it, this isn't as bad on the front as the cable isn't as long but yeah, hydraulic disk breaks are the dogs doo-dars.

Dan_xz

Actually some cable discs such as BB7's are very good, certainly better than the cheapest hydraulics. Cable stretch should not be a problem as cables are generally pre-stretched and in any case can be nipped up with a couple of turns of the adjusters.

Are you sure your cables were set up properly and with good pads & clean rotors? Or were they just a low end model?

As for bite - my Juicy 5's bite harder and faster than any v's I ever had, including XT's and arch rivals. Can't comment about skidding as I don't do that - you stop fastest just before the wheel locks up.

Anonymous

Fully-sprung wrote:

Depends which disk brakes you have, I had mechanical ones front and rear, the back ones were useless, I got the back ones upgraded to hydraulics

WHY?
Upgrade the front first, since that's the one that actually slows you down.

cooldad

yeehaamcgee wrote:

Fully-sprung wrote:

Depends which disk brakes you have, I had mechanical ones front and rear, the back ones were useless, I got the back ones upgraded to hydraulics

WHY?
Upgrade the front first, since that's the one that actually slows you down.

You missed the bit about big skid on the block. Fully Sprung is even younger than Jay.

Anonymous

And you're an old, old man, clinging pathetically to some sense of "yoof". That doesn't change the behaviour of brakes.

Why not teach the kid that front brakes are the important ones? If someone was trying to slow down a car using a handbrake all the time, it makes sense for them to learn otherwise, right?

cooldad

yeehaamcgee wrote:

And you're an old, old man, clinging pathetically to some sense of "yoof". That doesn't change the behaviour of brakes.

Why not teach the kid that front brakes are the important ones? If someone was trying to slow down a car using a handbrake all the time, it makes sense for them to learn otherwise, right?

You may be a miserable bastard but you are not stupid.
He likes to skid and changed the rear. Possibly there is a connection.
But good of you to educate him.

Although I wasn't aware of the age limit on riding. Good of you to educate me too.
Idiot.

Anonymous

There's no age limit on riding. But there is on trying to pretend to be a kid. And when you're not far away from the grave, it's a pretty good indication that you are not, despite your dementia-induced illusion, a yoof.
You're not a funny, vibrant, young at heart "zany character", old man, it's actually more "creepy".

Maybe you should take notes as you read this because you can't seem to remember your own sentences from start to finish.

Meanwhile, back to the original point of this thread.

V-brakes can be a bit "grabby", whereas a disc brake, provided it has been set up correctly, will have generally more power available, in almost all conditions, but the power delivery is smoother.
Doing a controlled rolling stoppie, for example, is far easier with discs, because there's more control. On V-brakes, they can grab at a critical point, and throw you over

welshkev

yeehaamcgee wrote:

Doing a controlled rolling stoppie, for example, is far easier with discs, because there's more control. On V-brakes, they can grab at a critical point, and throw you over

that never happened to me once when i was showing off trying to act cool when i was younger, honest....

cooldad

yeehaamcgee wrote:

There's no age limit on riding. But there is on trying to pretend to be a kid. And when you're not far away from the grave, it's a pretty good indication that you are not, despite your dementia-induced illusion, a yoof.
You're not a funny, vibrant, young at heart "zany character", old man, it's actually more "creepy".

Maybe you should take notes as you read this because you can't seem to remember your own sentences from start to finish.

Meanwhile, back to the original point of this thread.

V-brakes can be a bit "grabby", whereas a disc brake, provided it has been set up correctly, will have generally more power available, in almost all conditions, but the power delivery is smoother.
Doing a controlled rolling stoppie, for example, is far easier with discs, because there's more control. On V-brakes, they can grab at a critical point, and throw you over

You are absolutely correct, please accept my abject and unreserved apologies for not conforming with your myopic and somewhat warped worldview.

diy

ok which one was the child agian...? doesn't matter.

Disc brakes should offer superior braking in every respect.
- the disc is less likely to get warped, dented wet or buckled, which means the brake is set closer, which means less movement needed = more leverage.
- However if you want to do an endo, you'll need to adapt your technique.
- when I used to teach kids to ride motorbikes I used to pull front wheel skids just to show them not to be frightened of the front brake. Most of the learner bikes had pretty basic brakes, but you can pull a skid on anything if grab a handful and get your weight in the right place.

Fully-sprung

cooldad wrote:

yeehaamcgee wrote:

Fully-sprung wrote:

Depends which disk brakes you have, I had mechanical ones front and rear, the back ones were useless, I got the back ones upgraded to hydraulics

WHY?
Upgrade the front first, since that's the one that actually slows you down.

You missed the bit about big skid on the block. Fully Sprung is even younger than Jay.

Yeah, of coarse I like to skid, but I am by no means obsessed, I know that to slow down you need to keep the wheel rolling. The main reason I replaced the back brakes was that the front ones (although were not that good) actually work, and the back ones didn't work at all, I adjusted them and the only options were: binding breaks all the time, or not binding and not working. I'm not an idiot, most of the time.

compo

cooldad wrote:

You missed the bit about big skid on the block. Fully Sprung is even younger than Jay.

Is that possible? :P

Fully-sprung

compo wrote:

cooldad wrote:

You missed the bit about big skid on the block. Fully Sprung is even younger than Jay.

Is that possible? :P

I wasn't born yesterday you know.
And who is Jay?

welshkev wrote:

yeehaamcgee wrote:

Doing a controlled rolling stoppie, for example, is far easier with discs, because there's more control. On V-brakes, they can grab at a critical point, and throw you over

that never happened to me once when i was showing off trying to act cool when i was younger, honest....

What's worse is that before I bought this bike I have now I had one that was, to be honest, too small for me(and had V brakes), I was going really fast along the cycle path and I came to a road junction and it was a Monday afternoon after I slept in so you can imagine how tired I was. Right at the last minute I saw a post van coming out of the junction (I only saw it AFTER thee front wheel was on the road going at full speed) I slammed on both brakes to miss the van and the back end of the bike just flew into the air. I missed the van by less than a foot and never fell off or anything.

cooldad

Jay is 12

bartimaeus

Jay will tell you he is now a teenager.

He is 12.