160 or 185 mm front disc - XC - rider wieght

02gf74

What diameter front disc do you have on you cross country bike i.e. not for crazy downhilling and apprix what rider wieght?

Asking 'cause most L (large) size frame bikes seem to have 185 mm on the front but I have been using 160 mm quite happily yet am in the 97 kg :oops: bracket? (my riding is mostly cross county with some up and downhill) and have not felt the 160 mm discs are inadequate.

nicklouse

both.

100kg plus.

homers_double

Currently rocking around 97kg here and I run 180's at both ends on my heckler.

Deputy Dawg

No point adding the weight of a larger rotor & adapter if the 160's working for you.

The Northern Monkey

nicklouse wrote:

both.

100kg plus.

+1

Thewaylander

180 on both, and always 180 on long decents 160's always fade and suck nuts.

Raymondavalon

95+ Kg myself and run 203F/185R but the biggest improvement was calipers themsleves.
I went over to Avid Code brakes, much better than the Juicys the bike came with as standard

nicklouse

Raymondavalon wrote:

95+ Kg myself and run 203F/185R but the biggest improvement was calipers themsleves.
I went over to Avid Code brakes, much better than the Juicys the bike came with as standard

used to run codes at 203 on the DH bike TOO much power. now have them on an HT at 180 and still too much power.

DCR00

Raymondavalon wrote:

biggest improvement was calipers themsleves.

this

i was running 180's F&R when i was using Shimano brakes, but now use 160's F&R now im using Formula's, and they are waaaay better

i weigh around the 98kgs mark

mak3m

:oops: newb question :oops: larger the rotor the greater the stopping power???

cooldad

mak3m wrote:

:oops: newb question :oops: larger the rotor the greater the stopping power???

Every thing else being equal, yes.

mak3m

ta muchly

supersonic

Larger rotors create more torque and therefore more stopping 'power' for a given lever pull. This isn't always a good thing though. The brakes may feel too sensitive and lose fine control.

mak3m

ahhh so a well set up smaller rotor would be an advantage, particularly if im swapping from v's and have very well developed brake pulling muscles :P

MountainMonster

Deputy Dawg wrote:

No point adding the weight of a larger rotor & adapter if the 160's working for you.

Weight differences are miniscule between the 2 sizes, so it doesn't really make a difference to which size on that front.

I've used both sizes, and it really depends more on what speeds you go and how quick you need to stop that determines which you use.

I personally prefer larger rotors, as when you do come across a time when they would be useful, they are there.

supersonic

mak3m wrote:

ahhh so a well set up smaller rotor would be an advantage, particularly if im swapping from v's and have very well developed brake pulling muscles :P

For some, yes

02gf74

thx for replies.,

hmmm, interesting.

weight difference between 160 and 185 mm would be about 60 g.

MountainMonster

02GF74 wrote:

thx for replies.,

hmmm, interesting.

weight difference between 160 and 185 mm would be about 60 g.

Where did you get the weight differences from? For hope floating rotors, the 160mm weighs in at 78 grams, and the 140mm at 64, so a 14 gram difference for 20mm difference. Not sure exactly on weight of adaptors though, how much would the difference on those be?

02gf74

.... measuing a number of 160 and 185 discs and this is the approx. weight difference which also allows a bit for the adapter and longer bolts.