Touring with discs

EssexSuffolk

Hi,

I'm thinking of getting a bike that'll serve both as a town/commuter bike and occasional tourer. One of these appeals: http://www.cube.eu/en/tour/urban-life-series/hyde-comp/

Question I have is: are disc brakes trickier to maintain/more problematic, and do they cause issues with fitting a rack? I've never had disc brakes before on any bike, so am a bit ignorant of the implications.

Views/advice welcome, thanks!

J

MichaelW

Interference with the rack comes from the normal mounting position on the seat-stay. That Cube has the brake mounted on the chain-stay well away from the rack; no problems there.

The issue of hydraulic brake maintenance is tricky. Most of these systems are quite reliable but doing any maintenance is more than a roadside fettle.
Most people who opt for discs prefer cable versions for touring.

al_yrpal

Easier to maintain than rim brakes. Cable brakes are just as good as hydraulics and simpler to maintain.

You may have to get a special rack to clear the mechanism. The Topeak disc rack is great and you can buy 'slide in' rack bags for it.

Best of all you'll have superior stopping power.

Go for it! I did and I would never go back to rim brakes they are archaic. (like me )

Al

FOGcp

I have used my disc mtb for touring [with road tyres] and found it an immense improvement over my old canti touring bike for stopping. I think it only a matter of time before amazingly light discs are developed for road bikes and the UCI will cave resulting in every bike having discs! But not next year.....

nwallace

Finding Front Disc, Canti Rear to be more than acceptable.
Bit of effort needed to figure out what to do in relation to low rider racks though* and also means I have to carry spare canti blocks as well as disc pads.

*My bodge job with the Blackburn rack seems to have coped ok with 2 heavily loaded 2 hour runs as well as lightly loaded commuting.
But I've got something wrong with the cable snagging somewhere in the section that's under the bar tape :-( and you can't just back it off or reach down and fix the drag while moving as you could with cantis.

weeve

3 feet in front of me is my 95% home built Thorn Ripio tourer. XT disc brakes are going on in 5 mins if I can be axxsed to get off the sofa. Im sure they're bit more hassle than rim ones if you want total maintenance free but Ive managed 7 years on an mtb with discs so far and not going back. If I give up on life and tour around the world Id perhaps change to cable discs but until then i expect to be no further than 100km from any bike shop so with some spare pads Im going go enjoy being able to stop

Dr U Idh

The dropouts on the Cube will allow any standard rack to fit without interference with the disc. I'm actually considering a Cube Hooper myself as 11-speed Alfine migt be a winning combination.

I have discs fitted on my Van Nicholas Amazon tourer/commuter and went for the Avid BB7s on account of operating them with STIs. While many folk will tell you that hydro discs are problematic for touring, the truth is that 99% of us never leave the shore of this island, let alone Europe and you would be able to get hydros repaired/replaced in thousand of bike shops should the need arise.

andymiller

Dr U Idh wrote:

While many folk will tell you that hydro discs are problematic for touring, the truth is that 99% of us never leave the shore of this island, let alone Europe and you would be able to get hydros repaired/replaced in thousand of bike shops should the need arise.

Hydraulic discs are very reliable, often lighter and more compact, and any decent bike shop should be able to repair them (assuming you don't need parts which might be a bit more problematic with less well-known makes).

There is always a bit of a trade-off between 'fit and forget' - but if it goes wrong you can't fix it yourself, and components that are higher maintenance but fixable away from a bike shop.

One thing to watch out for (he said from bitter experience) is if you take the handlebars off to pack the bike make your you don't stress the joints between the cables and reservoirs - it may be best to take the brakes off the bars to avoid stressing the joints.

nwallace

Now you mention it; consider the pad type in them.
I bought Shimano M535's for my MTB, the common Deore level calipers were the M525.

The M535 uses the same pads as around 10 other Shimano models including the XT where as the M525 I think shared pads with 2 other models, guess which are easier to get replacements for. (especially 3rd party ones, Shimano prices are expensive)

And on a similar concept, different manufacturers use different types of oil, apparently you can't just shove DOT 4 into the lines for Shimano callipers but can get away with it with some other makes.

If you're really paranoid, a spare pair of callipers aren't really all that heavy (But expensive) or simply running with the canti boses in place and rims with brake tracks ready to take an emergency brake set up.

Total mantainance I've had to do to my MTB is change the pads once, bleed the brakes (didn't even need fluid) once and after removing the bike from the back of the car every trip separate the pads (A chainset bolt driver is considerably more useful than the wee red plastic tool shimano provide)

andymiller

nwallace wrote:

after removing the bike from the back of the car every trip separate the pads (A chainset bolt driver is considerably more useful than the wee red plastic tool shimano provide)

Probably best to stick a folded bit of cardboard in there when you pack your bike , rather then have to separate them afterwards (this also helps make sure you don't end up with pads and fiddly springs going AWOL in your bag).

nwallace

I've seen old discs used for the same purpose. I just tend to forget, and inevitably pull the brake on when putting the wheel on anyway. The split pin seems to keep everything together though. :?

GyatsoLa

www.oldmanmountain.com do disc specific racks (front and rear), and Tubus do adaptors for most of their racks for the rear.

I've toured using disks and they are great - especially if you are in very mountainous regions on tough roads, they give a lot of peace of mind if you are on a big long descent, especially in muddy, wet conditions. I think the ideal set up is a disk brake to the front and rim brake to the rear, a good combination of power, control and reliability. That said, if I was going for a really long tour somewhere that I was unlikely to find spares, I'd probably stick with rim brakes.

andymiller

GyatsoLa wrote:

That said, if I was going for a really long tour somewhere that I was unlikely to find spares, I'd probably stick with rim brakes.

The pads last for thousands of miles so two or three spare sets of pads should last for a long tour. If you were particularly paranoid, or going somewhere really remote, you could carry a spare caliper (the front and back calipers for Avid BB7s are identical) and disc.

EssexSuffolk

Thanks for all the replies, massively helpful. Despite reading countless world-tour cycle books, my immediate aims are more UK/Europe focussed, so the Cube is winning my heart and head on that basis. Thanks again!

Jay dubbleU

I have a similar Cube - hydraulic discs are great once bedded in,the mount on the chainstay so no problem with using a normal rear rack and mudguards as well if you want them.

andrewjoseph

My wife and I did a 10 day fully loaded camping ride down the welsh coast. (our first). 650 + Km, no problems with avid bb7's, probably got a few years of pad worth still left.

We have tubus disk rear racks and no problem with rotor interference.

nicktheluddite

I have never toured with discs, so don't know how amazing they are - but if you are touring on tarmac on narrowish tyres (27-28mm) then I wonder if the contact area is small enough that your brakes can be 'too good'?

nwallace

You quickly learn how much force you need to put on for each type of brake though.
I'm switching between:
Cheap Tektro Calipers and 23C
Cheap Shimano V-Brakes and 1.9"s
Avid BB7 + 160mm rotor Front and Tektro Canti Rear and 1.5" Slicks
And Shimano 535s with a 160mm rotor and 2.1s

Every single one needs a different amount of force on the lever to get the sort of braking I need.

If you put too much into the front when going in a straight line then you're going to get thrown forwards a fair bit, possibly involving teeth and tarmac.
But you can do that with cantis and 1.9s (Well I did)

Not yet had the 1.5"s lock up on the front though even fully loaded on the back, but by the time I was carrying decent loads I had learnt the brakes.