Discs on a road bike - yes or no?

MaxwellBygraves

So, disc brakes are now legal in cyclocross - surely it can't be too long before we see them on some out and out road machines.

Is this something you want to see and would use?

cougie

Banned for road racing - so I doubt we will.

Matt the Tester

possibly, might be abit safer in some REALLY fast desents!.

MaxwellBygraves

cougie wrote:

Banned for road racing - so I doubt we will.

They were banned in cyclocross...

u05harrisb

mabye if all the cyclocross stuff goes well but mabye not. wouldnt think either will make much of a progression intill they sort out disc brakes with STI levers that are fully hydrolic as apposed to the hybrid of cable pull into a piston style like they are now. but never say never, could be the sort of thing that they allow. only time will tell but we all know that it really hinges apon how well the cyclocross industry enbraces it and furthers teh sport

prawny

I really hope the manufacturers take this up. There's quite a bit of anti disc sentiment around but I can't see any negatives once the wheels and calipers have been optimized. We've got the advantage that most of the development has already been done on mountain bikes.

Hardtailguy

The technology has been here for years:
http://www.canyon.com/_en/technology/project68.html

manxshred

Volagi Bikes

RoadyForever

No, I don't see the point myself. The tires will start skidding way before you hit the limits of the brakes on a road bike. The only real problem with calliper brakes is the heat from long descents, but that actually takes effort to get them hot enough to where they start to fail.

Anonymous

Yes, I don't see why not.

May have some positive spin off when designing carbon rims.

prawny

RoadyForever wrote:

No, I don't see the point myself. The tires will start skidding way before you hit the limits of the brakes on a road bike. The only real problem with calliper brakes is the heat from long descents, but that actually takes effort to get them hot enough to where they start to fail.

It notreally about absolute power though, discs are more consistant and you don't need to squeeze so hard before you get any sort of stopping in the wet. Imagine, lovely discs with superlight carbon rims, no need to beef them up with a braking track, they'll never wear out, lovely.

Monty Dog

SRAM are reputed to have a Red shifter with hyraulic brake actuation in the pipeline, perhaps even with electronic shifting. It's not just the absolute power but the modulation and control it gives in any condition, particularly as braking on carbon rims in the wet can be very iffy. I can see discs being mainstream in 5 years and we'll all wonder what the fuss was about. I'm sticking with rim brakes on my CX race bike cos i have too many pairs of wheels, but do like the look of the new Hope hydraulic adaptors and wait to see what comes out in the new year. I also have a singlespeed CX with discs which is a great go-anywhere bike, including a sub-10 hour Southdowns Way.

Supergoose

cougie wrote:

Banned for road racing - so I doubt we will.

Its only a matter of time. Once the weight issues are overcome, we will see disc brakes on road bikes and in 5 maybe 10 years rim brakes will seem like a bad dream.

I have a disc equipped x bike but paradoxically because of the weight I have but some canti's on it :roll:

MaxwellBygraves

Monty Dog wrote:

I can see discs being mainstream in 5 years and we'll all wonder what the fuss was about. .

Absolutely spot on, I think we'll look back on rim brakes as crazy - using pads to wear away your rim? Why not just scrape your foot along the ground to stop, same thing! etc etc.

Supergoose

prawny wrote:

Imagine, lovely discs with superlight carbon rims, no need to beef them up with a braking track, they'll never wear out, lovely.

This may be why the advance in the technology has been drawn out. A set of wheels, well looked after could last for years and years! Not best practice for manufacturers.

Runoutofgears

The one thing I loved about my hybrid were the powerful, progressive, reliable, hard wearing, hydraulic disc brakes it had fitted.

Would love them on my road bikes, irespective of the likely weight penaty.

sungod

road disk brakes, mmm, they'll be lovely

MaxwellBygraves

Am surprised by all the positives - thought there would be a lot more negative.

sungod

nah, why be negative

disk brakes are great in the wet and don't wear the rims, as long as the system is designed to give decent modulation and the weight is ok, they're pure win

ddraver

I think the main problem is that the UCI make the rules on road bikes up according to what Eddie Mercx rode. Sense, safety, performance, technological advancement are anathemas to the current UCI.

chrisw12

After proudly blowing a rim going down Alpe D'huez :oops: and hence nearly ruining an expensive holiday, I say yes please to disc brakes.

Totally agree with others, I hope in 5 years time we'll be thinking how stupid we were for using a rim as a braking surface.

Anonymous

The more you think about it you start to see it as a case of not will it happen, but why it hasn't already.

arlowood

Recent thread visited this topic after a request for suggestions on a road bike with disc brakes.

http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewtopi ... highlight=

Seems there are some options already out there but maybe not at the performance end of the spectrum (probably due to UCI constraints)

Can't see the problem with them myself except for the extra weight. However, I'm sure if they were permitted the tech guys would be all over them to reduce the weight penalty

cougie

To be honest I've never ridden a bike with disk brakes. My experience has been going out MTBing with a mate who has and his brakes were rubbing all the way and he didnt know or couldnt fix them. Are they usually temperamental ? Or is he just a muppet ? ;-)

IF the uci allow them for racing on, then yes they will become mainstream, but until that time - people just want the type of bike that the Pros ride.

cougie

To be honest I've never ridden a bike with disk brakes. My experience has been going out MTBing with a mate who has and his brakes were rubbing all the way and he didnt know or couldnt fix them. Are they usually temperamental ? Or is he just a muppet ? ;-)

IF the uci allow them for racing on, then yes they will become mainstream, but until that time - people just want the type of bike that the Pros ride.

ddraver

^Some are better than Others. but mostly he's a muppet!

cougie

Thought as much !

cougie

Thought as much !

White Line

Discs on a road bike would just look uglier than Susan Boyle. :evil:

on-yer-bike

I heard that road forks cant take the strain of the brake force that discs would incur. But not sure why that doesnt apply to CX.

on-yer-bike

All our frames and forks would be useless and worthless without the necessary bosses.