FAO disk brake lovers...

Stevo_666

rjsterry wrote:

@Stevo 666: different definition of fun is all - it's nice to feel you've earned that descent.

Yeah, I know what you mean.

Thing is with MTB descents if you cheat and use a van or a ski lift to get to the top you can do loads of descents in a day - even more fun :-) (I'm just getting into downhilling and it's bl00dy good).

veronese68

Going downhill off road can be quite tiring, it's not like you can just sit there. At the end of the London to Brighton off road I was utterly knackered and from the top of the downs the final descent had a couple of little drops that shouldn't present any problems. But after 75 miles off road just standing on the pedals and lifting your front wheel seems a lot harder than it should be.

mtb-idle

Stevo 666 wrote:

rjsterry wrote:

@Stevo 666: different definition of fun is all - it's nice to feel you've earned that descent.

Yeah, I know what you mean.

Thing is with MTB descents if you cheat and use a van or a ski lift to get to the top you can do loads of descents in a day - even more fun :-) (I'm just getting into downhilling and it's bl00dy good).

That's right. I'm a mountain biker by trade although a keen commuter via road bike (horses for courses and all that).

Going to the Alps for two weeks in July. Week 1 to do lots of lift-assisted MTB decending. On the first day of my trip in 2010 we did 16,000 vertical feet of descending. Was glad of my hydraulic disc brakes then (or 'liquid' brakes as i think yer typical bike thief refers to them). 'specially when you have to pee on the rotors at the bottom of a long descent to cool them down.

Second week will be following Le Tour with my road bike in tow for more of this and I will be happy with my rim brakes.

The only time I feel i need discs on the road bike is when it's wet and the rim brakes are suddenly useless.

meanredspider

Veronese68 wrote:

Going downhill off road can be quite tiring, it's not like you can just sit there. At the end of the London to Brighton off road I was utterly knackered and from the top of the downs the final descent had a couple of little drops that shouldn't present any problems. But after 75 miles off road just standing on the pedals and lifting your front wheel seems a lot harder than it should be.

+1 That's one of the really cruel aspects of the Puffer course - grindingly long fire road climbs and other ascents followed by short/sharp technical descents to lose all of that elevation where the load goes from your legs to your arms and shoulders. Only the final descent to the start line is a beautiful, fast, sweeping run - before it all starts again.

Aidy

Rolf F wrote:

Mind you, even when they do realise that, engineers still often get it wrong (eg Audi putting 5 speed gear boxes on Td engines with narrow torque bands and 6 speed gearboxes in the engines with wide torque bands - Vorsprung Durch Stupidity..... :roll: ).

Eh? Surely that makes sense.

meanredspider

Aidy wrote:

Rolf F wrote:

Mind you, even when they do realise that, engineers still often get it wrong (eg Audi putting 5 speed gear boxes on Td engines with narrow torque bands and 6 speed gearboxes in the engines with wide torque bands - Vorsprung Durch Stupidity..... :roll: ).

Eh? Surely that makes sense.

It's far more complex than just torque bands anyway. I don't think that TD engines have a narrow torque curve - but a torque curve that sits very low in the rev range (which petrol engine drivers mistake for narrow because they aren't used to torque being developed at around 1000rpm). It also depends how critical it is you sit at peak torque (hence why diesel trucks have so many gears). Some vehicles, power is far more critical than torque (lightweight sports cars). Then throw in economy, overdrives etc etc Not to mention the manufacturing expense, product differentiation & so on.

symo

Perhaps I am some sort of descending ninja then? Wet or dry including in the sleet on the 04MAR2012, I had no problems at all with rim brakes, contrast with my hydraulics on my old (now GF's) 2008 Dew Deluxe, hard to setup, pain in the ass to keep squeal free and expensive to maintain.

I started road cycling around Devon and learnt that the fastest way to stop was to alternated between front an rear brakes rapidly if I want to slow down, wet or dry. Always seems to work for me. Discs have a place but for me the lightness, easy setup, ease of maintenance and cost of upgrades mean that calipers are a better bet for me. I have no doubt that soon there will be no choice and just disc brakes but for me they are suited to offroad more. I always thought a good commuter would be a alfine rear with cable-disc braked front brake.

To be honest if this is what the UCI are moving to, just because Andy Schleck it is a sad day.

Incidently, my times in the wet on descents are similar what I find is the problem is confidence in cornering in the wet.

bompington

symo wrote:

I started road cycling around Devon and learnt that the fastest way to stop was to alternated between front an rear brakes rapidly if I want to slow down, wet or dry. Always seems to work for me.

I've got this really sophisticated setup on my bike where you can apply both brakes at once

symo

Ah so applying and rapidly applying at the same time eh? No I will stick to firing front and back alternately and in rapid succession. Seems to work for me.

meanredspider

symo wrote:

Discs have a place but for me the lightness, easy setup, ease of maintenance and cost of upgrades mean that calipers are a better bet for me.

What's the big deal with setting up & maintaining disc brakes? I'm at a loss to understand it. BB7s, in particular, really couldn't be easier: the brake does all the work for you.

One side benefit I've noticed is how much cleaner your hands stay when changing a tyre in the wet on a disc-braked bike. There's none of that accumulated grinding paste residue around the rim.

meanredspider

symo wrote:

Ah so applying and rapidly applying at the same time eh? No I will stick to firing front and back alternately and in rapid succession. Seems to work for me.

Work to do what? Why don't you just apply the brake(s) steadily and consistently?

supersonic

What's the big deal with setting up & maintaining disc brakes?

It depends on the brake - how many have you owned or tested, and which ones? Some are harder to set up than others, take longer to bed in, are prone to squeal, seem to need regular bleeding, suffer more with stuck pistons or rubbing issues and so on.

meanredspider

supersonic wrote:

What's the big deal with setting up & maintaining disc brakes?

It depends on the brake - how many have you owned or tested, and which ones? Some are harder to set up than others, take longer to bed in, are prone to squeal, seem to need regular bleeding, suffer more with stuck pistons or rubbing issues and so on.

4 or 5 different types I guess - BB5, BB7 & Formula R1 currently but Avid hydraulic & one other that I don't remember, previously. Perhaps I've just been very lucky or perhaps, because I deal with road/race car brakes a lot, I know what I'm doing. They just seem incredibly simple and, apart from the off-road stuff, seem to need very little TLC.

soundninjauk

I've got Avid Juicy 5s on the mtb (Orange P7), and Hope Tech X2s on the commuter (Cannondale Bad Boy Solo). When I bought my commuter I'd had the mtb for a couple of years, and I frankly much prefer the feel of hydraulic discs over cable cantis/Vs.

As for wear and things, the only time I've ever seen anyone have to replace a rotor was after they came off on a rocky descent and turned it into a pringle. I've replaced the pads on my commuter in the rear brake once in a year or so, and the front pads are still going strong.

rick_chasey

Jeez, someone said over on the road section (where I got the picture from) that this bike was generating a lot of debate.

I didn't believe him! Should have!