Disc brakes in the Pro ranks.

ddraver

After the farce of last year I can't see any teams taking them up on the offer.

It must have bloomin nearly put that one belgian team (name?!?!? ) out of business...

gweeds

Rompoot?

dennisn

Rick Chasey wrote:

dennisn wrote:

TheBigBean wrote:

I suppose the question is what problem are they trying to solve

I don't think "they" are trying to solve any problem. "They" are trying to sell new things. Think about it. You'll need a new bike, new wheels, new shifters, and new brakes. It's a bonanza for component and frame makes, IF they can get you to buy into it. Once these things make it to the pro ranks all the lemmings will follow and the manufacturers cash registers will be cha chinging day and night.

Nah mate.

I've said it before; it's all about finding ways to commercially add weight.

As soon as they cut the weight limit they'll drop the heavy brakes in favour of lighter rim brakes again.

The manufacturers would rather add something they can sell on a bike to weigh it down rather then dropping lead weights down the seat tube.

Drop the limit to 5 kilos. See what happens.

Nah, don't buy it. I still say manufacturers just want to sell new stuff. They could care less about pro weight limits. After all pro's don't buy
cycling stuff. They simply ride what they are hired to. The money comes from you and I.

gweeds

Definitely about sales and not weight.

And for most riders discs will be a better bet most of the time. Same as with MTB's (and I'm old enough to remember some people freaking out about them when I was racing many many years ago).

rick_chasey

gweeds

Don't be so hard on yourself Rick

davidof

I'm going off disk brakes after my ride today

dennisn

davidof wrote:

I'm going off disk brakes after my ride today

Are you saying that you have a disc bike and now you're not going to use it? You're a richer man than I am. Seems like a lot of money to just give up. Guess you could sell it.

dennisn

Rick Chasey wrote:

dennisn wrote:

TheBigBean wrote:

I suppose the question is what problem are they trying to solve

I don't think "they" are trying to solve any problem. "They" are trying to sell new things. Think about it. You'll need a new bike, new wheels, new shifters, and new brakes. It's a bonanza for component and frame makes, IF they can get you to buy into it. Once these things make it to the pro ranks all the lemmings will follow and the manufacturers cash registers will be cha chinging day and night.

Nah mate.

I've said it before; it's all about finding ways to commercially add weight.

The manufacturers would rather add something they can sell on a bike to weigh it down rather then dropping lead weights down the seat tube.

Why would manufacturers WANT to add weight? And who cares about pro's maybe having to put lead in the seat tube? Can't imagine why myself and / or anyone else would care. After all WE don't have to do it.

dennisn

davidof wrote:

I'm going off disk brakes after my ride today

Are you saying that you have a disc bike and now you're not going to use it? You're a richer man than I am. Seems like a lot of money to just give up. Guess you could sell it.

TheBigBean

Rick's point is that bikes currently need ballast to make the minimum weight requirement. Therefore there is scope for manufacturers to add some bells and whistles that weigh something, reduce the ballast and then sell more things.

If the weight limited was reduced there would be no incentive because additional weight would make the bike slower.

Perhaps they should start marketing mascots because I understand some amateurs are keen to look like the pros without exception and this could be a nice little earner. I could market a go faster blue bean character.

davidof

dennisn wrote:

davidof wrote:

I'm going off disk brakes after my ride today

Are you saying that you have a disc bike and now you're not going to use it? You're a richer man than I am. Seems like a lot of money to just give up. Guess you could sell it.

No I'm saying I'm going off disk brakes having branded myself on a rear disk today.

ocdupalais

davidof wrote:

dennisn wrote:

davidof wrote:

I'm going off disk brakes after my ride today

Are you saying that you have a disc bike and now you're not going to use it? You're a richer man than I am. Seems like a lot of money to just give up. Guess you could sell it.

No I'm saying I'm going off disk brakes having branded myself on a rear disk today.

Eesh... on the back of the head, too.
Shame it doesn't look like you've enough hair do to a "comb-over", either.

meanredspider

How did you manage to burn yourself?

davidof

meanredspider wrote:

How did you manage to burn yourself?

After a twisty steep, downhill got off bike and back wheel touched my leg. Silly thing to happen.

onyourright

It’s either a head or a hirsute calf. Surely the former.

In both cases, a strange place to stick a hot disc. What did you do that for, davidof?

A few weeks ago, the numpty in front of me slammed on his brakes at about 40 km/h and gracefully flipped over the bars. I managed to swerve around him and the other numpty he braked for, but – get this – his cassette sliced open my finger as it accomplished its arc through the air. Aside from three sprocket-width gashes on that finger, I was completely untouched. My finger, like the other nine, had been holding the drops.

It gave me renewed respect for the notion of a disc brake cutting someone in a crash.

meanredspider

davidof wrote:

meanredspider wrote:

How did you manage to burn yourself?

After a twisty steep, downhill got off bike and back wheel touched my leg. Silly thing to happen.

Ouch - hope it heals quickly

kleinstroker

Disc brakes are to be round edged for new test and will have aero covers

rick_chasey

dennisn wrote:

Why would manufacturers WANT to add weight? And who cares about pro's maybe having to put lead in the seat tube? .

People on Pro Race.

Same reason why the thread title is 'disc brakes in the pro ranks'.

gweeds

Indeed.

But it's a hell of a jump from that to weight being the reason for makers to push discs.

It just ain't why they're doing it.

onyourright

The UCI weight limit enables the push to discs. No pro in a hilly race would accept a near 1 kg penalty for discs otherwise.

rick_chasey

FFS that's not what I'm saying.

I'm saying that's why pro teams are considering them. Why have deadweight when you can have an advantage for the weight - i.e. improved braking.

The improved braking comes with basically no weight penalty with the 6.8 kilo limit, so why not do it?

gweeds

All bike companies sell far, far more to us regular people. Yes they like to sell what pros use. But the drive to discs simply isn't driven by a current UCI weight limit. It's the rise of endurance bikes/gravel bikes et al and carbon rims being utter arse in wet weather that's doing so. Given time the weight disadvantage of discs will likely disappear anyway. And countered by advances in wheel design not currently possible with rim brakes.

The suggestion that it's weight is just not the case.

gweeds

Ah. Understood Rick. Agree with that aspect entirely.

rick_chasey

GAAARGH.

It's why pro teams are thinking about using them .


Forget bikes for normal people. That's not what we're discussing here, given, y'know, it's pro race

gweeds

Hang on. Is this pro race?


☺️

onyourright

I’m talking about pro race. Obviously discs have already happened elsewhere.

Removing or lowering the UCI weight limit would set back disc adoption in the pro ranks for years.

ddraver

One major difference between this year and last year is that we now have proper, Dura Ace and Red Disk brake set ups rather than the similar but not top of the range Ultegra or CX options that we had last year. Given that we re talking about riders that can feel variations of grams (apparently :-S ), that might be quite an important difference.

We are now genuinely comparing the best that shimano can make rim brakes with the best they can make disk brakes

onyourright

ddraver wrote:

We are now genuinely comparing the best that shimano can make rim brakes with the best they can make disk brakes

This assumes there isn’t some sort of conspiracy.

It will be interesting to see how long it takes before the likes of Froome use discs in a climb-heavy race.

rick_chasey

OnYourRight wrote:

I’m talking about pro race. Obviously discs have already happened elsewhere.

Removing or lowering the UCI weight limit would set back disc adoption in the pro ranks for years.

It's also reduce the penalty small riders have...