Future proofing? Best to go discs?

ugo.santalucia

DeVlaeminck wrote:

I agree, I can't argue that full hydros aren't better because I've not used them but I find modulation on rim brakes fine. Rim wear vs extra faff and weight of discs - tbh I'm still favouring rim brakes on a race bike.

There is nothing wrong with rim brakes and if I was still living in Italy, I wouldn't look any further: they are lighter, work just as well and easier to set up and live with. Sadly over the past few months all I have seen is rain, mud, grit and the "dry season" is limited to 3-4 months in the year. It's a bit better in the south east, but everywhere else in the country it rains 50% of the days. Given the conditions, rim wear becomes a big issue and consistency in the wet is important too... it all points in the direction of rim brakes being obsolete.

The issue is that people buy convertible cars and drive them around when it's 5 degrees and buy 10 grand worth of carbon bikes to ride them on "cow crap"... or they buy a Discovery to park it in Fulham... what makes sense does not match people's aspirations

kajjal

The difference in braking is very noticeable when swapping between my 105 & swisstop pads road bike and my r785 hydraulic disc road bike. The latter takes less effort to use, is very consistent and stops alot faster. In the wet the rim brakes are very poor in comparison.

cycleclinic

Mamba80 you have proved my point. You have not tried disc brakes yet. Well setup V-brakes on my old MTB's stop me too it does not mean though that I don't notice the benefits of disc brakes.

comsense

Didn't really think about disc that much lately as they've become the norm for me after 2 years plus riding on them. Until a mate was asking about them and I swapped bikes to let him try them. This was during the heavy rain and on flooded roads. His well set up Ultegra rim brakes scared the hell out of me under those conditions. The grinding on the rims made me winch.

I've Hy/RD front and back on one bike and HY/RD front and BB7 back on another. I've never locked wheels ( not sure how you'd do it without deliberately trying) and the BB7 is rarely adjusted whilst the HY/RDs just get on with the job without fuss. Not sure where all the fettling ideas come from except to say when I had the BB7's first I was always messing with them until I realised that is exactly what I was doing - messing.

Fat-Boy-Roubaix

The main thing is I have not seen a post saying I have a disc braked bike and I hate it. The only thing I do not like about them is the look of them on the bike. But I will definitely be taking a good look at the 2017 launch road bikes this year for a Sumer lightweight disc bike and will sling my Supersix Evo Red on to eBay.

I rode that bike May -> November and even in the summer I was forever adjusting the brakes and replacing blocks and wearing out my Fulcrum zero's. I think one of the issues is when and how rim braked bikes are ridden. The vast majority of my miles are done daily commuting and I do this in whatever the weather throws at me bar ice and snow. So rim wear and maintenance becomes critical and I cannot deny I like nice and light wheels so the cost is also an issue. If I was just intending to ride weekends on the Supersix I would keep it. Still might and just ride this one thought the year commuting

gweeds

Just got my first disc bike, precisely for the reasons that Ugo mentions above. The roads around me are rural and often covered in mud and crap, with a lot of standing water when it rains.

Having got sick of chewing through rims and pads due to the grit I elected to go for a Defy Advanced 1 Disc (with my Canyon and steel bikes for dry weather).

The difference is staggering. No more clearing the rims and having to brake way earlier, instead consistent, powerful braking regardless of the weather and excellent modulation.

I'm a convert. The looks don't bother me at all.

But then I'm old enough to remember people saying cantilevers and V-brakes were fine for mountain bikes. Don't see many of those around anymore...

DeVlaeminck

Fat-Boy-Roubaix wrote:

The main thing is I have not seen a post saying I have a disc braked bike and I hate it. The only thing I do not like about them is the look of them on the bike. But I will definitely be taking a good look at the 2017 launch road bikes this year for a Sumer lightweight disc bike and will sling my Supersix Evo Red on to eBay.

Plenty of people unhappy with disc brakes on these forums - again maybe not full hydros but plenty of stories of people with cable or semi hydro and thinking "is that it" - to be fair there are also plenty of happy customers but the sceptics are not only those who have never tried discs.

ugo.santalucia

Fat-Boy-Roubaix wrote:

The main thing is I have not seen a post saying I have a disc braked bike and I hate it. The only thing I do not like about them is the look of them on the bike. But I will definitely be taking a good look at the 2017 launch road bikes this year for a Sumer lightweight disc bike and will sling my Supersix Evo Red on to eBay.

I think most disc fitted road bikes are ugly, but that is not to say that a bike with drop brakes cannot look good with discs, plenty of CX with discs are gorgeous. They just have to make better looking disc bikes, I guess

meanredspider

DeVlaeminck wrote:

Plenty of people unhappy with disc brakes on these forums - again maybe not full hydros but plenty of stories of people with cable or semi hydro and thinking "is that it" - to be fair there are also plenty of happy customers but the sceptics are not only those who have never tried discs.

Disc brakes are not idiot-proof: some of the (older) cable disc brakes require careful set-up and all disc brakes need bedding in if they are to operate at their best. Over the years I've answered lots of posts on here with people complaining about the performance of their disc brakes and nearly all of them are one or other of these reasons. It's not unusual for the same people to come back and say "Wow" when they finally have them operating correctly. MTBers know this stuff - Roadies will learn.

ETA - as if by magic viewtopic.php?f=40004&t=13043349&p=19788247#p19788247

I have no plans to dump my Foil - the brakes are more of an issue than when I was riding it N Holland (and didn't really need brakes much) but it's OK. I'm every bit as fast on my Volagi with all of that "extra weight" and I enjoy riding it far more on hills. If I had to chose between the two bikes, it would be a no-brainer.

bernithebiker

meanredspider wrote:

DeVlaeminck wrote:

Lift the rear wheel when riding at speed - say slowing from 30 to 25mph ? If you can do that on demand with discs then yes I'm impressed - or do you mean lift the rear wheel when stopping or slowing right down - because that would be pretty routine with any brake wouldn't it ?

I don't know the speed (it takes a bit too much of my concentration to be looking at my Garmin) - I'm guessing around 10-15mph. I expect it could be done quicker - I'm just not good enough.

Do you have any photos / video of these 20km/h + endoes?

I can do small ones below about 10km/h (on rim brakes!) and I think I'm the only one in our group that can.

In the 20's is good going.

meanredspider

No - why would I?

Frankly, I'm more impressed you can do them on rims

rolf_f

darkhairedlord wrote:

bring back rod brakes, always used to see the old boys riding these back in the day.

Bring them back? I don't think they ever went away - you can buy rod braked bikes new in the Netherlands.

DeVlaeminck wrote:

Fat-Boy-Roubaix wrote:

The main thing is I have not seen a post saying I have a disc braked bike and I hate it. The only thing I do not like about them is the look of them on the bike. But I will definitely be taking a good look at the 2017 launch road bikes this year for a Sumer lightweight disc bike and will sling my Supersix Evo Red on to eBay.

Plenty of people unhappy with disc brakes on these forums - again maybe not full hydros but plenty of stories of people with cable or semi hydro and thinking "is that it" - to be fair there are also plenty of happy customers but the sceptics are not only those who have never tried discs.

I have, on my MTB, found that disc brakes can be pretty irritating though I wouldn't want an MTB without them. It didn't help that the bike came initially with Avid Juicys and nobody whose only experience of disc brakes is via an Avid product should be allowed to express an opinion on discs! The Shimano SLX I replaced them with are far better but I still find them a faff to avoid rubbing and I don't like the scraping noise when grit gets between disc and pad. But that shouldn't be an issue so much on a road bike of course.

If I was buying a new commuter bike, I would seriously consider discs. The main things that mean that is likely not to happen is 1) consideration of component compatibility - but I'd probably conclude that is not a good enough reason not to change and 2) that I only have 20 years or so of commuting left and therefore I don't expect to need to get a new commuting bike!

bernithebiker

meanredspider wrote:

No - why would I?

Frankly, I'm more impressed you can do them on rims

Carbon rims at that......

I'll be doing the Etape this year, so I'll keep my eyes open for all the disc equipped bikes doing high speed endos into the alpine corners......

meanredspider

bernithebiker wrote:

meanredspider wrote:

No - why would I?

Frankly, I'm more impressed you can do them on rims

Carbon rims at that......

I'll be doing the Etape this year, so I'll keep my eyes open for all the disc equipped bikes doing high speed endos into the alpine corners......

I wasn't doing endos but I was struck by how much more confidently I was braking for the hairpins on the Alpe during AD6 (even with a faulty HyRd caliper up front) In 5 descents, that's over 100 corners so you get a good feel for how the brakes compare. At 85kg, I'm on the larger side too so take more stopping than your average racing snake and gravity means I'm also often travelling quicker too.

Theakstons

Do you want to race at all? I've seen a few people told to leave the circuit already this year due to having them.