Noob road bike: calliper or cable disc?

secretsam

Colleague of mine wants her first road bike; budget up to say £750. Should she go for calliper or disc brakes? Likely to be for a bit if commuting, general fitness and the odd triathlon.

fenix

That's a fair whack for a first bike.

I'd go rim brakes though. I'm thinking this bike isn't going to get a huge mileage ? So shes not going to wear rims out.
More choices with rim brakes too.

homers_double

Is it for a commuter or actual road riding?

secretsam

homers double wrote:

Is it for a commuter or actual road riding?

Primary use is road and fitness. Commuting is secondary, but needs to be possible as it's the saving on tube fares that's paying for it

homers_double

If she's a light rider than I see no reason to go for discs and as Fenix says, going rim will open up a huge range of bikes.

That said, see below and act accordingly.

finlayson99

I'd agree, rim will give more bike choice at that price.

daniel_b

At that price, unless a stonking deal turns up, I would go for rim brakes.

If she is really small then the chance of a deal might increase.

In the spring I bought my gf a Fuji 1.1 Le with 5800 and hydraulic discs for £810, but not sure there will be many deals about like that at this time of year.
Personally I wouldn't look at mechanical discs, but that is likely unfounded.

6wheels

If she'll be using it during the winter, then disc brakes every time. I've been using TRP Spyres for a year and they do the job, better with hydraulic though.

kingrollo

IME cable discs require frequent adjustment and are more trouble than they are worth. Decent caliiper brakes will provide enough stopping power...

sloppyschleckonds

Disc breaks, Di2, tubeless tyres, aero frames, all fads and not a necessity.

meanredspider

sloppyschleckonds wrote:

Disc breaks .... all fads and not a necessity.

Yeah - broken discs - what were they thinking....???

secretsam

sloppyschleckonds wrote:

Disc breaks, Di2, tubeless tyres, aero frames, all fads and not a necessity.

I'm with you on Aero frames, tubeless possibly. Electronic shifting I can't comment, never tried it, but can totally see the point.

But disc brakes in winter are sooooo much better!

bbrap

sloppyschleckonds wrote:

Disc breaks, Di2, tubeless tyres, aero frames, all fads and not a necessity.

Disc brakes are great (I have both and prefer the discs whatever the weather), Di2 is brilliant (particularly the front mech which makes 34 - 50 ring changes so much easier), not tried tubeless yet, don't like the look of aero frames to be honest. I know someone will come back and say well set up mechanical with rim brakes is perfectly adequate, well it is, but it does not stay that way for very long. Di2 stays in trim, disc brakes do not require as much maintenance as rim brakes (picking grit out of pads, cleaning grit & censored off the rims etc). Both do the job, but in my opinion Di2 & discs are much easier to live with.

6wheels

One of these, will do her a treat...

http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Cannondale-Syna ... wodNR4K7w#

secretsam

Thanks all - I need to kick her into gear so she catches the bargains. But she's young, and flighty...ah, to be so carefree again!

homers_double

pics?

Matthewfalle

bbrap wrote:

sloppyschleckonds wrote:

Disc breaks, Di2, tubeless tyres, aero frames, all fads and not a necessity.

Disc brakes are great (I have both and prefer the discs whatever the weather), Di2 is brilliant (particularly the front mech which makes 34 - 50 ring changes so much easier), not tried tubeless yet, don't like the look of aero frames to be honest. I know someone will come back and say well set up mechanical with rim brakes is perfectly adequate, well it is, but it does not stay that way for very long. Di2 stays in trim, disc brakes do not require as much maintenance as rim brakes (picking grit out of pads, cleaning grit & censored off the rims etc). Both do the job, but in my opinion Di2 & discs are much easier to live with.

"Well set up mechanical ..... does not stay that well for long"

Eh? I don't know about you but for me once I've done the initial new cable set up I need to do a half barrel turn after a couple of months to allow for cable stretch then that's it . Perhaps you're doing something wrong or maybe believing the hype a little to much?

I'd say mechnaical and rims for the OP - work just as well, more likely to get deals, easier to maintain.

daniel_b

6wheels wrote:

One of these, will do her a treat...

http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Cannondale-Syna ... wodNR4K7w#

That is nuts value - I nearly went for one last year at full price.

Plus 5.5% cashback though TCB lops a further £36 of it, to take it down to £664 - I'm tempted!

6wheels

Nearly did a yellow and black Photoshop job on it . Saying that, the blue is really nice, bit of a unisex colour.

daniel_b

6wheels wrote:

Nearly did a yellow and black Photoshop job on it . Saying that, the blue is really nice, bit of a unisex colour.

Now that would be even nicer, but that is a lovely blue, nice and bright.

The reason I did not go for it, is that I really wanted hydraulic discs, and the adventure model came up in a lovely dark green colour, with SRAM Rival groupo and hydraulic discs, and the icing on the cake was the factory aluminium mudguards.

I bought it in the sale, with a discount card thing, and it ended up costing me £1080, versus the £999 this one was on for at the time, so made a lot of sense to me for the extra £80.