Do i buy disc brake road bike?

cycleclinic

To answers the op original title post - yes.

bristolpete

Tell you something. The selection of disk bikes is mind boggling. A leaning towards endurance geo seems evident.

The bikes that get consistent reviews and look well specced are Defy, Synapse, Cube Agree but of course more bikes have it. Where do you start ?!?! Best to narrow it down to race or 'sportive' geo I suppose. Both will have equal speeds.

ZMC888

I don't really want a complete disk brake bike, but if I wanted disk I'd prefer to keep my rim brake bike but buy an aftermarket carbon fork run it with Di2 and a hydraulic shifter on the front brake but put a Shimano Saint DH 4 pot caliper on it then run a light caliper like a SRAM Red or EE cyclewerks on the back. Match the wheels by buying a rim version and a disk version of the same wheel front and rear like maybe Dura-ace. Obviously bike would look a bit weird and the biggest problem would be that the brake housing designs won't match up well, but it does make actual engineering sense.

I've spent lots of hard earned money to try to keep my climbing bike light, by changing out bolts to titanium or aluminium, upgrading to better wheels spending more on pedals, changing to titanium skewers etc etc. I agree with Mean red spider that it's the front brake that really matters and that's where real braking power comes from, so I feel that a disk brake is totally justifiable on the front of the bike especially if it rains, because you never really know when it will especially in Northwestern Europe and a host of other places around the world. and makes total engineering and logical sense for only a bit of a weight penalty that I would be happy enough to pay. However I feel that a rear hydraulic disk brake is a totally unnecessary engineering wise as it's just adding weight and complication to a bike to make it look a bit prettier in advertising mailshots. I can't really understand why no manufacturer has followed this logic.

'Simplify - then add lightness' - Colin Chapman.

meanredspider

I run a HyRd on a 160 disc on the front and a BB7 on a 140 disc on the rear.

w00dster

Is N+1 not an option? Buy a cheap hydraulic disc bike for days when it's wet? I'm fortunate to have a rim brake bike for good weather and two hydraulic disc brakes, one is my commuter/gravel bike and real bad weather day the other is for normal rides in bad weather.
I haven't really had much of an issue with braking performance on my carbon wheels in the rain or wet, but then I limit the use, so it's just when I get caught out.
Club rides in the winter have been amusing though, you can tell the guys with disc brakes, they brake later and know they will come to a stop, rim brake guys are just that bit later in stopping.
Weight wise, my Trek Domane disc brake bike is now just under 8kgs, my previous rim brake bike was 6.4kgs (Emonda SLR with very light wheels). I'm still very similar from a speed perspective, on some of the real steep mountain climbs in Snowdon I'm quicker on the Domane. But this is very likely to be the fact that I can run a 32 cassette, the Emonda was 53-39 and 11-28, so probably grinding on the very steep sections (20%). For racing I'm still not sure what bike to use this coming road and crit season. At the moment my thinking was crits on disc and road on rim (because of the weight and aero advantage of rim brakes).
My aim is to get the Domane down to about 7.5kgs, I don't think realistically I can go lower without spending more than the price of buying a new bike.

noodleman

Rim braked bikes will still be around for a while but I reckon they will become a niche market for hill climbers. Can't really see any other advantage of a rim brake bike other than competitive hill climbs.
I'll be keeping my tarmac for big days out in the hills but even then I'd be in two minds as to whether I'd be happy to sacrifice the weight advantage of the tarmac in favour of better braking and not worrying about overheating my carbon rims on the descents.
A few manufacturers aren't even building rim brake versions of some of their models. I'm happy to have both rim and disc options available to me but if I had to choose one bike it'd be the disc bike.

roger_merriman

Veronese68 wrote:

LakesLuddite wrote:

The discs are better, yes, but for my needs rim brakes on the summer bike are fine - but if I were to only have one bike ( ) then it would have to be disc, given the performance in the wet.

That's what it all boils down to. If I only had one bike it would be my CX, it can handle light off road if I want to and it's fast enough on road with a change of tyres that for a rider of my ability it makes no difference. Rim brakes are fine in the dry, prefer discs in the wet. I don't think I would change bike just to go to discs from rim, but if I was changing bike anyway then I would be looking for discs.
I don't think rim brakes will disappear completely for a long time yet. In the more distant future it may become difficult to get high end rim brake stuff, but I don't think that will happen for a while yet.

Oddly enough I am changing or at least seriously thinking about changing bikes which is mostly due to brakes, the present CX bike even with decent pads is very poor braking, the newer bike will be mildly lighter, and less hassle gear wise, 3/7 to 2/9 for the same range etc.

Hopefully it’s in Evans later today so I can kick it’s tyres!

sloppyschleckonds

noodleman wrote:

and not worrying about overheating my carbon rims on the descents.

2010 wants its thread back

noodleman

SloppySchleckonds wrote:

noodleman wrote:

and not worrying about overheating my carbon rims on the descents.

2010 wants its thread back

Try telling that to my mate who recently delamimated a Reynolds assault.