Crosshair exactly, no valid reason to use them in racing situations (which is what this thread is about)

Of course there’s a valid reason. If, like me you only have one road bike, that would greatly benefit from discs most of the year, then you can race without needing a whole new bike.

Seems good to me.

My kids having more than one bike us an extravagance but its a choice to be made. A mountain bike is more relevant to what we do normally but I don’t bemoan them not being able to road race say. What about if I’d bought them a cross bike and they then couldn’t race MTB? Can’t race track with either MTB or road bike either. Life is about choices unfortunately.

Disparity in braking, it’s already there. People with carbon wheels, people with alu, some with decent and we’ll set up calipers and some with shonky set ups.

My kids having more than one bike us an extravagance but its a choice to be made.

If you’re lucky enough to have the money and the space.

Life is about choices unfortunately.

It is. but if you can easily enable more activities for less cost, that’s a good thing no? Why be exclusionist?

It’s about comparative braking times and paces in a peloton that’s inches from eachother. You either have to all be ok discs or nobody.

I’m sort of confused by this, surely you know how your bike handles and you brake as needed to maintain the same gap to the person in front or to ensure you have the correct speed for a certain corner. So long as the disc brakes have some modualtion the type of brake is irrelevant. In the past people have said “we dont need discs, put good high quality pads on your calipers and they brake just as well.” Are you now saying rubbish pads shoudl be banned?

[tongue in cheek trolling mode]
Just re-inforces the sterotype that roadies are juiced up fools with no bike handling ability at all
[/ tongue in cheek trolling mode]

Disclaimer: I don’t really care as I’m far too scared of crashing onto hard surfaces to try road racing.

It’s about comparative braking times and paces in a peloton that’s inches from eachother. You either have to all be ok discs or nobody.

Bollocks. The reaction time is far greater than the actual braking time, if someone in front grabs a handful of brakes your going to hit them, whatever brakes both parties are on.

Good move by BC.

Gt56 don’t get your points at all – they’re hardly necessary, no one’s saying anything to the contrary, but they’re also not detrimental. If your bike has discs, you can now race it, this is good. I don’t buy the “inches from each other” stuff, look at the flat stages of the Tour this year, Kittel and Matthews(?) on discs, completely overlooked by the commentators, no one died. Your average Hillingdon crit is full of choppers who can’t ride, but introducing a few folk on discs will make the sum total of zero difference!

Disclaimer: I don’t really care as I’m far too scared of crashing onto hard surfaces to try road racing.

It’s not crashing onto hard surfaces I’ll be most scared about, it’ll be crashing onto someones red hot disc brakes i’ll be more concerned about from now on!

Your average Hillingdon crit is full of choppers who can’t ride,

That’s why they’re in the newbies catagory/class…. BEcause they’re inexperienced in riding…. It’s not their fault 🙂

Has anybody on ever made their discs on any of their bikes red hot?? Do discs get hotter than rims??

Given that most people are trying hard not to ever have to brake in road racing, I don’t see why their brakes are going to be so hot after a couple of seconds of pre crash panic braking??

Overall I think it was inevitable that they’d be allowed, just slightly surprised it is so soon, when the evidence is still inconclusive on how safe they are.

Disk braked bikes use through axles, rim braked bikes don’t.

Not true. As an example I have 3 bikes with discs, (1 mtb, 2 cyclocross) all have QR front and back.

BEcause they’re inexperienced in riding…. It’s not their fault

Yes it is, go learn to ride a bike before turning up at a race.

Yes it is, go learn to ride a bike before turning up at a race.

They can all ride bikes, just not necessarily in groups/packs and at high corner speeds… I bet if you stuck them on the track alone they’d lap perfectly well…

They’ve got to get the experience and knowledge from somewhere

It’s about comparative braking times and paces in a peloton that’s inches from eachother. You either have to all be ok discs or nobody.

This is such rubbish I’m afraid. There is already a huge disparity in braking performance, carbon rims vs aluminium (especially in the wet), yet nobody cried when carbon rims were introduced.

Also, like njee says, going for the brakes is a bit late when the rider in front has stacked it at 30pmh. There’s a reason why bunch track racing is seen as safe: brakes are for controlling speed due to descents and corners, not avoiding choppers.

Has anybody on ever made their discs on any of their bikes red hot??

No, and I’ve tried on night rides hoping to see even a dull red in the dark – but nothing 🙂

Has anybody on ever made their discs on any of their bikes red hot?? Do discs get hotter than rims??

As per Molly, not made them red hot; they do get hotter than rims, however they also cool down incredibly quickly. Still a non-issue.

There is already a huge disparity in braking performance, carbon rims vs aluminium (especially in the wet), yet nobody cried when carbon rims were introduced.

Great point! I think we should also ban anyone not on Dura Ace calipers, too much disparity otherwise, you’d be a liability if you only have Sora brakes. Cables and pads must be new too.

It’s about comparative braking times and paces in a peloton that’s inches from eachother. You either have to all be ok discs or nobody.

As njee20 says, bollocks.
There’s already a huge discrepancy in braking – rim material, how worn the brake blocks are, cables, brake calipers – a rusty set of Tiagra vs some new Dura Ace. Again, it’s a total red herring.

Also, in road races, if you’re slamming the brakes on, something has already gone horribly wrong. As mentioned above, many circuits can be ridden with nothing more than a tiny gentle tap of the brakes once or twice a lap at most.

Ladders – Member
Disclaimer: I don’t really care as I’m far too scared of crashing onto hard surfaces to try road racing.
It’s not crashing onto hard surfaces I’ll be most scared about, it’ll be crashing onto someones red hot disc brakes i’ll be more concerned about from now on!

Utter tosh, the only time I’ve got my disc brakes even remotely hot was on a long dry descent, and that involve much dragging. A quick grab in a road race is not going to make then even remotely warm.

weeksy – Member
I bet if you stuck them on the track alone they’d lap perfectly well…

I wouldn’t count on it, there’s a surprising number of people who cant ride round corners irrespective of their surroundings.

This could have a safety benefit away from the track too. I got a road bike this year and didn’t get discs due to the BC policy.

For me discs feel much better/safer. But my road riding,
where the big risks are, is a little compromised. Perhaps I’ll never race, but I didn’t want to be excluded, and two bikes isn’t an option.

If this means more people are training with brakes they prefer, then overall it might be safer.

Perhaps someone will get clipped by a disc in a race, but someone else may avoid an accident out on the roads.

(I know others may prefer the braking on non-disc bikes)

I wouldn’t count on it, there’s a surprising number of people who cant ride round corners irrespective of their surroundings.

You’ve seen me ride a road bike then !

As a racer this is just the green light I need for that expensive Christmas prezzie to self 😀

I ride a mix of disc and rim braked bikes, and can think of a couple times this season I would have considered disc’s an advantage, and fundamentally as a racer it’s the advantage that counts to me. Never held much stock in the safety arguements. I imagine it will drive a few new bike sale’s which is all good.

Good to go for me!

They’ve got to get the experience and knowledge from somewhere

Clubs offer group ride training. A couple of centres offer race training. To race Surrey League you MUST have completed two training sessions. I’ve given them and they are very good.

can think of a couple times this season I would have considered disc’s an advantage

Really? I can’t. Can think of plenty of disadvantages – lugging them up Staple Hill about 40 times comes to mind 😉

But I think it’s a non-issue – until someone gores their wrist open on one…

To race Surrey League you MUST have completed two training sessions. I’ve given them and they are very good.

Only if you’re a 4th cat.

Can think of plenty of disadvantages – lugging them up Staple Hill about 40 times comes to mind

Easy to get a disc bike down to the UCI limit.

leggyblonde – Member
Easy to get a disc bike down to the UCI limit.

Yet in the Tour the disc bikes got ditched for mountain days #makesyouthink

Allowing kids to be race their cross bikes in kids races is the single best reason for allowing discs

+1 for this.

Makes sense for BC. With most new road bikes being sold now having discs it’ll just become a barrier for people wanting to try racing which isn’t good for the sport.

Won’t make any difference for most UK amateur racing.

and can think of a couple times this season I would have considered disc’s an advantage,

I would love to know when.

The idea of road racing is to carry speed, never touch the brakes unless it is to modulate speed in the bunch.

Ever tried a winding descent down a steep hill without using your brakes ? And the idea of road racing is to cross the finish line first .

Ever tried a winding descent down a steep hill without using your brakes ? And the idea of road racing is to cross the finish line first .

UK road racing? 😆

You guys will have to show me the grand Pro tour footage where one bloke is on Dura ace and carbon wheels and the other guy is on ‘rusty misaligned tiagra’.

The UCI’s rule is about the Pro tours. It is not about punters hacking about their local post office crit.

Having vastly different braking distances **** up pack dynamics. If you haven’t experienced this then thats fine, but everyone I’ve spoken to above cat 2 more or less agrees.

There’s nothing wrong with discs, nobody is getting cut legs, they’re better for braking, and on your own – crack on. But it either has to be all discs or all rim.

And if you go all rim you will find it affects punters a hell of a lot more than pros who will just get a new bike tomorrow. I’m sorry that your son’s 4 bikes aren’t quite right, but most kids racing road that are struggling financially can only afford one bike – and it’s usually road rim.

But this thread isn’t about the continued UCI disc trial, it’s about BC extending the use of discs into domestic racing.

I can’t imagine many Cat 2 and upwards are going to agree with your point about mixed braking dynamics anyway to be honest- I bet there’s a vast range of pull lengths and bite points within the pro peloton and it’s ludicrous to suggest that how hard they brake is anything other than a product of how hard the rider modulates the available power!!!
In fact how hard they brake is only really determined by how hard the guy in front brakes and that’s got nothing to do with his brake type either!!

The difference between alloy rims on my nice bike and carbon on the race bike is huge, there are plenty of alloy rims mixed in with carbon. On a wet day I’ve not seen bunch dynamics upset in anyway. And that’s on some courses where speed modulation is essential (e.g., wet cyclopark E123 last weekend). It’s really not an issue as riders just aren’t grabbing handfuls of lever.

Only if you’re a 4th cat.

Well it has been considered for 3rd cat, but anyone can join them

Ever tried a winding descent down a steep hill without using your brakes?

I’ve done 50mph down a twisty decent in a UK road race, didn’t touch the brakes. Anyone who did instantly went backwards, through a very strung out bunch.

But most UK road races don’t have twisty, technical descents unless you ride the big E/1/2 races.

continuity

Having vastly different braking distances **** up pack dynamics. If you haven’t experienced this then thats fine, but everyone I’ve spoken to above cat 2 more or less agrees.

What nonsense. If this was the case everyone would be required to do a 25mph braking at the line test before a race to make sure they all stop within 5cm of eachother. I’d say riders strengths/abilities (even at cat 2 level 😐 ) have FAR more influence over dynamics than bloody brakes.

Discs are here people, it adds some diversity to the bunch.

Personally I can’t say I’ll be using my disc braked road bike over my current stead of choice, but at least if I have a mechanical the day before or something I’ve got a backup option rather than not racing at all.

But most UK road races don’t have twisty, technical descents unless you ride the big E/1/2 races.

True, but I can think of a race last year with a fast decent followed by a sharp left turn where braking was definitely needed. I can’t see how someone with greater braking power (i.e. discs) would be a danger to anyone else.

There’s never a situation when you need to stop in a race unless there’s already been a crash ahead, and even with only rim brakes in the peloton some stop quicker than others – mainly due to reaction time I would say.

I think it’s inevitable as discs are clearly superior, so I’m happy it’s been bought in now. To say all discs or none would make it very expensive for a lot of people to race next year. They’ll be a time in a few years when nearly everyone will have discs, so the sooner this process starts, the better IMO.

I can’t see how someone with greater braking power (i.e. discs) would be a danger to anyone else.

Exactly. I thought the great advantage of discs was meant to be modulation. One is always adjusting speed in a race, sometimes that needs a little brake application. With a disc, it might need just a little less. We aren’t grabbing the levers in the bunch! The Staple Hill circuit is a good example. Downhill with an acute left hand turn. The whole bunch will be braking – then sprinting out and leaving me behind 🙁 perhaps I need to carry more speed!

I won’t be replacing the Propel any day soon though. And I’m less convinced of them replacing rim brakes. It was somewhat ironic that the TDF stages Matthews won were not on the new Propel disc, but his trust TCR non-disc. A bit like Degenkolb winning Paris-Roubaix on a non-disc Defy SL (which was not available after the entire range was replaced by disc only).

I’m less convinced of them replacing rim brakes

You may be right. Braking power is good enough with rims in most situations and there are a few disadvantages of discs e.g. weight and aero penalties