I’ve been commuting on the bike for about 18 months now, varying between fixed track bike, carbon road bike and disc braked gravel bike. More specifically brakes have varied between one front caliper and legs (track), disc brakes (gravel) and standard calipers (road bike). For the past 1800 miles I’ve used the Grade with TRP Hy/Rd brakes which need constant fettling to stop them running and keeping them working. One of my other bikes has Shimano RS685 which needs similar levels of maintenance to keep them running sweet and stop them rubbing.

I’m also have to change pads every 700 to 1k miles (tried Shimano’s own, Superstar) which seems like an awful lot – I don’t think I’ve ever changed the caliper pads on the road bike or the track bike. Last night was the final straw – after riding home feeling like the bike was ‘dragging’ (normally me and my knackered legs) I got back to the car to find the rear wheel would barely turn in the frame – pads rubbing again despite being fine in the morning.

I’ve got to the point where I’m just going to sack the Grade off and buy a fixed with mudguards – I’m sick of the constant maintenance required to keep a disc’d bike running.

Just me (and my mechanic’ing skills) or have others found this as well?

Why are the pads rubbing?
Bent discs? Sticky pistons?

Nope – it’s not a wonky disc type rubbing, its a brake binding on type rubbing. They’ve always done it – a week of riding, maybe two and then I have to adjust to stop them rubbing again. That’s about 300 miles of riding so not a huge amount.

This is what puts me off. One guy in the bike club has discs and they always rub. He doesn’t seem to care much, but the OCD in me would drive me mad. I know how much fettling it takes on my MTB to keep mine running without rubbing (Avid brakes). I’d rather not add my road bike to that.

Just you.

I’ve got RS685s on my commuting bike (Giant TCX) and they work a treat. Got about 2k miles out of the last set of (shimano) pads.

Look, even Mike Hall is sick of them*

No discs for Mikey…

*Maybe there’s another reason, like he couldn’t get a 9100 Di2 hydro groupset…but I reckon it’s because he’s sick of disc brakes…

My experience is different.
A Rose DX with hydraulic Ultegra

3000 miles so far and the disks have never rubbed on the pads, the pads haven’t need changed and I’ve not had to bleed them either. In fact, the only maintenance I’ve done is oil the chain and put air in the tyres. In fact, still on original chain and sprockets and not needing changed.

That’s including commuting through winter and a mixture of road and mud path riding. I have always had full guards on it though.

yourguitarhero – do you mind if I ask what wheels you’re running? I’ve got Ksyrium discs on one and hunt’s on the other but out the saddle climbing makes the rubbing even worse. So I’m assuming it’s not wheel stiffness?

To add, I’ve had them both set up by different shops and they stay rub-free for a while, then after a couple of weeks it comes back again.

I have been riding a Grade with TRP Hy/Rd brakes since June 2015 and they’ve needed very little attention.
I do know of another owner who has swapped his for mechanical Spyres though, as he had issues.

I’ve done over 900 miles on my Shimano disc braked Hybrid and the pads are showing minimal signs of wear. They have required zero maintenance and the wheels run freely.
I think that there must be something wrong with your system rather than disc brakes in general.

I am half toying with the concept of a road bike, and assumed I wanted disks, but realistically, if it will almost exclusively be used on dry days, is there any advantage in them over standard?

DT Swiss R23. Doubt wheel stiffness counts since the disk in the centre – not like rim brakes.
Maybe it is because they are thru-axles so there is never any slippage around the dropouts?

One of my other bikes has Shimano RS685 which needs similar levels of maintenance to keep them running sweet and stop them rubbing

These have been fab on my Tripster for daily commuting. Only issue was the pistons siezed on the rear after 2 years (little maintenance!). Replaced calliper for £50.

DT Swiss R23. Doubt wheel stiffness counts since the disk in the centre – not like rim brakes.
Maybe it is because they are thru-axles so there is never any slippage around the dropouts?

Interesting…..neither of mine have bolt-thru axles, I wonder if that could be the issue?

realistically, if it will almost exclusively be used on dry days, is there any advantage in them over standard?

I agonised over the same thing but my winter bike is a gravel cross one with discs and I wanted to have interchangeability of wheels / wheelsets, and I’ve not regretted having discs even on the good weather bike.

TRP Spyres here since July 2015. One new set of pads and still running the original cables. No rubbing.

Well I’ve worn though a few sets of rims with rim brakes, changing them is a lot more hassle than switching pads. But fork strength/rigidity is the obvious issue with a front road disk, it puts far more stress on the tip of the fork than a rim brake does.

Personally I would say discs arent really worth it unless you live in a very hilly part of the world and you ride a lot in wet weather. If you are a fair weather roadie like me then they seem to be overkill and more complicated than they need to be. Di2 on the other hand is certainly worth the money, especially on the front. If I was buying again I would go Di2 with calipers.

Is it me or are disc braked road bikes a pain in the arse?

The bikes are Ok, its the people that bang on about them that are annoying.

BB7s for 10 years, 105s for 2, no rub, pads last 5,000 miles+ commuting.

Whilst i agree that disc brakes in general are equal measures of awesome and a pita, this particular case sounds like a case of poor or under tightened QR’s

Fine here – HY/RD on a Tripster, with spokesman.co.uk build of Archetypes on Novatech hubs. Same reason as a few above – it’s road / cross / tour / all rounder for holidays, disks just make sense for the small weight penalty and have been less hassle than calipers.

I even have an ovalised rear disk … really puzzled my bike shop owning friend till he figured out what was bugging him about it (I had no idea – it works fine, but I’ll swap it when I remember).

I’ve had similar experiences commuting on the road with a disc braked MTB.

The worst thing is the squeeling, as the discs never really warm up, if it’s a wet day or there’s just a lot of puddles about the water seems to just sit on the disc until I try to brake, cue hellish squeeling and startled pedestrians/frightened livestock.

Also mine rub on and off depending on what mood they’re in. I’ve got a Hayes alignment gauge for calliper alignment and have also made a couple of efforts to bend the rotors straight again, but it always returns.

These experiences are not limited to one brand of discs either, BB7s did much the same although at least I could back the pads off to reduce the rubbing.

It must be something to do with riding/braking style, weight or simple OCD like the OP, as I’m frankly amazed at the number of people who claim no issues and no problems with squeel or noise.

My dad also got a disc braked roady and he also hates the thing because of the discs, although it sounds like he got some dodgy leaky Shimanos, rather than a wet weather braking issue.

Would love to borrow a bike from a disc brake believer and see if it’s just me or if there really is such a thing as a perfect road bike disc brake set up.

For now I’m sticking to long drop callipers or cantilevers 8)

I’m coming round to the thinking that TRP spyres don’t wear well. The return spring isn’t strong and the internal bearing can get gritty in short order, especially if you run them all year round.

You then end up with a wobbly brake lever and having to adjust the brake tension to take up more cable.

MTB’s with QR axles suffered the same problem IME so it’s worth getting a thru axle setup if you do go discs. The QR seems to never settle the axle in the exact same place after removing the wheel.

The worst thing is the squeeling, as the discs never really warm up, if it’s a wet day or there’s just a lot of puddles about the water seems to just sit on the disc until I try to brake, cue hellish squeeling and startled pedestrians/frightened livestock.

Same here with my commuting route. Only really brake gently for traffic lights as there’s only 40 ft of elevation change in 4 miles! When my hybrid with Deore discs was written off in a RTC I replaced it with a v-braked utility-style bike and I’ve only had to replace all the pads once in 1500 miles with no squeal or juddering once in all that time. I’ve since bought a gravel/adventure bike with cable discs as was going to move that onto commuting duties later this year but I tried using it for a week and the brake squeal from glazing was horrific, works fine on road/cyclepath routes though as the brakes get up to temp.

I’ve got Hy/Rds on my winter bike and have done about 3000km with them, mostly in Scottish winter conditions and haven’t had the problems you describe. Likewise my wife’s shimano hydro setup.

A couple of things spring to mind that could be causing your issues:
– If the cable tension on the brakes is set too tight the pads don’t return properly. The actuating arm on the caliper has a lock-knob – if that can’t screw in your cable might be too tight.

– I had a similar persistent disc-rubbing problem on my old hardtail and it turned out that the caliper was moving on the frame due to knackered bolts. New caliper bolts fixed that.

Apologies if you’ve checked those tings already but both are easy fixes.

RS685s on my Giant Defy advanced (quick release not through axle)

No rubbing, less wear, no need to adjust them as they wear and better feel, no squealing (my MTB discs do from time to time).

The caliper pads on my old Defy used to wear out monthly in the winter where as the disc pads on the new Defy lasted best part of a year before needing replacing.

On the new bike the shimano disc brakes were easily the most noticeable benefit of going from a sub £1000 road bike to a ~£2500 road bike. I would nnot buy a road bike again without them.

The bikes are Ok, its the people that bang on about them that are annoying.

Pretty much assured that a thread asking about them is going to contain people “banging on” about them!

mduncombe, do you know what pads your brakes are running?

What is your riding style? i.e. would you do a lot of miles in the cold and wet with minimal braking or is it more country miles with occasional big descents where the brake might get a chance to warm up?

I’ve had Juin (cable operated hyd) discs for just under a year and the only rub I get is when I shift between wheelsets. But you can adjust bite….no problem with wear!

RS685s on my Giant Defy advanced (quick release not through axle)
No rubbing, less wear, no need to adjust them as they wear and better feel, no squealing (my MTB discs do from time to time).

Likewise. Only 4 months of use and not big mileage but they’ve been trouble free so far.

I’m still fairly neutral about them. I don’t do massive road mileage and avoid riding in filthy weather – I’m was still on the original pads and cables on my old bike after 8 years. I suspect the disc brakes will need more maintenance than that. There’s definitely loads of power and the modulation isn’t bad but I don’t remember it lacking on the rim brakes.

no trouble with 785’s on my Defy Advanced Pro either-work perfectly, look great, no rim wear.

If the cable tension on the brakes is set too tight the pads don’t return properly. The actuating arm on the caliper has a lock-knob – if that can’t screw in your cable might be too tight.

Another good call and something worth checking. I know I do run the cable quite ‘tight’ otherwise the levers pull back to the bars without doing much in the way of stopping. When I set them up (prior to dropping it to a bike shop) I did have to move the arm up the cable a bit to take up the slack. Maybe this is causing the issue, although if I don’t do that, I don’t have any brakes. The RS685’s are a mystery though, and squeal like a banshee. Maybe I’m just really hard on kit, but I try to keep it clean and running well so who knows!

The noise is annoying but no rubbing issues on my Grade (has the 105 level hydros, forget what model exactly) with around 140km a week back Lane commute with some weekend off road.

I had always assumed the squealing was oil splashing up off the road, as it never really happens off road.

I’ve had BB7s on my Amazon for 7 years and had them on a Kona Sutra before that. Yes, they can squeal a little if the disk gets contaminated (this seemed to be a feature of town commuting) but getting them properly hot every couple of weeks would sort that out. Other than that, never a problem. If I ever change my road bike, it’ll have disks – no question.

I only owned my RS685s for around a year but in that time they didn’t rub and didn’t wear out the pads. Think I covered around 2000 miles. It does sound like something is wrong with your setup.

I had always assumed the squealing was oil splashing up off the road, as it never really happens off road.

I could believe that, however in my experience contaminated pads make a racket come rain or shine, the problems I and others appear to be experiencing are just when discs are wet.

My BB5’s certainly seem to need more fiddling around with than calipers. I hate the fact you can’t easily alter the rubbing on the fly either. However, so far my Shimano hydros have been a lot better. To some extent I guess you get what you pay for.

They all rub in my experience (QR’s), worst thing about discs IMO.

No rubbing on mine (11spd 105, don’t know the proper code for them off the top of my head).

As shall henceforce be known as the “Xmas pudding brandy method” – I sprayed disk brake cleaner on my disks and set fire to it – this got rid of the honking. (For which I thank the LBS man in Solent Cycles for the tip)