Njee20

While your in the alps , feel free to pop by and try the bikes if you like 🙂
If you’re doing consistent big stops, you’d be mad not to take the disc bike.

In the dry the rim brakes do stop harder than the discs – maybe my technique is driven by the paranoia that I’ll over heat the rim brakes so hit them harder and drag the disc a little more.

Practise your braking technique. I lost count of the number of people I saw with blow outs descending Alpe d’Huez from dragging their brakes on carbon rims.

Happy with my technique, I’m not a brake dragger, and have never actually had problems with carbon clinchers, just know I’d be more tentative on a long descent versus discs.

In the dry the rim brakes do stop harder than the discs – maybe my technique is driven by the paranoia that I’ll over heat the rim brakes so hit them harder and drag the disc a little more.

So they perform differently because you treat them differently…? That’s like saying mechanical shifting performs better because I let Di2 go flat. The discs have the ability to stop ‘harder’, whether you exploit that is something else entirely.

We’re staying in Bourg d’Oisans – if you’re local then a guide would be marvellous for a day! I’ll have a chance of keeping up with a local if I’ve got discs 😉

wilburt – Member
The people I passed today seemed to enjoy using them.

Wins the thread.

I run hy-rds on the commuter. It’s fine, but I did have a strange problem with gunk running down the back of the fork leg and into the caliper, which gave me truly horrendous pad life (~100 miles) in poor weather (and short intervals between adjustments on the previous all mechanical setup – no brakes by the time I arrived at work).

TL:DR – they’re reliable and low maintenance now, but they weren’t for a while. I have at least as much power available in the dry on my other road bike, if you’re getting inadequate braking in the dry from rim brakes I’d suggest you find out what’s wrong with them. Cables (and pivots) can end up full of crap and affect performance.

I need new wheels for my rim braked road bike, because I’ve worn out the rear wheels rim in around 8000Km of use.

I’ve also had a rear rim fail on the brake trak during a long tour.

this indicates I drag the back brake far too much; but I’m also loath to spend loads of money on a wheel set that’ll need binned because I’m a jessie on the descents, when it could be a 30 quid rotor instead. (oh and brake pad life, I’ve just after 5000ish km changed the organic disc pads on my disc shod road bike (mostly used in winter rain); I think I had gone through 3 sets of rear and 1 set of front pads in that distance on the rim braked bike (mostly used in summer rain).

that said, sod buying a disc braked bike until things have calmed down and mavic know what to put on their neutral service cars (as this indicates an axle standard has been argued over and 3 are in use rather than 6)

“until things have calmed down”…?

QR axles then.

£5 says i can still buy new QR hubs in 10 years, i won’t make the same bet with boost, 100×12 (or whatever), etc.

NWallace, how often have you had to use the Mavic neutral service cars?

Not strictly relevant to the discussion but the big push to discs on road bikes has little to nothing to do with braking, not directly at least.
Making carbon rims that can withstand high braking temperatures is both difficult and expensive. Bike manufacturers want to be able to put carbon wheels on more of their bikes because that’s what the punters want, but in order to push carbon wheels down the range they need to be cheaper without running the risk of a massive lawsuit when someone blows a rim at high speed coming down an alpine descent on their annual holiday.
Hence step 1, move all road bikes over to disc brakes, paving the way for step 2, a flood of mid range bikes aimed directly at the keen MAMIL/ sportive rider with spangly deep section carbon rims.

Happy with my technique, I’m not a brake dragger, and have never actually had problems with carbon clinchers, just know I’d be more tentative on a long descent versus discs.

I don’t think there’s any reason to be more tentative if it’s dry – I found that there was loads of grip on those alpine descents, so was happy braking hard and late into the corners. It took me the first few hairpins of AdH to get my head around it, then I just went for it.

Didn’t say it was rational, just know it would be in mind. A friend was a guide and was expressly forbidden from using carbon clinchers, seen too many warp under heavy braking – what if a car suddenly overtakes and stops etc etc. I have a decent disc braked bike sat there, why wouldn’t I just take it?

Hence step 1, move all road bikes over to disc brakes, paving the way for step 2, a flood of mid range bikes aimed directly at the keen MAMIL/ sportive rider with spangly deep section carbon rims.

Not convinced that’s overly true. I think people are more likely to be attracted by discs at the MAMIL level than deep section wheels.

What’s the score with racing on discs currently? can I do a local Surrey League 3rds race on discs?

Chicken or egg situation really isn’t it I guess.. Think it’s mostly turned out luckily for the manufacturers that disc brakes are proving popular with the public for the most part.
As for racing.. grey area it seems. Technically as they are currently regarded as UCI legal then any UCI sanctioned race you can use discs.. From what I’ve seen and heard though it’s a bit of a lottery with organisers as to whether they’ll let you race with them when you turn up on the day.
There are still big Sportive/Gran Fondo events in Europe where people are claiming to be having problems riding with discs..

What’s the score with racing on discs currently? can I do a local Surrey League 3rds race on discs?

British Cycling say:
disc brakes are banned in all domestic road and closed circuit racing.

https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/road/article/roa20111219-road-News–Dics-Brakes-in-Road-Racing-0#isSi8Bu1iTORk5Vm.99

Thanks for all the replies, really informative. It seems like the only real negatives are keeping them well set up to avoid squealing and standards. The standards are a big deal for me as i have been caught out by this in the past. I was looking at a tarmac disc comp which has a unique and very narrow hub, QR, and post mount but it looks like the standards are settling at 145mm rear spacing, 12mm axles and flat mount. It’s almost worth waiting another year to see if this is how it pans out but I’ve got the itch …
.

I’ve been using disc brakes on my commuting/winter/touring/general purpose road bike for just under 15 years now. The main advantage for me is not performance (my 2001 Dura Ace calipers are still snappier and have plenty of stopping power) but rather easier maintenance, less wear and filth on a bike that gets used year round, all weather.

I started with BB7s and I’ve now used HyRds for a few years, which are better, but still have some issues. My end game is full hydro and I think 105 looks viable for me now.

If you are agnostic about brakes, I doubt you would regret moving to full hydro. I think the main remaining advantages for rim brakes are cost, weight and being race legal. If those are not critical requirements, hydro discs would be my choice.

I got shimano hydraulics on my cx bike which I used on road over winter. Braking is better than rim brakes when its wet for sure … but your still restricted how hard you can brake if the road is wet … so probably not as big a difference as most here are claiming.

I see no reason at all for having discs on the summer bike.

KCR, I really agree with the cost point – to get a 105 spec carbon bike is well over £2K, the cost of entry is very high. And I am looking for 1 bike for all year round so don’t have the luxury of a super light dry use only summer bike

FWIW I just built up a Chinese frame with carbon wheels, Ultegra Di2 and discs for less than £2k.

If you want to avoid proprietary standards then the Tarmac is a really bad choice! It does seem to be settling on 12×100 front, 12×142 rear and flat mounts, but I don’t think it’ll ever be truly unified.

claudie – Member
KCR, I really agree with the cost point – to get a 105 spec carbon bike is well over £2K

[panto] Oh no it isn’t! [/panto] 😆

If you buy at the right time, it could cost far less, but I suspect the EOL 2016 bargains may be last crazy good deals due to the weakening pound.

May bank hol weekend, 10% off listed prices at Rutland on bikes over £1k, one of the last Cube Attain GTC Pro Disc 2016s for ~£900… Winner, winner, chicken dinner. 8)

Sales aren’t the best example, particularly when they’ve sold out, about as useful as saying “in 1999 they were dirt cheap”.

Canyon do one for £1800 though, and Cube for £1700. I imagine Spesh are over £2k though.

I’m pretty converted now with shimano 685 with 785 levers (I believe) really nice modulated power, don’t have to worry about over heating rims on descents, silent in operation. Unaffected by wet weather and no dirty rim mess you get from calipered brakes in wet conditions. Frame looks a bit cleaner without them too. No going back for me but not the game changer they were for mountain bikes, just a nice evolution in performance. Just got some nice zipp carbon rims which have turned out to be a noticeable upgrade. Have been absolutely maintenance free and I’m still on original pads after 3k and 140mm discs are easily big enough

the cost of entry is high as Shimano charge a fortune for their hydro STIs, which is no doubt why Giant developed and made their own hybrid system that is fitted to their Contend (alloy Defy so budget) range. And why so many nice ‘105’ and ‘ultegra’ spec bikes come with Shimano’s gopping non-series hydro STIs.

Any opinions on the bb5’s?