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Erm, you're comparing top-end, ultra lightweight road bike components, with MTB ones. Hardly fair.
Can't be bothered any more.
Hurray
my road bike has got disc brakes. weighs 18lbs
@steve austin.
Got any pix.
I'll bet all roadies would have disc brakes if they were allowed at the TDF or something.
I'll bet all roadies would have disc brakes if they were allowed at the TDF or something.
No, they wouldn't.
I've been running Avid BB7 discs on my commuting/touring/winter training road bike for the last 5 years. No problems with handling or braking control under normal conditions, in snow, on ice or on fast, long Alpine descents with full camping gear. I usually use 28mm touring tyres, but have run 25mm as well.
I chose to use discs for my utility road bike bike for easier adjustment and maintenance (cf V-brakes or cantilevers) and to avoid the serious rim grinding that occurs with regular winter commuting. I wouldn't go back to rim brakes for this sort of application.
I wouldn't use discs on my road racing bike, because of the performance penalty imposed by a beefier fork and added kit weight. Good quality sidepulls are excellent, and currently the best solution for a fair-weather race bike.
So, to cut a long story short, discs work very well for some road bike applications, but they aren't widely adopted because the range of suitable brakes, frames and forks is currently limited.
gingerflash
"make smaller, lighter less powerful ones for the road that give as much stopping power"
Less powerful but with as much stopping power? Eh?
Not well worded perhaps. Gist was, as I suspect most understood, max stopping power is the power needed to lock a wheel. Both brakes have enough. Any more is power won't stop you any quicker so can't really be called stopping power just wasted over-capacity and comes at the expense of weight and feel / modulation.
UCI regulations state that a bike has to be heavier than a certain weight. However, many bikes are sold well under this weight and many of the want to be racers are very happy to get their bikes under this weight. If disk brakes gave such a great advantage to people, then you'd be seeing disk brakes at every sportive across Europe.
I really wonder how these small lightweight disks are going to cope with stopping a bike travelling at high speeds down an alpine descent?
Hybrid bikes travel at very different sort of speeds than race bikes so disks on these are a different question. I still think it's done for image, just as cheap 'mountain bikes' that you get in Tescos have suspension for looks, rather than function.
100 posts of mostly complete rubbish 🙄
Trolltastic 🙂
101
Road bike brakes are cack - fact. If you are cruising to a halt in the dry, they work. But try a really steep South Wales hill leading directly into a roundabout in the wet, and you will see what I mean. I've got 105 calipers with aftermarket blocks and the idea that anyone could compare them to XTR discs is laughable. The Tektro Vs on my commuter are almost as good as discs and about a million times better than the 105 caliper - wet or dry. Come round my house and try it out if you don't believe me.
molgrips, what do you reckon to little discs, then? Do you think they would be a big improvement?
The number of times I've seen TDF riders go over the edge on tight bends, I can't help thinking better brakes might be an idea. Speshly for bigger riders.
They go over the edge on tight bends because they're attempting to go round them at about 40mph - nothing to do with not having disc brakes.
molgrips: your brakes aren't set up right then. I've got Dura-Ace calipers on my road bike and they're more than enough. In fact when Shimano remodelled Dura-Ace they obviously gave it to the pros for a year before it was available to the general plebs and the feedback was that they were TOO powerful. So Shimano cut out a little bit of the rear caliper to make it flex more and make it LESS powerful.
Introducing yet another bloody "standard" to an industry already awash with God knows how many different "standards" for all sorts of things is the last thing on earth that anyone needs.
aP: the footage I've seen suggests that they failed to slow down sufficiently for the corner. Whether that's down to crap skils or shyte brakes, I don't know.
Road racing bikes WILL one day have little disc brake systems. It's only a matter of time.
Yes dear 😮
[i] the footage I've seen suggests that they failed to slow down sufficiently for the corner. Whether that's down to crap skils or shyte brakes, I don't know.[/i]
Or could it just be the fact that they're tired cos it's the middle of a 3 week stage race, they've already done 100+ miles that day at speeds you and I can only dream of doing and they're hurtling downhill on a road they're not familiar with surrounded by cars, motorbikes, crowds, other riders, there's a TV helicopter or 3 clattering close overhead and they've got their [i]director sportif[/i] and race radio giving them information in their earpiece. It's enough to distract even the most hardened of pros and it's got f*** all to do with the brakes!
Ok then.
I think one of the biggest advantages of the disc brake systems is greater modulation of braking, After switching to disc on the mountain bike, remember, I had better brakes and skidded less because of more braking control, modulation. Road bikes would also benefit from better braking modulation not just the greater braking power! This ones for you Tod!!!
my 105 brakes work amazingly. in the afternoon they get super powerful cos the pads get hot and tacky.
(I live in Oz BTW, may not relate to lancashire on a wet wednesday in janurary).
How about drum brakes? Like those Sturmey Archer ones?