are discs the future for road bikes?

How they get around the wheel change problem will be interesting to see, guess it’ll just be a bike change now as for most other mechanicals.

It is the future as it’s what the big manufacturers want. For example, who’s lobbying the UCI? Not the riders.

Personally not bothered about it as I don’t feel the need, but then my braking demands are pretty low on the road bikes.

Ya need to get out on yer bike instead of pontarseificating whether disc should / should not be on roadies, now chillax cos I’ve just come in from 67ks of Doqns bouncing and getting ready for Amstel Gold.

Keep an eye out for discs on road bikes 😉

no need. Lack of brakes have never slowed me down.

Well, it wouldn’t, would it….. If you had no brakes you wouldn’t slow down! 🙂

Can you imagine a fast wheel change in a race when the rider leans on the brake lever with the wheel out and they can’t get the replacement wheel in without a screwdriver?

Aero bikes are the future of road bikes. But when there is no weigh or aero disadvantage and full-scale adoption of carbon rims, then they may take off.

Maybe the answer (for pro teams) is thru axles.

What’s the pad life like? In poor conditions you can get through a pair of (MTB) front pads in one ride.

Not saying this doesn’t happen with rim brakes. I’ve done a pair of road pads in one day (albeit 4 Pyreneen cols).

Pro-adoption of disc brakes might force manufacturers to find a way of making wheel changes less faffy.

15stone weekend warriors?

You mean men not blokes who didnt grow properly.

Ok I take it back Hora, more braking power may be needed if you are a fat knacker. I have never felt the need as lack of grip in wet conditions is what holds me back. In the dry I have never needed more braking power.

I’m a big fan of disk brakes on road bikes. For me, it’s not about outright braking power, it’s more about the vastly improved feel and control disks offer over rim brakes in both wet and dry conditions.

Like reggiegasket said…

I’d never go back to rim brakes. It’s not even close.

I believe the real benefit lies in rim design.

But it will need to be a good brake not to rub, plus my rim brakes are pretty good already.

The UCI have a new head of design protocol, Dimitris Kanasaris (sp?) Who is the man who built the track bikes for the British Olympic team, they are looking at a big overhaul of the technical rules so a lot could change in the next few years.

Does the market need the pros to adopt disc ?
Lost of sportife riders could not care about the pro end of the sport

Personaly I like the thought of discs on my road bike after a winter Useing a disc cx bike
Especially if you want a wider tyre

Whenever I ride in properly wet conditions, by which I mean actually raining significantly, the grip between tarmac and tyre is far greater than the grip between block and rim. My brakes (105) barely work at all in heavy rain, and never have. Given that I live in South Wales with lots of steep hills, this is a problem.

V brakes on my hybrid don’t seem to have this problem though.

And wheel weight is not that much of an issue. My 29er has sub 1400 wheels so with a little time disc wheels for road bikes will get better

I read that UCI adoption isn’t likely until at least after the 2016 Olympics which seems to make sense to me. I guess one day they’ll be more mainstream but I think we’re still a few years off.

They’ve been legal in cx races for a while now and still lots of pro’s haven’t switched so I can’t see riders on the pro road teams really pushing for it. It’s going to come down to how much influence the bike and component manufacturers have with the UCI.

They make sense for regular riding but for the pro’s the fact they’re heavier, less aero, mean slower wheel changes and possible concerns over performance on long alpine descents seems a big trade off for slightly better braking performance. With decent road callipers locking the wheel really isn’t an issue so it’s not as if improved braking is getting you a big gain either.

Saying that if the UCI do make them legal then money talks and the manufacturers who sponsor the teams will no doubt push riders to use them.

These kinds of problems are always annoying because you are spending a lot of lot money and you want to your bike to be future proof. However, in my experience I have found that in spite of my best intentions I have always been glad of an excuse to buy a new bike!!

It doesn’t really matter really. If you want discs just get them, if you’re happy with calipers then stick with them, because they both work very very well. Not quite sure why some peoples rim brakes don’t work in the wet, good set up good cables and quality pads are more than good enough for coming off a wet mountain top.
Personally I like the way aero road bikes are going with hidden/built in brakes.

Clubmate not impressed with the integrated brakes on his new frame (Look 695). Not a patch on Campag dual pivot, according to him. For four and a half grand I’d not be wanting any niggles with the brakes!

LOOK 695 looks stunning, and Campagnolo dual pivots are superbe.

At the end of the day it’s not about the…. 😉

There’s an ex pro tour guy on our Saturday chaingang who rides a tatty team issue bike with mismatched everything, nobody (Look 695 or not) can stay with him on descents.

Not that fussed about what pros use tbh, they don’t do my commute in midwinter with half-asleep drivers buzzing about. But the argument’s for good brakes, rather than for discs, right? You can make rim brakes that work better than road brakes do. I had mini-vs on my previous “road” bike, which was really just a fast drop-bar hybrid, and they worked rather well. Not as well as the discs on the new one, but much closer to discs than to road brakes.

It just seems like road brakes have specialised themselves off into a weird corner where they’ve forgotten what their job is. I don’t think a change to discs is required but a change in mindset would be good, and the hardware change will maybe lead the software change.

Whatever happened to ceramic rims? I can see that disc brakes and chipping on rocks killed them off on mountain bikes but why don’t road rim, particularly carbon, come with a ceramic beaming track?

Having said that, I run 4 pot hydro discs on my road bike. I’m holding out for Shimano 11 speed mechanical shifting with hydraulic brakes before I buy my next road bike.

Disc brakes will not make rim brakes obsolete for a very long time, the addition of a post mount on the rear stay will not impact the bike for 95% of riders, there is not requirement to use it. Same with swapping for a fork with a disc mount.

If it’s done properly then the only change issue is squeezing the lever when the wheel is out. Set up a proper hub standard for alignment & spacing on the rotor. I’m sure each of the support cars would have a proper pad spacer tool with them.

It does worry me about peoples mechanical skill when they think swapping a wheel with disc brakes it difficult.

My only argument against disc brakes is that I’ve never had a mountain bike disc brake that has reliably and consistently run drag/rub free.

Discs warp, pistons stick, callipers mysteriously refuse to stay aligned, etc. etc.

I would put up with this on a commuter, but for the weekend best bike I think I’d prefer the perfectly adequate braking I got out of my Ultegra callipers with stock pads on Shimano rims. I’m not complaining so long as there is choice on the market though.

I’m not really an expert on road riding, but I think they may well be adopted by the pros as the system of choice for days when they are racing in heavy rain.

They make all kind of other race/stage specific equipment considerations, so why not use discs in the wet? Never mind the extra power, the advantages are more consistent feel (e.g. not having such a sharp change in braking force when the water on the rim suddenly clears and then your brakes go from f-all to stopping hard) and better modulation (even more important when the grip on the ground is limited).

I’d have them on my road bike, for sure. For the above advantages and for wear+tear. Right now my rims are pretty worn and I’m trying to decide when to pay out for replacing them. Or go ride fast descents with that voice in the back of my head telling me that the wheel might explode. Plus, there are local road that I avoid in the wet because the descents are on steep twisty lanes that finish off rim brake pads in one ride. With discs, I could ride some of those more often.

Personally I like the way aero road bikes are going with hidden/built in brakes.

You might not be so keen when you’ve tried them 😉 The feel of the TRP V-brakes on my Propel is an, ahem, acquired taste. Coming from Ultegra dual pivot on my other road bikes, I had to relearn brake modulation. They do look fantastic and I am sure that they are saving me precious watts, but compared with the little lever to widen the pads, in line cable adjusters are not the same!

With alloy rims, I’ve never felt the need for disks on the road, but am not a heavy rider.