Disc brakes on a road bike? yes or no?

[redbox]

So..
Looked at the UCI rules and couldn’t find anything that says you can’t use disc brakes on a road race bike, or does it? as the statements seem to say for cross and road, need to act on the wheel blah blah. Anyway, what should they say? What should the rule be?

But aside from that lets look at the case for and against

So upside
In the wet you would have consistent braking
Your rims won’t wear out
Your carbon rims won’t explode coming down the col de big French mountain in the etape
The glue holding your tub on won’t melt and your tub role off
The wheel rim could be lighter as no clamping force would be applied
You could use carbon rims in the wet and still stop
You get a different looking bike
It’s progress

Downside – well i’ll leave that debate to you, tap away

 

[Martin318is]

weight going up the mountain pass??

 

[ElChingon]

* Overall bike weight increased, minor factor.
* Some drag added due to disc pads not fully off the disc at times, yea a quality/tune-up issue.
* Rain/muck might still affect braking in bad situations when the disc's get wet/dirty.
* Excessive braking on long descents might warp the disc, introducing drag or a failure point.
* Wheel exchanges might take longer, gotta line the disc up and not jam it up when in a hurry.
* Finally makes bikes look a bit dorky.

I'd still welcome it if it becomes accepted.

 

[boris&co]

I like to imagine the load on a fork from braking like this:

- imagine the wheel spinning
- imagine the caliper closing on the braking surface
- imagine that the brake tries to shift the centre of rotation from the hub to the caliper

If you do this it is easy to visualise that the effect on a fork with a conventional brake is to bend the fork back at the crown. With a disk the effect appears to be a downward rotation about the caliper. The wheel will try to pop out of the fork (I believe mountain bikes had some problems like this?), and to bend the fork on one side where the disk is mounted.

(Thanks to Cozy Beehive)

Small disks will clearly be worse (imagine lifting a weight at arms length, much harder to exert a lot of force?)

From here it is but a short journey to realise that the best disk will be the size of the wheel. With a caliper mounted at the fork crown. Acting on both sides of the wheel. The ultimate evolution of this brake soon becomes apparent:

- A lightweight cable operated caliper
- bolt it through the fork crown
- use the rim as the braking surface
- we'd be able to use those lightweight carbon fibre forks that taper down to the dropouts, without fear of snapping them
- and those fashionable wheels with the straight pull spokes (not that I have those, I have dorky 32 spoke Open Pros).

What an incredibly elegant solution. Simplicity, economy of design. Fantastic!

boris

ps don't get me wrong, I think disks are a great idea for commuters and my own MTB has them.

 

[usedtobefast]

my own vision is dual disc on the front for obvious reasons and you could have the rear be one,but larger and able to dissipate heat and road grime better.
dual front will be for more for actual stopping and the rear is for slowing, as is the case now. it is a cool idea for pros. my old school brakes work fine for me.

 

[BroDeal]

I already have disk brakes with 700mm rotors.

 

[usedtobefast]

I already have disk brakes with 700mm rotors.

so whats yer setup,bro?
review...

 

[RDV4ROUBAIX]

usedtobefast missed the joke I think.

Disk taking over in road is inevitable. Will I miss the good 'ole days of rim brakes, prolly no. Being eyeball deep in the wheels biz, I like to look a bit further into the future, frictionless electromagnetic brakes. That's the ticket, ....yeah.

 

[durrin]

700mm!?

Either that or usedtobefast wondered what setup gives you 700mm rims!!

I myself usually ride 622.

 

[redbox]

so..

so we have some engineering issues to resolve, but that's part of the fun and it would be nice to see some other styles

so what about the UCI anyone know about that?

 

[usedtobefast]

usedtobefast missed the joke I think.

Disk taking over in road is inevitable. Will I miss the good 'ole days of rim brakes, prolly no. Being eyeball deep in the wheels biz, I like to look a bit further into the future, frictionless electromagnetic brakes. That's the ticket, ....yeah.

i did...

 

[Boeing]

Does a road bike in the peloton really need that amount of stopping power?

 

[dsut4392]

Does a road bike in the peloton really need that amount of stopping power?

Power? No, the amount of usable braking power is severely limited
Performance in the wet, especially with carbon rims? Yes.
Or on a big alpine stage, to prevent a horrible "Beloki" melting tubular glue moment? Yes.
Or in a cobbled classic, so you can keep riding with broken spokes? Yes.

Would I bother using them myself? I don't know - unless caught out by a change in weather, I'm a fair weather road rider, so the benefit would be infrequent. But should hydraulic STI brake/shift levers eventuate before I next replace my roadie, I'll certainly consider them.

 

[StyrbjornSterki]

The only advantage I see to it is that removing the abrasion of brake pads from the rim's sidewall will improve rim life.

 

[karlboss]

citec make carbon tubulars with an aluminium braking surface. Acceptable weight. Apparently had problems with early models and delamination, heard it's better now...really don't know.

 

[Boeing]

Power? No, the amount of usable braking power is severely limited
Performance in the wet, especially with carbon rims? Yes.
Or on a big alpine stage, to prevent a horrible "Beloki" melting tubular glue moment? Yes.
Or in a cobbled classic, so you can keep riding with broken spokes? Yes.

Would I bother using them myself? I don't know - unless caught out by a change in weather, I'm a fair weather road rider, so the benefit would be infrequent. But should hydraulic STI brake/shift levers eventuate before I next replace my roadie, I'll certainly consider them.

so all that to say no in the end? thanks for the big brain

 

[dsut4392]

so all that to say no in the end? thanks for the big brain

No problem It would hardly be fair just to say "no", when it's clear you were asking the wrong question to start with.

 

[Burnette]

Squeeze Play

I have a Redline Disc R I bought new in '05. It has mech disc (B5s, will get B7s soon). Component group is 105 and Ritchie bits, I added a Redline carbon for for vanity, she weighs about 23lbs unloaded. In my best of form/shape I can maintain a sixteen to nineteen mile avg for thirty to fifty miles. I can average 22mph on a group ride. Surrounded by Serottas, Treks, Cervelos on group rides I learned that nothing beats time in the saddle. A strong body can beat a weaker on a lighter bike.
I live in NC where it is hilly, my routes are mainly country roads but I do have to go through small towns with traffic at times.
I love this bike, it has awesome stopping power. I can do amazingly short stops. For my through town jaunts this is a plus. The only real or imagined weakeness to my disc are heavier wheels and poorer areodynamics. But I don't race, mainly ride alone and can hang with the best with my Disc R on a club ride. So disc for me are great. And who knows, with more time and tech they could get lighter and more areo (a vented carbon cover?).
The Redline Disc would make a good trainer for a racer/racer wannabe. And you could end up like me, discovering that you love it's durability/capability and that it's really all you need.

 

[usedtobefast]