Disc brakes using road bike levers?

Hi all,

Apologies if this has been asked before. I've tried searching for it but haven't had any luck.

I'm building up a commuter bike which I would like to handle similar to my road bike (albeit much heavier). Given the kind of weather it'll be dealing with I'd quite like to use disc brakes but if poss I'd want to use road bike style brake levers so that I can still ride around with my hands on the hoods.

I imagine that doing this will be quite hard if I'm using hydraulic brakes so I was wondering if anyone else had found a way around this problem? I'm not sure if there's a way of mounting the brake levers to achieve a similar result but if anyone has done this I'd be interested in finding out how. I doubt it's relevant but I'm also planning on using a clip on aero bar so.

Finally can anyone recommend a decent set of disc brakes with light rotors? I've heard good things about the Hope Mini system and I can get them for about £90 each over here.

Thanks in advance,

Ed

 

Avid makes a road mechanical disk brake that works with STI shifters. If you use mountain disk brakes, you will need Travel Agents to make them compatible.

If you are planning to use aero bars, another option would be use bar end shifters at the end of the aero bars and the one type "road type" brake lever that works with mountain disks or cantilevers - Dia Compe 287's. Of course, you could also put the bar end shifters in the ends of your drop bars like a touring bike setup.