How soon will disk brakes be used on road racing cycles?



Originally Posted by dhk2 .


You obviously are a lot more impressed with bike reviews in magazines than I am. Call me a cynic, but it seems to me a lot of this stuff is just marketing hype. The magazines are given bikes to ride and write about, and aren't going to write a negative review for fear they would lose advertizing revenue. 90% of what they write is just perceptions which we know can be easily influenced by expectations as set up by the marketing types. And I have to laugh at Craig Calfee's explanation of why he doesn't put eyelets for racks on a CF bike frame, yet he's willing to put eyelets on a CF fork to mount a disc brake caliper.

Thats why I like BQ. They've angered quite a few manufacturers with honest reviews. I actually started to read them after reading an honest negative review about a VO crank. They only have a few ads, and the majority are business card-sized ads by custom frame builders and NOS parts suppliers.

Im sure the fork is reinforced to hold the caliper properly--probably layered inside to support the stress. And you are basing your criticism on my summary of the article and not the article itself. Im sure the stress of a loaded rear rack is different from the stress of a disc brake as well. A load on a rear rack is far more unpredictable than the stress of a disc brake. I like Calfee for providing smaller thicker-walled tubing rather than paper-thin zertz-pocked frames that end up being sent to Calfee for repair whenever the handlebar strikes the top tube. But i'm sure if you sent them an email they would be happy to explain their design process for supporting discs.

And I don't even know what the hostility is for, Im not trying to sell you one--I'm just trying to enjoy an interesting thread on the future of bike design.
 
Originally Posted by cloudhead .





Thats why I like BQ. They've angered quite a few manufacturers with honest reviews. I actually started to read them after reading an honest negative review about a VO crank. They only have a few ads, and the majority are business card-sized ads by custom frame builders and NOS parts suppliers.

Im sure the fork is reinforced to hold the caliper properly--probably layered inside to support the stress. And you are basing your criticism on my summary of the article and not the article itself. Im sure the stress of a loaded rear rack is different from the stress of a disc brake as well. A load on a rear rack is far more unpredictable than the stress of a disc brake. I like Calfee for providing smaller thicker-walled tubing rather than paper-thin zertz-pocked frames that end up being sent to Calfee for repair whenever the handlebar strikes the top tube. But i'm sure if you sent them an email they would be happy to explain their design process for supporting discs.

And I don't even know what the hostility is for, Im not trying to sell you one--I'm just trying to enjoy an interesting thread on the future of bike design.
Just remember, all magazine reviews are subjective, and being an "honest review" is not the same as being a good review, especially "honest" and "good" are themselves subjective terms in the context of bike reviews. I'm also doubtful of Calfee's reasonings for using disk mounting eyelets on a CF fork and not using mounting eyelets for racks on CF frames.

dhk2's cynicism about magazine reviews isn't hostile. Cynicism toward such things is worthwhile, especially when every bike mag is marketing something, be it a kind of bike, a specific performance metric, or whatever. As such, Bicycle Quarterly is marketing something, too.

The slight to Specialized isn't even worth mentioning since it's certainly not objective and not based on any objective analysis of industry wide bike failures. It completely lacks supporting evidence.

Touring bikes make up only a small portion of frame/bike sales. If that had a much bigger market share, you'd see more CF touring bike frames and more rack and disk caliper mounting tabs on CF frames and forks. Already such things do exist and will be seen more.
 
Originally Posted by alienator .

Touring bikes make up only a small portion of frame/bike sales. If that had a much bigger market share, you'd see more CF touring bike frames and more rack and disk caliper mounting tabs on CF frames and forks. Already such things do exist and will be seen more.
the seminal discussion here was about disc brakes on the racing peloton,
i was initially against, is it overkill ?
what do you think ?
 
Originally Posted by vspa .




the seminal discussion here was about disc brakes on the racing peloton,
i was initially against, is it overkill ?
what do you think ?
Unless there's a big rule change, I don't think we'll see them in the pro peloton. The 6.8kg minimum weight limit right now won't encourage the even lighter rims that could come from a move to disk brakes. I also don't think pros will benefit a lot from disk brakes on descents. I don't think the pros suffer hand fatigue on long descents, especially since they are much more likely to brake properly. I dunno. It's a tough call as to if pros will adopt disk brakes.
 
Hi all, it looks like since I'm new here I can't start a thread, so I'm trying to put this in tangentially relevant places. I count it here cause it has disc brakes and set the speed record on Russia's road of bones (an unimpressive 16.5 days - record's ripe for the pickin!).

Just want to ask for your help in finding my bike. It was stolen yesterday, 12/2/2012, from downtown Santa Cruz, CA between 5 and 6 pm (big cable was cut). It was not in very good shape, needs a full overhaul and new bearings, rings, and cogs, due to the fact that I put 10,000 miles on it between mid May and mid October this year. It also has pretty big gashes from running as-big-as-it-can-take 'cross tires on 2000 miles of dirt and mud, while setting the speed record on Russia's "Road of Bones". In it's current state of disrepair, it's probably not worth too much, but it's an awesome bike, a soft enough ride to do at least thirty consective daily centuries on it or a couple of consecutive double centuries without giving you saddle sores, rails descents like a beast, has the stopping power of a brick wall and the turn carving abilities of a slot car, and it has a lot of sentimental value to me, as I tried to ride around the world on it.

Attached is a photo from before the trip. When it was stolen, it did not have aero bars and it had LOOK pedals and black chainrings. With any luck it's in the hands of some Heroin junkie in Santa Cruz still and the cops will find it within the week, but the cut cable, new york lock, and Giro Aeon helmet were also taken which makes me think there was a truck involved and it's probably out of county. Please let me know if you see it on craigslist or in real life. 2012 Volagi Liscio 55cm, mix of very used DA and Ultegra, FSA cranks, white on black with black aluminum wheels, serial # ends in 0036. My number is 831 For_Won_Nine 8956.

Thank you!

Sean Ardley
831 For_Won_Nine 8956.
[firstname].[lastname]@gmail.com

And here's a shot of a goat trying to eat it on the TransSiberian Highway, and another of road conditions on the Kolyma highway just for fun.

 
Good luck getting your bike back, Sean. Thieves suck.

Standby for the opsec/persec crowd in 3...2...1...

Disc brakes and electric shifters? Probably sooner rather than later.
 
Originally Posted by CAMPYBOB .

Good luck getting your bike back, Sean. Thieves suck.

Disc brakes and electric shifters? Probably sooner rather than later.
Disc brakes, electric shifters, and lighter Internal Geared Hubs (oil filled, 11 or 12 spd) c/w dual Crankrings ... sounds excellent :)

Good luck re your bike ...
 
KLabs said:
Disc brakes, electric shifters, and lighter Internal Geared Hubs (oil filled, 11 or 12 spd) c/w dual Crankrings ... sounds excellent  :) Good luck re your bike ...
Internal geared bikes tend to have more frictional losses than traditional drivetrains.
 
I sent this same question to someone at Velonews more than a year ago, but never got a direct response, but a few months later there was a little bit on their website about disk brakes on road bikes.
I also asked the local Mavic rep about disk brakes in the tour and he didn't think it would ever happen because he thought there would always be a weight penalty. When I asked him about a possible reduction in rim weight and the potential gain there, he told me that there would be no difference in rim weight because you have to reinforce the spoke area due to the pull on the spokes when braking. Or something to that effect.
My personal feeling is that it's inevitable that someday you will see disk brakes in the TDF.
 
Randyforriding said:
I sent this same question to someone at Velonews  more than a year ago, but never got a direct response, but a few months later there was a little bit on their website about disk brakes on road bikes. I also asked the local Mavic rep about disk brakes in the tour and he didn't think it would ever happen because he thought there would always be a weight penalty.  When I asked him about a possible reduction in rim weight and the potential gain there, he told me that there would be no difference in rim weight because you have to reinforce the spoke area due to the pull on the spokes when braking.  Or something to that effect. My personal feeling is that it's inevitable that someday you will see disk brakes in the TDF.
Difference in rim weight between disc rims and non-disc rims of the future is going to be design dependent, but no matter: I don't think the Mavic rep can speak for everyone. I think it's entirely possible for disc rims to weigh less than non-disc rims in the future. Any weight penalty with road disc setups is only going to be relative to weight limits set by the UCI in the future. As things are now, quite a number of bikes in the peloton aren't at the 6.8kg limit in the TdF (I belief I read that Cadel Evans bike was on the order of 17lbs). Disc brakes will offer a significant advantage on descents and also on twisty TT's, in both cases allowing later braking with better modulation. Later braking means faster times.