Psimet2001 

I finally went up Sheridan into Wisconsin last year for the first time in many years. Worst ride of the season. Constant close calls. I thought for sure I was eventually going to be hit or shot.

Psimet2001 

I've gone to both ends with compounds. Soft for performance then stripping them because our muddy races would just blow them out and I was sick of swapping them all the time. So all to metallic. Bedded in they are great but yeah...almost have to warm them up first before they really start to bite. So back to resins.

This is all mostly with SRAM. With Shimano just about everything works great right out of the box.

tomato coupe

Yes, the rim is the largest rotor you can have, but it has to work as a braking surface while fulfilling its other functions. I think the biggest potential benefit of disc brakes is the freedom to design rims without the constraints of having to accommodate brake tracks. You could optimize rims and brakes for their respective roles, without compromise.

Psimet2001 

Hmmm....looks like a crappy fork then. Too much flex.

CR720s are OK. I stopped messing around with mid range cantis a long time ago though. Pretty much it is Avid Shorty Ultimates or it's not worth it. Couple these with Yokozuna Reaction brake housings and you can rip a fork or a brake bridge off any frame and actually stop well.

Seattle Forrest

People aren't riding 28s and 32s with rim brakes, but those are pretty common with discs, and the bigger tires make a bigger contact patch. Disc wins again!

noodle soup

but some people argue that they add 1-2 pounds.

I upgraded my wheelset/tires, and lost that weight.

Psimet2001 

Psimet2001 

*sideeye* we ride 28's and 32's with rim brakes all the time... Remember canti's are rim brakes. Around here the cross scene is so bike we have all had our "gravel" bikes for over a decade now and many are still knocking around cantis...

Psimet2001 

You realize I was able to introduce a new disc specific cyclocross rim this last season, right? I know about what rim brakes do to carbon already and the nice things that having disc brakes allow you to do with rim shape.

kingston 

The 15 miles between Northwestern and Ft. Sheridan is one of my favorite stretches of road in Chicago. I'll see a couple-hundred riders on a nice Saturday morning in the summer. North of Great Lakes sucks.

Psimet2001 

Yeah and right at Great lakes is when I cut in- heading north. I was in Lake Bluff for the race that day and decided to take a ride for myself. Used the North Shore Century route as I had ridden that a decade before and remembered it being fine.

David in Maine

My new Seven RedSky with Grand Cru mid-reach calipers. Currently running 28c but room for 35c. Brakes feel great--running compressionless housing. I will admit I haven't ridden down hill in the rain yet. No huge descents around here unless I head to the White Mountains. I will try that this summer and report back. Hope I don't die!!

bykemike 

I just flushed my Shimano discs . I just bought this bike...a 2016 6.9 Domane and it is a little under maintained so I figured flushing is good. It turns out flushing was really needed.

Picture ! is now but picture 2 is what was in there...it was about time I would say.

caloso

Cantis 4 life!

redlude97

FWIW some shimano factory kits came with yellow mineral oil without the red dye, tripped me up on one of my new bikes when I had to shorten the line on a brand new system. The discoloring is probably from dirt getting past the piston seals. If you clean them off regularly before pushing the pistons back in when changing pads etc it stays cleaner for a lot longer

Johnk3

Sure. You are kidding right?

Try this instead:

tomato coupe

Sorry, I'm not familiar with your product line. I hope your cross wheels have been well received.

tyrion

Sometimes the camera has a difficult time capturing the true elegance of those brakes.

noodle soup

I don't think discs will ever look elegant like this.



but at least they can look sleek.

Racing Dan

Not because they were enlightened, but because weight weenie marketing told them 1/2 oz is significant, when its really not.

Johnk3

You are a master of the understatement.

noodle soup

Pro tip- braking will improve significantly if you install a brake cable..

Russ Roth

There are a lot of elegant and sleek road brakes out there, those aren't one of them, the term chunky comes to mind. I've got some old modolos that would fit the definition better IMHO.

It's easy to run those on a number of road calipers, the first season I decided to try cross I some green vittoria 32s on my road bike of the time and ran with ultegra calipers. Did fine the first 3 races till the wet season really hit though the mud clogged the frame just as quickly as the calipers. If the frame went slightly out of true the rim and tire still had no problem clearing the brakes but the frame was the limiting factor. Disc is really allowing for the wider rims to run bigger tires to greater advantage without having to mess with the brake geometry of Vs or Cantis which could have pad clearance/leverage issues with a wider rim.

Alloy is all about the color, weight is just the bonus. I can remember people worrying about the weight and being one of those people. Now I build all my/my families' wheels with nipples from wheel fanatyk since I really like adding the colors while the spline are a lot easier to get to tension with no effort. Something I liked when I learned to build in the late 90s and spline was first available.

noodle soup

Incorrect.

J Palmer Cass

That's not in Chicago.

I liked to stay south of 18th St.