alcjphil

Those are fair points, but they make me think about a ride I did with friends many years ago in Vermont. We had just finished descending the East side of Lincoln gap in wet conditions. The roads were slick and we had to control our speed. We normally do not ride on descents like that. At the bottom, one guy who was riding tubulars realized that his front tire had slipped on the rim, tilting the valve dangerously. He immediately swapped the wheel around for the next descent. Had he not noticed, he might have had a tire failure under hard braking on the 2 remaining gaps on our ride. A couple of years ago, I descended a TDF hors categorie descent in the Pyrenees. The climb was hard enough, and my rim brakes were adequate because we stopped several times on the way down, I kept things under control, but I realized that better brakes would have made me feel safer. Maybe because, at 68 years old, I am more careful, but I think that I just want the best equipment for any sort of riding

Humpy

Agreed, BMX is the only form of cycling that matters, the rest is just a compromise due to lack of talent. Anyway, back to discussing equipment used to slow down in a straight line on a smooth and grippy surface.

Metieval

I have had both cheap mechanical disc brakes on 9mm QR on straight steer forks (bad)

and I have had Hydraulic disc brakes on 12mm thru axle tapered steer forks. (AWEsome) Both being road bikes

My conclusion, I really LOVE my full carbon wheels that will live forever!
I Really love the modulation that only hydraulic can offer.

what Do I hate about them. Well the fact that I almost need a seat belt on emergency stops. No that I will endo the bike, but that the bike stops but I keep going!

cyclintom

I think that the figures of bicycle injuries are that 90% of them are caused because the rider cannot remove his feet from the clip-ons fast enough. So platform pedals make a whole lot of sense for commuters and anyone that does a lot of city riding. Today while riding through an adjacent town some SOB in an SUV decided that he could pass traffic by pulling into the bike lane right after he passed me. I was right next to him and it was so close that I still don't know how he didn't hit me. Two years ago the same SOB did the SAME EXACT THING.

rydabent

And there always remains the fact that disc brakes dont ruin rims. This is especially relevant when you have really high priced rims.

Also bikes that are built with disc brakes can have lighter stronger, and more aero rims.

cyclintom

Apparently 1. You are not a bike mechanic if you have the idea that there is a hydraulic fluid reservoir on bicycle disk brakes. 2. The SELLING point of hydraulic over manual is smoother application and less mechanical losses. Can you please stop with your dumb postings that because they are worthwhile on an MTB that they MUST be worthwhile on a road bike? Aside from MTB's being much heavier than road bikes, the suspension forks are designed to withstand immense bending forces. This is not something that is necessary on a road bike. As someone else stated, if the UCI dropped their weight limit you would never see another disk brake on a racing bike.

rydabent

The UCI will vote to do what ever the mfg pays them to do.

cyclintom

Why would you have as picture of the seat stay Raleigh mark and say someone else must have cheap junk? If you're

saying that you cannot planned ahead when to stop at 15 mph perhaps with reactions like those you should stick to walking.

cyclintom

Actually no. I communicated with the UCI on several occasions because I believe that bikes are getting dangerously light now and any manufacturing flaw can cause fatalities among normal people. What they wrote back is most easily translated as "tough ****" and that they will probably eliminated the weight restrictions. Now that graphene is getting more and more available we may see 10 lb bikes in large sizes including graphene wheels. Hope you're ready to pay $20K for a bike.

cyclintom

So why don't you race against a streamliner then? I'm sure that you can get your recumbent to go the present record of over 100 mph. Since you are of the opinion that classes of bikes shouldn't matter than isn't that just as equal?

Maelochs

I have Spyre SLC mech discs, and they Work. They do not do all the crazy stuff one poster claims mech discs do ... and they do self-center and self-adjust. So .... whatever.

I also hac=ve hydro discs .... about which the certain cyclist canot speak, apparently having no actual experience/.

Maybe old Avid mech discs simply weren't that good ... that's something i had heard before. but No brake system anywhere eats a set of pads in a single ride. i don't care if you are descending Everest. That is a set=-up issue or some other fault. Seriously ... does anyone want to claim that disc pads last only one ride? Does anyone want to try to claim that a brake system which needed a several-dollar refit after every ride would last on the market?

Think before responding .... that is an option.

This post shows exactly how rigorously the poster handles facts and figures:

Darth Lefty 

I'd love to see a source for that. I'm betting it's more like 50% are caused by drunks, and probably the next portion are kids showing off their wheelies.

DrIsotope

Man, this thread fell off the ledge far faster than I had imagined. And it was going so well.

I did get a chuckle out of "disc brake pads wear out rapidly." I average ~7,000 miles per set of front pads.

cyclintom

Show us how your mechanical disks "self adjust". I could design mechanical disk or hydraulic disk mechanisms that do self adjust but I haven't seen any that do. It would add additional complexity and weight.

Also I didn't say that pads wore out in one ride. I said is that all you have to do is look at the amount of wear in one ride and you can see how they wear rapidly.

If you don't have Avids and no personal experience with them why are you inventing theories out of clear air as to why I think that they don't work like people like you claim that they do?

I'm an engineer with 40 years in the business. I have a little understanding of these sorts of matters. What education do you have in engineering?

Humpy

Oh, never mind then.

cyclintom

What do you think you're looking at there?

DrIsotope

It seems pretty straight forward.

desmodue

I'd be interested in what you think it is.

Canker

and sram's road bike version and yes Avids which are also Sram brakes have a reservoir. Two of my three mtn bikes have Avids brakes which suck but not for pad wear or anything else you posted. They are just a pita to bleed.

Cyclist0108

I blow mine out in significantly less than 1000. (I am also very pro-disc brake.)

Canker

Well wear is going to depend on your weight and where and how you ride. I hardly ever wear mine out riding in Wv but I'm 160lbs while other people I mountain bike with weigh 250lbs and go through a set or two a year. Haven't ever wore out any on my cross/road bike but I did swap out my crappy bb5s after a little over 1k miles for TRP spyres this year.
https://bikerumor-wpengine.netdna-ss...p-brakes03.jpg
and just because I found a good pic of a clear Avid brake

Kapusta

Kapusta

DrIsotope

But... how? Are you just endlessly riding down a twisty road on a very rainy mountain? My newest set of brakes only have about 1,200 miles on them (installed about 10 weeks ago) but there is no visible wear on the pads. The brakes they replaced went on to another bike after logging ~6,000 miles on the pads, still plenty of life in them.

Cyclist0108

Twisty mountain roads -- yes. Rain -- no. Off-road a lot -- yes. Borderline clinical paranoia -- yes.

I have to replace my rotors at least once a season as well.

Organic J02A pads, fwiw.

Weight 195 lb.

I climb (and therefore descend) 40,000 to 50,000 ft/month.