Erik_A

Bright future for disc brakes fades briefly under a coating of Verona mud
By Lennard Zinn Published 1/12/13

VERONA, Wisconsin (VN) — The bright future of disc brakes in cyclocross faded briefly under a patina of watery mud at the USA Cycling Cyclocross National Championships, as early competitors found themselves brakeless after a lap or two of sloppy racing going into the weekend...

https://velonews.competitor.com/2013/...ona-mud_271112

Andy_K 

I don't know what to make of that. I get 2000+ miles out of a set of pads for rainy commutes, and that involves a lot of gritty mess. I'd guess that I only have to adjust the knobs every few hundreds miles.

Admittedly I have seen that 20 or so races will wear through a rim pad that would last 2000 miles, but I can't imagine having to make adjustments every lap. And as for "on the fly" adjustments, Avid recommends using an inline adjuster with the road BB7's -- couldn't you put that near the bars?

Erik_A

I would love to see a run down of the top 3 finishers for each race and how many ran discs vs. cantis.

fotooutdoors

I pitted at one of the races (men's masters cat 1-3) today. There were very few bike I saw with discs. I heard one guy with discs come in saying he had no front brake power. That said, the mud was brutal today; when we could do the turn-around, we pitted every half lap. I'm not possitive, but I don't think any of the top three in men's masters was running disc.

bkwentz

I have had the same problem here in Philly on the MTB. The right consistency of mud (with just the right flavor of grit) will destroy mechanical disc brake pads. They are already predisposed to uneven wear, and the right (wrong) conditions will make certain it happens sooner than later.

Until they get hydraulic brakes to a reasonable price I am going to stay rim. Lighter and with mini-v's I have no shortage of stopping power.

Pynchonite

The article actually hedges its claims a bit toward the end, pointing out that with a slightly different consistency of mud the advantage shifted back to discs. IMO, I don't think that this means that there's a ceiling for discs competitively, just that the tech is still new and problems are still emerging.

fietsbob

since most of the traffic on this thread didn't race the Nats , but are instead commuters..

it's Monday Morning Quarterbacking.. of the Sunday game.

As I read further, the mud consistency changes with the temperature
so the Very wet slurry mud, gave way to something thicker the next day
and the Discs were fine then..


so racers, bring more bikes to the race, discs on some , Cantilevers on the others.

marqueemoon

Probably better off in the racing forum.

Anyway... THIS JUST IN. DISC BRAKES NOT PERFECT FOR CYCLOCROSS RACING!!!!!1

I've experienced the fade in nasty conditions. I'm adding in-line adjusters for next season. My bike has routing for hydro hose, if I don't break it first it will be ready when things get sorted out.

Rim brakes are hardly issue-free. You can certainly lose all braking power in a really gross race with those too.

fietsbob

IDK if SRAM put their hydraulic disc /mechanical brifter out on the course.. (i wasn't there)

putting the master-cylinder above the brake lever makes sense, given the brifter mech parts
already occupy the part of the hood you hold on to. ..

and your hands certainly won't slip off the front of the brake levers on steep descents.

https://velonews.competitor.com/2012/...in-cxla_267379

priced like putting an addition onto your house, I expect.