Disc brakes any good ??

[saltyman]

yep, and if the bike is a retro one........dont change the brakes, keep it as god intented and ride it propaly.

discs end up giving you too many bad habits as they are too good.

 

[dyna-ti]

yes they are good but to be honest not so good to spend loads of money upgrading if you are on a budget.

they excell in really horrible muddy conditions. i'd make do with v's for the summer and maybe keep your eyes open for a disc frame that is going cheap

+1

 

[Neil G]

Neil G wrote that " pads/rotors can get contaminated and go "off " almost instantly"-------In 5 years of using XTR disc brakes I have never had that happen, they work far better than ANY rim brake I have ever used-perhaps Neil was referring to some other brand that he had problems with. The other advantage I have found with discs is that you can modulate them far better than rim brakes and they are like power brakes in that they don't tire out your hand on a long descent. Plus, they don't wear out your rims and work fantastic in the wet! Pat

Sorry but I've had pads that are brand new that were poop, Shimano resins, sintered and EBC...they just seem to work when they feel like it.

Not sure if it's a Shimano thing but the Tektros on my commuter work better than any other discs I've tried but I've just put some new XTRs on with Fibrax pads so we'll see.

 

[rojo]

Think I may give disc brakes a miss for a while longer then , they sound like they are good performance wise. But by the sound of it i need a disc brake frame which could be expensive to do all that .

 

[JohnH]

Rojo, do your forks have mounting holes for a disc brake caliper? That could be a cheaper way to try them for yourself than buying a whole new frame...

 

[rojo]

Yeah i think the forks do have it on them, so that could be a plan

 

[dyna-ti]

a lot of these threads miss the main point and thats what type of riding you do and where you do it. 9 stone summer pootler who sticks to the bridleways and towpaths would be fine with V's, Steve Peat at the top of Fort Bill would probably err on the side of discs over V's no matter what the opinion of some retrobikers is. Where you fit in between is for you to answer

Not just the only reason :? power or stopping distance i mean.You never have to replace the rim,and theyre unaffected by wobbles.
One might ever hazard a guess and say theyre probably stronger as theyre designed without a braking surface in mind.

Theres a nice pair of Hope C2's on sale at the moment they look in nice condition anyway. :?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... K:MEWAX:IT

Ideal and they must be classed as retro,and if not then definitely cool

How much are you thinking of spending on the brakes themselves,not including wheels?

 

[FairfaxPat]

After thinking about it-about the only thing I could think of that would make the disc brakes go away instantly is if you get brake fluid from a leak on them or maybe chain oil or WD40 over spray, otherwise not much else can go wrong with discs.

 

[dyna-ti]

After thinking about it-about the only thing I could think of that would make the disc brakes go away instantly is if you get brake fluid from a leak on them or maybe chain oil or WD40 over spray, otherwise not much else can go wrong with discs.

When did anyone ever get GT85 or chain oil on their wheel rims :?
Crazy example

 

[FairfaxPat]

It's not on the wheel rims, it's on the brake disc rotor that I managed to get some WD40 on once, and that ruined the brake pads I had fitted. Not so crazy, as it happened to me!