Retro soul and disc brakes - is love possible?

[Ugo51]

Hi guys,

I'm considering to switch to a (modern) road bike with disc brakes. The reviews I read online couldn't be more flustering. They span the whole spectrum, from "disc brakes are shit" to "they are the best thing since sliced bread".

Excluding the low-end cable-actuated disc brakes, those with only one moving pistons - an engineering abomination - are mechanical setups such as the trp spyre so bad?
I briefly tried a bike with trp spyre yesterday, and it had no stopping power nor good feel, but that can also happen on rim brakes if the pads are worn and not properly set.

Ultimately, I know I don't really like disc brakes, they seem to me like a too complex contraption for a bike, but I am attracted by the performance in wet weather and, especially, by not having to worry about rim wear.

What do you retro souls think? What are your experiences?

Cheers

 

[RickTheUncivil]

Re:

Discs are no more complicated or abominable than any other brake. Its a rim brake but closer to the middle.

Cable discs are just as good as hydro for most real world applications I find.

Big win with discs for me is you can have a dirty, buckled, wet rim and the brakes still work.

What's not to like?

 

[66 triumph daytona]

Re:

My old 97 Zaskar with V brakes stops as well as my moderns with hydro discs with one proviso-it has to be perfectly dry,no mud and the rims have to be perfectly true.V brakes are as good as discs in the right conditions.Only problem,with our climate,those conditions only arise a few days of the year .

 

[legrandefromage]

Re: Re:

Discs are no more complicated or abominable than any other brake. Its a rim brake but closer to the middle.

Cable discs are just as good as hydro for most real world applications I find.

Big win with discs for me is you can have a dirty, buckled, wet rim and the brakes still work.

What's not to like?

Its a rim brake but closer to the middle. which means its not as efficient at stopping!

Rim brakes are just 622mm sized discs and it was never a problem that needed to be addressed.

But discs for the road bike came about due to the increasing use of carbon fibre rims and the problems that brought with pad compounds

Which then gave the marketing departments a new 'thing' to sell. So its discs on everything!

Unless you are doing 250 miles a week in the wet and mud, I simply wouldnt bother. You would then be locked in to specific parts and closing the door on the far far more common and widely available rim brake wheelsets and frames.

 

[2manyoranges]

There's a very good video here:

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=vi ... &FORM=VIRE

For mountain bikes, V brakes and upmarket Critical Racing cants etc provided a huge uplift in performance. But discs are in another league. We do enduro and DH as well as XC, and for pootling around V brakes are fine, but doing anything serious, particularly in wet conditions, 'should I have discs?' isn't a question. They are dependable, insanely powerful (Hope, SRAM, Shimano), do not consume rims, and save your bacon time and time again. Axle standards are varied but sorted in mountain biking, although in road I believe that axle standards are still an issue.

 

[foz]

I've never tried them on a road bike and unless I move back to the UK or somewhere with constantly bad weather, I don't think I ever will. I can see they have their uses though, especially for running wider tyres. But then again, isn't a road bike with wider tyres just a cross bike? I think if riding lots in bad weather, then they'd be useful. If your bike never goes out if the sky is anything but brilliant blue, there's not much point. Plus they look fugly.

 

[Ugo51]

I've never tried them on a road bike and unless I move back to the UK or somewhere with constantly bad weather, I don't think I ever will. I can see they have their uses though, especially for running wider tyres. But then again, isn't a road bike with wider tyres just a cross bike? I think if riding lots in bad weather, then they'd be useful. If your bike never goes out if the sky is anything but brilliant blue, there's not much point. Plus they look fugly.

They are so ugly...
Well, unfortunately there is no much brialliant blue in the sky here
(I use the bike mainly for commuting)

 

[hamster]

Forks and stays have to be much beefier to take the braking load as the leverage is significant. As a result poorly-executed designs have overly stiff forks and aren't comfortable to ride. Part of the move to wider tyres may be to counteract this issue.

 

[RickTheUncivil]

Re: Re:

Its a rim brake but closer to the middle. which means its not as efficient at stopping!

Which is why everyone loved maguras!

 

[Ugo51]

Maguras?