New Shimano 105 hydraulic road disc brakes

[Paul Ruinaard]

Exactly and yet they still fit excellent brakes?

You have no complicated wizardy, saftely belt, or enclosed cockpit yet still want to run on brakes designed yonks ago? Whats speeds do you get clock on some of the downhill sections?

You are riding a bike, heaven forbid you actually ride it and move your weight around to aid acceleration, braking and cornering

Dead on the money.

 

The fact of the matter is about 95% of people riding haven't got a clue about the physics of cornering and braking and how a bike wheel works.

 

Hence the trickle down of technology is saving these luddites from themselves.

 

Most riding is done by instinct - which is great cause when you start to think about it, you get in to trouble. Its not logical or intuitive.

 

So you have to move your weight in any corner or else you wont turn - its not your tread pattern that turns you - its the change in plane of the spinning mass being your wheels.

 

that is just to start

 

And to make this clearer at anything above 30 to 40 kmh you are turning the bars left and the bike will turn right.

 

Its all well known to motorcycle riders and racers. You steer the bike with the back brake on off road courses as well.

 

So the addition of a better much more powerful brakes (cause face it the current calipers are really dated - like from 1900)  will make the amount of control you have over these processes - the actual ones that make a bike turn and the like, much better and finer, rather than the rough ones we have today.

 

Ergo Sum - you can brake later, turn in harder, make lighter wheels with less spun mass that accelerate faster and the like. Make bikes handle better and make them safer, and faster.

 

And this will push other components like the DI2 XTR auto shifting we are seeing that is like a CVT gearbox.

 

Linked to this is the trend towards wider rims, lower pressures and wider tyres which grip better and give you better braking and a better more comfortable ride so you are fresher over longer distances and can ride harder longer.

 

And the lump of wetware on the top that is thinking he is actually riding the thing is really instinctively obeying laws of physics he doesn't really comprehend nor understand unless you are pretty advanced as a rider.

 

Like they say - you never forget how to ride a bike. The fact is that once you understand you are not going to fall over the rest is instinct.

 

You want dangerous - go and ride in a pack with people that haven't got the experience dont understand how to corner and brake and turn - that if they turn the bars left at speed the bike will turn right. That is where people hit things that they never intended and cant understand what happened when they took the bunch down

 

And the trickle down effects of technology and Moore's law makes things that were very expensive, dirt cheap a couple of years in the future.

 

ABS for bicycles is very easy to do with a  bit of battery power and some years in the future it will be the next big thing.

[SwissVan]

IQof2 - That's half the point, not everyone is Kenny Roberts and most will never be no matter how hard they try.

 

Fellows...we talking road bikes here with skinny high pressure hard tires on hard and slippery surfaces potentially not always traveling in a straight line or at 90 degrees to the road surface.

 

Traction, remember that word one day when you slip and land on your gat and bring down the riders around you. 

[Paul Ruinaard]

IQof2 - That's half the point, not everyone is Kenny Roberts and most will never be no matter how hard they try.

 

Fellows...we talking road bikes here with skinny high pressure hard tires on hard and slippery surfaces potentially not always traveling in a straight line or at 90 degrees to the road surface.

 

Traction, remember that word one day when you slip and land on your gat and bring down the riders around you. 

I leave you luddites to dwell on your old steel frames with rim brakes and MTB's with V and Cantilever brakes. Oh and rigid and the like.... 

 

With Elastomer shocks ....

 

Just think of a wet road ride with carbon rims at the moment - you are sometimes better off grabbing the guy next to you when you need to stop as its going to be more effective.

 

Now add a nice big disc to the middle that doesn't worry about whether its wet.

 

Safer?

[SwissVan]

I leave you luddites to dwell on your old steel frames with rim brakes and MTB's with V and Cantilever brakes. Oh and rigid and the like.... 

 

With Elastomer shocks ....

 

Just think of a wet road ride with carbon rims at the moment - you are sometimes better off grabbing the guy next to you when you need to stop as its going to be more effective.

 

Now add a nice big disc to the middle that doesn't worry about whether its wet.

 

Safer?

Road bikes, road bikes, road bikes with smooth tires on smooth surfaces

 

Fellow Luddite, I rode my first carbon rim in the mid 90's when there were no fancy brake pads like there are today, today I have fancy brake pads for said carbon rims and yes the braking in dry and wet is not as good as regular metal rim brakes / discs.

 

You did not take in my point about traction, let me put it to you another way, a bit extreme but it should illustrate the point of traction:

 

Q. How do you brake a vehicle (any vehicle, in this case a bicycle) with slick tires on an icy surface, and why do you brake that way?

 

A. You don't use brakes, because you are going to see your arschlochli quickly(google arschloch) because there is no traction (grip) between the tire and the surface.

 

As I said that's an extreme example, but essentially it explains why having extra braking power is useless unless you the traction / grip to stop the tire from sliding. A skinny road tire with minimal contact patch but over powerful brakes is not a good idea, IMO

[NukeproofPeanut]

I agree with the traction issue. That goes for both acceleration and cornering, nothing new. But as "IQ of 2" said, there is a trend now towards wider rims resulting in softer + wider tyres which assits with the much needed traction.

 

Admittedly I don't see it ever getting to the extreme's we see in MTB due to rolling resistance.

 

I can definitly see why things are progressing the way they are.

Edited June 12, 2015 by NukeproofPeanut