Road Bike - Disc or Calipers

[DieselnDust]

6 minutes ago, ouzo said:

Diesel for the most part I respect your input on technical threads as you have experience in the real world, however on this one I’m seeing a strong personal bias against discs on road bikes and I think it’s clouding your logic. 
 

warping discs are not unique to bicycles and happen on discs that are much thicker and heavier and built to withstand more heat. The problem will never go away on metallic discs. As long as there are heat differences across the surface of the disc it will warp.  
Disc truing on mtb is that not more a case of the disc receiving more knocks to it?

 

your story of your mate descending chappies, sounds very suspect. Discs generally suffer less from lack of stopping power in the wet than rim brakes, to suddenly lock up my logic tells me his rear wheel hit a patch of something on the road that caused sudden loss of traction rather than the brakes suddenly biting. 

No personal bias against road disc brakes, I just don’t think they’re developed enough for average Joe. 
warping is an issue in all disc brake applications but there is more leverage applied so the pistons can travel further and therefore provide more clearance. 
the road discs to achieve the same more oil is required or rather a bigger master cylinder, bigger pistons and therefor bigger callipers. That’s more weight. Manufacturers are going the other way.

 

ultimately I want a produce that works without hassle, keeps my maintenance time requirements down to the important stuff and keeps my costs low enough to enjoy the sport. 
At this point in time disc brakes aren’t there yet and I still have a viable alternative available 

[The Ouzo]

9 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

No personal bias against road disc brakes, I just don’t think they’re developed enough for average Joe. 

Yes and no, the average Joe these days just drops his bike off at the bike shop. 
 

10 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

warping is an issue in all disc brake applications but there is more leverage applied so the pistons can travel further and therefore provide more clearance. 
the road discs to achieve the same more oil is required or rather a bigger master cylinder, bigger pistons and therefor bigger callipers. That’s more weight. Manufacturers are going the other way.

Agreed. But the weight saving is not unique to cycling, motor racing are continuously developing lighter braking components. The difference though as that they are able to generate more heat in the discs so they are able to use lighter weight materials like carbon ceramic. 
it will be interesting to see what the bicycle industry come up with in this regards. 

 

12 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

ultimately I want a produce that works without hassle, keeps my maintenance time requirements down to the important stuff and keeps my costs low enough to enjoy the sport. 
At this point in time disc brakes aren’t there yet and I still have a viable alternative available 

You see this is a little more “it’s no good for me” rather than your previous post making it sound definitive that discs on road bikes are complete rubbish. 
 

 

Granted I don’t have much experience with discs, but I’ve done over 12000km on what must be one of the top 10 most rubbish OEM hydraulic brake setups, the Giant Conduct system. Cable actuated hydraulic system linked to generic calipers clamping into 140mm stamped rotors. 
they have required much more maintenance than rim brakes, but, have provided much better stopping power than I ever had with any of my rim brake road bikes.  And now that I’ve gone 160mm front disc, but more importantly Jagwire pads they’re just so much better. 

[DieselnDust]

12 minutes ago, ouzo said:

Yes and no, the average Joe these days just drops his bike off at the bike shop. 
 

Agreed. But the weight saving is not unique to cycling, motor racing are continuously developing lighter braking components. The difference though as that they are able to generate more heat in the discs so they are able to use lighter weight materials like carbon ceramic. 
it will be interesting to see what the bicycle industry come up with in this regards. 

 

You see this is a little more “it’s no good for me” rather than your previous post making it sound definitive that discs on road bikes are complete rubbish. 
 

 

Granted I don’t have much experience with discs, but I’ve done over 12000km on what must be one of the top 10 most rubbish OEM hydraulic brake setups, the Giant Conduct system. Cable actuated hydraulic system linked to generic calipers clamping into 140mm stamped rotors. 
they have required much more maintenance than rim brakes, but, have provided much better stopping power than I ever had with any of my rim brake road bikes.  And now that I’ve gone 160mm front disc, but more importantly Jagwire pads they’re just so much better. 

That Giant system is underrated. It has more brake fluid than most s as me it’s why I don’t state disc brakes are complete rubbish. There are good systems that work , they just weigh a lot more. I also think the Giant system was an elegant solution to prevent an expensive transition to disc.

the industry can make decent choices when it wants to