discs or no discs????

[Burger33]

Im looking to buy a GT1.0 2007 model.... but it doest have disc brakes..... on the other hand a can get a Felt Q 220 with discs.... what are the better buy????

[parabola]

If the frame is disc compatible, then it will cost about R2500 to put a decent set of new disc brakes on. It depends on what the other components are, and what the asking price is for the Felt. I've ridden bikes with proper V-brakes which are way stronger than most entry level discs, but the braking power diminishes in the wet. So it depends on what you are riding and in what conditions.

[Jules]

Discs have become the standard. And despite what some others on this forum say, they really are much stronger than V. (I'm talking hyrdraulic discs here, not the mechanical, which I haven't tried, but I believe also work better than V).

 

 

[Canaris]

the question is not really about discs or no discs but rather GT vs Felt.

The question is:  is it worth taking a Felt frame instead of a GT frame to get disc brakes?

 

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

Disc disc disc disc....

[Red Zone]

Rim brakes are the way to go, little or no hastle, cheep to maintain and if you are not doing a lot of riding in mud and wet, perfectly acceptable stopping power. The biggest issue to me, is the quality of the disks, cheep disk brakes are the pits, cable disks are a waste of time.

[parabola]

For the same price as a set of cheap discs you could get a set of decent V-brakes (Avids etc) and some good quality brake pads. You will have no problem aligning calipers and rotors, and they are so much easier to adjust. And in dryish conditions the stopping power will pretty much destroy a set of cheap discs.

[Mailman7412]

I'm riding the exact same bike(gt) no problems on the brake side whatsoever

[Johan Bornman]

Both V-brakes and Disc brakes can produce much more stopping force than is safe to use. On dry tarr both with overturn the bike and on loose gravel both will lock up the front wheel.

The maximum stopping force is not the issue. Other issues need to be taken into account.

 

V-brakes suffer from two problems.

1) Cable contamination. This is a problem with marathon riders who don't ride upfront. The dust will enter the cables and cause the brakes to become erratic and often grabby. One remedy is to make sure you have continuous cable throughout and no exposed bits like is so popular on most bikes today. Another remedy is to have nice ferrules installed on the cable ends. O-ring ferrules are not the answer but ones with voids, like that made by amongst others, BBB, are better. The ultimate solution is to ride in front and not eat dust.

 

2) Pad dive. Cheaper B-brakes suffer from pad dive. A cosine error caused by the arc swept by the lever makes the pads dive into the spokes if badly worn. The simple answer to this is either frequent pad inspections or V-brakes equipped with parallelogram devices. XT, XTR and some of the top end models on other brands have XTR.

 

A third potential problem, but not in dry SA, is rim abrasion. Eventually it eats the rim. However, under most conditions a rim will last many, many times longer than a disc. With Koolstop salmon pads the rim life is greatly extended and wet braking on a par with disc brakes.

 

Disc brakes have their problems too. Hydraulics make for excellent, maintenance free braking but the limited pad life, especially in the wet, is an issue with me. Also, the continuous scraping and squealing irritates me.

 

I also take issue with the cost of a set of disc brake pads but in Hubberland where R70k bikes are becoming the norm, no-one seems to care.

 

Take your pick, but I don't believe one systems is better than the other in all important aspects.

 

 

[Guest Big H]

The MTB Tandem has Hope Mono 4 disk. They are awesome quality and works very well. I will NOT go back to V-brakes here. The MTB Tandem used to have Avid Arch Rival V brakes. These are the most awesome V-brakes ever. I now installed them on our Raleigh Road Tandem and they are ...... again........... AWESOME V Brakes. Our other Road Tandem..... el rapido has XT Parallogram V Brakes on board..... again these brakes really do the job.

 

If you want to go V Brake or Disk, go for the absolute best quality you can afford.

[MildlyWild]

I rode a Trek 8500 for 5 years with v-brakes - lots of races,etc.  Still has the same rims as new.

And I never had any hassles - easy to maintain, cheap to replace pads.

And as for stopping power - I don't think my current XT discs stop better (although they could probably be better)

[cat-i]

 

rode v-brakes for years and firmly believed that there were no difference.

on day 2 of 2007's wet muddy sabie xperience the v-brakes had very little stopping power ... the teammate with diskbrakes  rode beside me and stopped me when i needed to slow down.

 

last year's wet sabiexperience i ws equiped with disks ... and used up one set of pads on that last 35-kay timetrail (replaced them the night before)

 

i learnt 3 things:

 

- vbrakes aint that good in mud.

 

- singletrack downhill can be managed at much higher speeds than you thought possible.

- disks are expensive.

 

regarding the original question:

can the gt's frame take disks?

if so, then go ride both bikes and buy the one that you like the most - you can always get disks later.

 

cat-i2009-03-26 13:28:19

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

I've just upgraded to disks. Man oh man, is the difference noticeable. Okay, I had budget v's before, but I've got budget disks now. No more fade (not as much, anyway) and so much easier to moderate the braking pressure.

 

I'm happy to say, disks all the way!