Disc brakes - wheres the magic?

[saartjie]

Some European riders were riding V's during the Epic. I asked them "why still ride V's?" They say "It works better in snow and mud in Europe"

 

[cat-i]

i've been riding vbrakes since forever.

then did a very muddy SabieXtreme and there just was nothing on the downhills. nothing, which made fore really exciting downhills

 

i upgraded to disks after that, and last year's SabieX was as muddy, but a little more controlled on the downhills.

 

the front rotor is bent at the moment, and one day of sabie-mud can grind through a set of pads, but i much prefer that, to not being able to break at all. it works magic for me

 

 

[downhilldemon]

Some European riders were riding V's during the Epic. I asked them "why still ride V's?" They say "It works better in snow and mud in Europe"

 

 

hahaha. bad idea. when i spoke to the eu riders on epic they said DO NOT ride v's in snow.

 

the rim heats up from the friction of braking then when it gets down into the snow, the heat causes a little bit of water to coat the rim. by the time it reaches up to the brake again it has frozen, an you have no brakes because there's no friction between the ice (on the rim) and the brake pad.

[Christopher Brunsdon]

Well I run V's as my budget did not allow me to buy a bike with proper Discs. I now running XTs (Vs) and its amazing how much of an improvement proper brakes / models are.

 

My next bike will be disc, but I will make sure there fitted with a proper model.

 

[WillemT]

I ride magura julie disk brakes 180mm/160mm, never had to bleed them or anything. They're absolutely fantastic, and I have more power than with V-brakes. Also you can brake adequitly on a downhill with two fingers at most, and on lourensford the past weekend I appreciated them like NEVER before!!! Haven't looked back once!!

Some models are more difficult to set up than others, but once it's done and once your pads are "runned in" you shouldn't have any problems. running in of pads can take quite a bit of riding, depending on the model, it wears down a little on some sides so the pad is perfectly parralel to the rotor.

Also you get some yellow plastic spacers with some brakes you can put in your brakes when you take the wheels out to act as a spacer, so when you accidently pull the lever the calipers doesn't close up! If you don't have plastic spacers, be creative and cut something to put in there.

[CJVDM]

 

Some models are more difficult to set up than others' date=' but once it's done and once your pads are "runned in" you shouldn't have any problems. running in of pads can take quite a bit of riding, depending on the model, it wears down a little on some sides so the pad is perfectly parralel to the rotor.

 

Also you get some yellow plastic spacers with some brakes?you can put in your brakes when you take the wheels out to act as a spacer, so when you accidently pull the lever the calipers doesn't close up! If you don't have plastic spacers, be creative and cut something to put in there.

[/quote']

 

 

 

Thanks, the bike is still very new and hopefully must still be runned in. All upgrades will be done in good time, right now im only learning where all the shortcomings are in my bike setup.

 

 

[Wernervdmerwe]

CJ - where are you situated?

 

The other option is to take the bike to one of the hubbers in your area, he/she can maybe give you some tips and sort it out for you?

[Johan Bornman]

Just upgrade to Vs and be done with it. That should warm up the discussion.

 

V-brakes weight less than disc brakes.

V-brakes cost less than disc brakes.

V-brakes have enough stopping force to make you dive over the handlebars. Any more is a waste.

V-brakes don't chew pads in the mud like discs.

The only Vs worth having are ones with paralellogram linkages.

 

V-brakes have one downfall and that is cable contamination. A gritty cable causes big problems when you have to do serious braking.

 

Disc brakes aren't angels and have their faults too. Resin pads just don't last long enough. Pads are expensive. The brakes are forever rubbing or making other anti-social noises. It is a pain to fit a wheel with disc brakes.

 

On the other hand, disc brakes are beautifually smooth and the lines are maintenance free. The complaints about bleeding is over-rated. Most people never have to bleed their brakes.

 

I'd love to experience those Magura hydraulic rim brakes one day.

 

 

Question: If disc brakes have rotors, where's the disc?

[adogshow]

what would some suggestions be for v-brake upgrade?

[DavidStone]

With disks, the braking is alot more consistent. The trend line for a disk brake is reasonably linear. (force on lever(x) vs braking force(y)). The V-brake has a more exponential trend so one has to be more careful when braking because its easier to lock the wheel. Both have their advantages and disadvantage but using disks for the past few months has been a pleasure. Single track descending is just so much faster.

[Tumbleweed]

It is a pain to fit a wheel with disc brakes.

 

?

 

would you like to attend my next "how to fit a wheel with disc brakes" course?

[Johan Bornman]

With disks' date=' the braking is alot more consistent. The trend line for a disk brake is reasonably linear. (force on lever(x) vs braking force(y)). The V-brake has a more exponential trend so one has to be more careful when braking because its easier to lock the wheel. Both have their advantages and disadvantage but using disks for the past few months has been a pleasure. Single track descending is just so much faster.

[/quote']

 

Where does this exponential factor come from? The way I see it, with non-paralellogram Vs and cantilevers, the rate of applied force at the pad decreases with applied force at the lever, do to the cosine error.

 

With paralellogram Vs the pads move just about perfectly perpendicular to the rim and even if they don't, the clearance is so small that there is no space for pad dive to occur before contact. The fact that the pads wear perfectly without an angled face confirms this.

 

 

[DavidStone]

Very good point. I will check this out properly. The result however is that it is easier to go over the bars with V's than with disks. 

[Thug]

Just put some Hope Mono-Minis onto my Scandal. Far superior (in my opinion - unquantified scientifically as it may be) than my Juicys.

 

 

[dirtrider]

Shame Johan I am sorry to read about this . Hope all comes right for you ....

[Rob22]

Reading this I am surprised that the views are so different, I have bikes with both V and disk and would always chose disc brakes. They might cost more but there performance is way better!!!<?: prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />