Adding a front disc to a road bike !! And Now Hydro!

[rkelsen]

Where were all the disc braked ducks in Melbourne today?

What, scared of water are ya?

Once I got to about 1 km north of the city, I didn't see anyone. It were just me on my humble commuter with mudguards and V-brakes which I find to be perfectly adequate, even in weather like today's...

[MattyK]

Where were all the disc braked ducks in Melbourne today?

What, scared of water are ya?

Once I got to about 1 km north of the city, I didn't see anyone. It were just me on my humble commuter with mudguards and V-brakes which I find to be perfectly adequate, even in weather like today's...

I was out and loving having awesome bite from a good disc brake.

[Mulger bill]

My BB7s worked fine without once needing them. Works for me

The shoes got rather squelchy tho'.

[Crawf]

Looks great, did you build the wheelset up yourself? Specs?

[rustychisel]

3 pages, the bikes not built and half the components haven't even turned up

does this flaming thread go all the way to 20?

Well done Michael, made it to twenty and I said it'd never happen.



lock it now?

[MichaelB]

3 pages, the bikes not built and half the components haven't even turned up

does this flaming thread go all the way to 20?

Well done Michael, made it to twenty and I said it'd never happen.



lock it now?

Nah, plenty more flaming and arguing to go !!!!

[MichaelB]

image removed for compactness ...

Looks great, did you build the wheelset up yourself? Specs?

Cheers. Nah the wheelset is the originals that came with it - and plastered in these horrible "Kona Payroll" stickers which have been removed

The rims are 30mm high and appear to be generic Deep V type copies, as they have a machined brake track. Hubs are labelled Xero and I think are 32H 3x.

When I change the tyres, I'll weigh the wheelset, but from other reports, they are not real light. Looks OK I must admit though.

As a separate report though, the 185/160 disc combo works really well. I thought that the 160 rear would be too big and was thinking of putting on a 140, but so far, no drama's. Don't need much pressure at all to get good braking, and no issues with modulation either, despite the big front disc

Another myth

[Crawf]

Coincidentally i'm running a 28h x2 30mm front Xero wheel myself, visually it looks a little weak but has not missed a beat (being my only brake), and only cost me 30 squid.

[Nobody]

As a separate report though, the 185/160 disc combo works really well. I thought that the 160 rear would be too big and was thinking of putting on a 140, but so far, no drama's. Don't need much pressure at all to get good braking, and no issues with modulation either, despite the big front disc

Agree. I still find the 185 on the front the right size for drop levers, which are obviously harder to get good leverage from the hoods. My whole setup looks a bit odd, but it isn't about weight and looks as some would have us believe. It's about the right balance of performance for the application.

[Rek]

I had a 140 rear rotor for a little while, I don't recommend it - takes too much hand pressure to get significant braking, and with panniers the rear wheel should have enough weight that the 160mm rotor is useful.

185 front sounds interesting, especially now that I'm using 105 levers - that might get me back the modulation I had with Rival...

[Mulger bill]

I've always been happy with the performance of my brakes with F&R 160 roundagons but there's this near new 185 rotor and adaptor lying in the shed, methinks it might be time for a feasibility study...

[Hangdog98]

Can't sleep... thinking about disc brakes are we?

[Rek]

USE hydro converter

Looks nice - much cleaner than the TRP and Hope solutions. By the time it comes out I'm expecting an announcement from SRAM or Shimano that will probably kill it, though.

[Nobody]

USE hydro converter

Link fixed.

[MichaelB]

And why would you want hydraulic discs on your cyclocross, road, or touring bike? Stopping power is the answer - you can already run mechanical discs with drop bars, and while they are more powerful than conventional cantis or dual pivot brakes they don't have the outright stopping power, and lever modulation of hydraulic discs. Hydraulic systems are usually self-centring - so you don't need to adjust them - which is pretty useful too.

Interesting comments there re the cable vs hydro.

Like them only slightly better than the other versions out there, but still not enough for me to want to change from what I have

[MichaelB]

Re the above USE converter, whilt a realease from the big names may squash it, it would still be an option for those that want to use hydro's that already have the cable setup.

Just needs some clever handlebars that have some recesses (much like they already do for cables) to minimise the impact on bar shape, and it's then a neat package. I can imaging hydro capable STI levers would be expensive.


On a separate note. Did my commute to work this morning via Mt Lofty. Had been raining, and 1/3 of the way up the climb, it was very misty. As I went up, I could see some riders descending slowly with an almost terrified look on their face as they approached a corner and having to brake miles early and listen to the grinding of their rims.

Made me smile just a wee bit

[jasonc]

Did my commute to work this morning via Mt Lofty. Had been raining, and 1/3 of the way up the climb, it was very misty. As I went up, I could see some riders descending slowly with an almost terrified look on their face as they approached a corner and having to brake miles early and listen to the grinding of their rims.

Made me smile just a wee bit

Mt Lofty warps car disks let alone bicycle wheels

[baabaa]

You can lock this whole discussion down; Dr Holgar has it fixed.
http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/w ... rake-32064
(may need muddies and a few zip lock bags but…)

[MattyK]

I for one am completely convinced this system has a 3-in-1-trillion failure rate

[Mulger bill]

And the first time you have to use a bit of body english to muscle a technical section on the MTB, you're on yer bum.
Better to stick with a standard lever modified with a pressure sensor at the pivot, the lever won't have to actually move so it could be set perfectly for your hand size. Fly by wire in combat aircraft uses a similar setup.

[Nobody]

I used to joke about wireless brakes.

I work in a radio frequency field and can assure you that, in the real world, I highly doubt you would have that specified minimal failure rate. Electronic brakes are a bad idea, wireless is even worse and adding a battery to it is worse still. That is without the 2 metre calculated delay at 30 Km/h. Bicycles have enough trouble braking quick without adding 2 metres to the stopping distance.

[MattyK]

I highly doubt you would have that specified minimal failure rate.

To put it in perspective, if you used the brakes once every second, non stop 24-7, it suggests a mean time between failures of 1000 years...

[Hangdog98]

This is clearly the greatest innovation in the entire history of cycling. Once the electronics are adequately miniaturised and the actuation is powered by the kinetic energy of the rotor we will see an iPhone-esque leap into the world of electronical brakeosity. We may even see sensors attached to the riders anus so that when the going gets a bit scary and the sphincter puckers up, the brakes will apply. The Mavic Mektronic went a long way to showing how successful wireless shifting could be and I predict the Mavic Stop-tronic will be the way of the future.

[Nobody]

I highly doubt you would have that specified minimal failure rate.

To put it in perspective, if you used the brakes once every second, non stop 24-7, it suggests a mean time between failures of 1000 years...

Exactly my point. How many electronic devices do you know of that last even 10 years without some kind of problem in the real world? So clearly dreaming.

[il padrone]

I highly doubt you would have that specified minimal failure rate.

To put it in perspective, if you used the brakes once every second, non stop 24-7, it suggests a mean time between failures of 1000 years...

But it might happen on tomorrow's commute , on that big descent to the T-intersection.