Discs on a road bike?

[Minty]

Hey y'all,

The time has come to get rid of my Carrera carbon TT bike. I have had it 4 and a half years and it has served me well but I am moving offices and will be doing an extra 4 miles a day and I will start with a clean biking slate, so to speak.

I liked the look of https://www.gbcycles.co.uk/p/43315/Specialized-Secteur-Sport-Disc-Road-Bike-2014

Showed it to a fellow commuter what rides a road bike and he poo-poo'd the disc brake saying they are no good unless hydraulic.

Anyone have experience of the cabled variety and their performance in all weather?

Ta muchly in advance.

ps - anyone interested in a well worn Carrera Virago TT (2008) in probable need of a new thumb shifter?
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My fingers smell of your mum.

[lihp]

Not really useful at all on a road bike, the rims don't get dirty enough to warrant a disc brake.

And you normally end up with a damaged wheel before you wear the rim
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covent.gardens: lihp is my most favourite member ever

[Minty]

Ok, but nothing 'against' them per se?
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My fingers smell of your mum.

[Fladdem]

Not used them on a road bike.

I use Avid BB5's on all my mtb's with discs. I love them. I would never go back to rim brakes, well, the right rim brakes are about an equal match. I can lock the wheels up with ONE finger regardless of speed. They work better in the wet. I took my rim braked MTB out once and as soon as it went through a muddy puddle, that was it, no brakes.

Personally, I don't like hydraulic discs. They never seem as sharp as mine, except for the ones on my mates bike, but he spent silly money on them, he races. I do miss the discs when I go back to other bikes.
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Current:1991 Honda MT50 (Soon to be a H100/MTX/MT5 hybrid), 1976 Honda Cub C70, 2005 Honda Varadero 125, 1993 Yamaha TTR250 Open Enduro , 2010 Road Legal Stomp YX140, 1994 Honda CRM 250 MK III, 1999 Cagiva Mito 125, 1992 Honda CB400 Super Four, Stomp T4 230, 1984 Honda H100s, 2009 Sym XS125K
Past:2003 Aprilia RS125, 1982 Kawasaki GPZ550(FREE BIKE!)
I'm having more fun than a well-oiled midget.

[lihp]

On a mtb where you're offroad and having muddy rims, the discs stay cleaner therefore better.

Road bikes don't get muddy often, so are no use.

If they performed better, they would be on the TDF bikes.
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covent.gardens: lihp is my most favourite member ever

[Fladdem]

Yeah. I suppose with cleaner rims, it doesn't matter too much.

I have Shimano Tiagra brakes on the fixed gear I built, and they are just as strong as my BB5's, I guess. I'm not sure, it's just buckled rims become a ball ache faster with rim brakes.
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Current:1991 Honda MT50 (Soon to be a H100/MTX/MT5 hybrid), 1976 Honda Cub C70, 2005 Honda Varadero 125, 1993 Yamaha TTR250 Open Enduro , 2010 Road Legal Stomp YX140, 1994 Honda CRM 250 MK III, 1999 Cagiva Mito 125, 1992 Honda CB400 Super Four, Stomp T4 230, 1984 Honda H100s, 2009 Sym XS125K
Past:2003 Aprilia RS125, 1982 Kawasaki GPZ550(FREE BIKE!)
I'm having more fun than a well-oiled midget.

[D O G]

[Minty]

[lihp]

[lihp]

[Minty]

Why no gain on the road bike? It is my commuter, I do not ride for fun, I do it to get to work and get some minor health benefits (get to eat and drink more).

I'm not understanding where the benefit to a hybrid/commuter is but not a out and out road bike? (arent hybrids essentially a road bike with a flat bar?)
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My fingers smell of your mum.

[Minty]

Yeah, I wipe it down regularly. I wipe the seat with my butt.

You might want to disregard the question as to whether anyone is interested in buying my current bike.
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My fingers smell of your mum.

[lihp]

The only thing road bikes share with hybrids are the wheel size.

If you're commuting, then go for it. I still don't see the point of them, for the sake of a 5 second wipe down of the rim.

Then again I don't see the point of using a road bike to commute on either
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covent.gardens: lihp is my most favourite member ever

[D O G]

[Minty]

[JonB]

[Seb]

As mentioned, the reason you don't see them on proper road stages is because the UCI hasn't approved them yet.

In the dry my ultegra rim brakes are plenty strong enough, throw in some rain and yeah, I'm squeezing for a good few seconds before anything starts happening.
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2010 Triumph 1050 Sprint ST

[G]

If you do get a damaged rim, a disc brake makes it considerably less hassle to keep using it if you need to.

I've got disc brakes on my hybrid and like them. Not massively better than the V-Brakes on the other Hybrid I used to have that was half the RRP, to be fair.

[Drew]

Cable disc brakes on my CX. Rim brakes on road.

In wet conditions, the road bike brakes are practically useless.

Can go ploughing though mud, and the disc brakes still work great. (though they do squeal a bit when wet)

In good conditions, there isn't really much between the two of them. I see no reason why disc brakes shouldn't be used on a road bike personally. (Which is pretty much what a CX bike is)

[JonB]

For better rim brake performance in the wet, buy some koolstop salmons. If you have Duraace/Ultegra/105 then you can buy cartridges for less than a tenner.
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Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it?s worth.

[Monkeypony]

I have all 3 systems on various road and CX bikes.

Hydraulic disk is superb, but even cable disk is vastly superior to rim brakes in wet weather.
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Current bike - 2018 H2-SX, 2004 SV1000s, 2016 Aprilia RSV4 RF, 2017 Sherco SERF 300, 2003 Suzuki DRZ400 (stolen - AY53 JUU)

[RhynoCZ]

Cool thing about discs brakes is, that the rims does not effect the brakes at all. I used to ride V-brakes, then got discs brakes and the difference was huge. Slightly crooked rims were not a problem with disc brakes. I had croocked rims quite alot on my MTB, was young and stupid.

EDIT: Haven't been on a bicycle since my ''accident''.
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'87 Honda XBR 500, '96 Kawasaki ZX7R P1, '90 Honda CB-1, '88 Kawasaki GPz550, MZ 150 ETZ
'95 Mercedes-Benz w202 C200 CGI, '98 Mercedes-Benz w210 E200 Kompressor

[Baffler186]

I had a Halfords bike for a few years with budget cable discs. They were fantastic, worked well in the mud and wet. If they are set up properly then there's no problem.

[Minty]

Took it for a test ride first and thought the brakes were naff. Took it back and moaned. He told me to try again but keep using the brakes. Right enough they were sharpening up the more I used them. Apparently take take a few miles to bed in.

Bought it and rode it home. He gave me some basic, old school pedals which were interesting as I only had my road cleats with me. Slipping is an understatement. Rolling resistance on the tyres was rough, they are big old things, 30mm. Have swapped them over for the 23mm gatorskins from the old bike so will see if better. Now has proper pedals too so that should be be easier.

Nice bike though, will update as to how the brakes are in rough weather.
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My fingers smell of your mum.