Originally posted by dazco
Funny thing is, i keep hearing all these horror stories about discs, yet on the many motorcycles i owned when i was younger i never once had a disc problem. Wouldn't you think there would be MORE problems with a heavy motorcycle than with a bike that weighs a fraction of the weight?
Just because you don't hear about it doesn't mean it doesn't/can't happen. I have an engineer's mind and when I look at anything I try and envision all sorts of failure modes (some people tell me this is a curse). The likelihood (or lack thereof) of the failures is also something to keep in mind. Some applications push closer to the design limitations than others. Fact of the matter is that discs are more complicated than rim brakes and have a number of additional and different failure modes. As far as automotive discs brakes go, although they work on the same principles, they do incorporate a number of design differences and have the luxury of more sophisticated mechanisms to combat failures because they can be made heavier, bulkier and more complicated without effecting performance (design margin) as much as bicycle disc systems.