Cyclocross - Disc bakes or not.

I am researching cyclocross bikes and have noticed very few that offer disc brakes as an option. I live in a mountainous region with lots of rainfall. Are discs the way to go or are they over-rated? Opinions appreciated.

Two problems with discs:

1) Political- disc brakes are not UCI legal for cyclocross racing, so according to some of the die hards *YOUR BIKE IS NOT A CYCLOCROSS BIKE IF IT HAS DISCS*. Personally, that wouldn't discourage me, but....

this does...

2) If you want to use regular road levers (STI for example), you are limited to a few companies that manufacture cable accuated discs for non V-brake levers. Avid makes one, but reception has been luke warm from what I have seen. If you use the MTB cable actuated discs from avid, (which are well recieved by most), you will have to use some kind of travel agent kludge, or go with Diacompe V brake road levers-and loose the STI if you have it. To me, it is all just too much of a pain in the butt, so I stick with cantis.

I must dis-agree witht he above 'luke warm' reception of the Avid Mech Disc for road levers. I have been researching the same disc-for-cross question and have received e-mails from about a dozen folks that have them with nothing but happy results, whereas the folks with cantis frequently complain of difficult set-up etc. I have avid mechs on my mb and absolutely love them.

The beauty of the disc option is the ability to switch wheels... so your cross bike can have one set of relatively heavy bomb-proof wheels for hard, and then switch to a light rim with skinny tires for quick road rides.

I can't argue with the UCI ruling comment, but this is also possibly subject to change. I've heard a lot of buz that the future of cross racing is disc, so this rule may be reversed in the future. Insiders at Shimano say the future is all disc... even on road bikes.

I am in the process of ordering an Indy Fab Ti Cross bike, and am covering the basis by getting disc and canti mounts. The avid discs will be on there most of the time, but I can switch to canti if I target a UCI sanctioned event. But this is probably not in my real future as I have raced USCF for years and now much prefer the club ride/race scene, whereby their are no fees, no rules, but the racing is every bit as hard and rewarding. I do a 30 mile club ride up here in Maine that includes 3 'town line' sprints with over 50 riders. Many are cat II and III caliber, so I am actually able to compete with both a broader range and higher caliber than if I paid $80 for a USCF license, pais add'll fees for each race, and was only able to ride against other cat 4 riders.

I had a Cannondale cross bike, disc version, and ran Avid Mechs (road version) with dura ace sti's and loved them. They have amazing stopping power with great feel. In fact I am in the process of building up a surly crosscheck and will use Avids on that bike as well.

...and ran Avid Mechs (road version) with...and loved them. They have amazing stopping power with great feel.

seconded

I am one big dude & I can tell you Avid Mech's on my C'dale sure stop me! Wouldn't dream of any other kind of brake now!

My IndyFab Steel Planet X has Avid Mech discs linked to Campy Veloce levers, and it works wonders. Rain or shine, I can stop when/wherever I want to. Erh, road surface permitting.

The beauty of the disc option is the ability to switch wheels... so your cross bike can have one set of relatively heavy bomb-proof wheels for hard, and then switch to a light rim with skinny tires for quick road rides.



I do this with cantis ... You don't need discs to change wheels.

I personally think is just depends if your racing or training or commuting. If your training or commuting the discs are nice because they stop well even if the rims are wet and covered with snow. On the other hand if you're racing you want to save as much weight as possible, especially when you're lifting that thing up over your shoulders a few dozen times which is why most goes with cantis. The only huge downside to discs that I can think of is that they may be too powerful, have you ever hit your brakes hard on your road bike, it goes all over the place since the tires and all are so skinny, I'm assuming the same thing would happen with discs on a road/cross bike. I could be wrong however, that just makes sense to me.

On the other hand if you're racing you want to save as much weight as possible, especially when you're lifting that thing up over your shoulders a few dozen times which is why most goes with cantis.

Actually, my understanding is that discs are not allowed in races. Haven't raced yet myself, but am hoping to this fall as a total newbie. But regardless, cantis are probably the lightest braking option out there.