Hybrid Bicycles - Cost to upgrade to disc brakes

I'm toying with the idea of upgrading my cantilever brakes to discs. I'm trying to figure out about how much it would cost to do both or just the front. I believe I'd need a new fork with disc mounts built on, then the disc system itself. Is there anything else that needs to be replaced to accomodate discs? My bike is a Cannondale H300 CAAD1, pretty stock setup except for handlebar, seat and pedals.

Any idea on total costs for an upgrade?

Ride on!

Tim

I'm toying with the idea of upgrading my cantilever brakes to discs. I'm trying to figure out about how much it would cost to do both or just the front. I believe I'd need a new fork with disc mounts built on, then the disc system itself. Is there anything else that needs to be replaced to accomodate discs? My bike is a Cannondale H300 CAAD1, pretty stock setup except for handlebar, seat and pedals.

Any idea on total costs for an upgrade?

Ride on!

Tim

Unless your bike already has a disk brake mount on the rear triangle it would be prohibitively expensive to upgrade to disk bakes front and rear. However, if your dead set for doing the project, you can replace your front fork with one with a disk brake mount and do front only. Keep in mind you will also need to swap your front hub to one that supports a front disk. To make this long story short, you're looking a couple hundred dollars.

Unless your bike already has a disk brake mount on the rear triangle it would be prohibitively expensive to upgrade to disk bakes front and rear. However, if your dead set for doing the project, you can replace your fron fork with one with a disk brake mount and do front only. Keep in mind you will also need to swap your front hub to one that supports a front disk. To make this long story short, your looking a couple hundred dollars.

Thanks much, Sirrus!! That's the kind of info I was hoping to get. I'll scrub the idea.

Ride on!

Tim

Thanks much, Sirrus!! That's the kind of info I was hoping to get. I'll scrub the idea.

Ride on!

Tim

Sirrus is correct. But there are two more things to understand:

Firstly, if you're using your brakes correctly then almost all the braking comes from the front (because the traction for braking is several times higher there). In fact if your braking technique is good - which isn't the case for 99% of riders except crit racers and off roaders - then you'll hardly touch the back brake. So getting a disc fork and leaving the rear rim brakes isn't a bad option.

Secondly, if you're after improved rain braking then you can get most of the benefit of discs by switching to high quality rain brake pads - Kool Stop Salmons would be my choice, although Swiss Stop make a very pricey pad that might be even better. Regular cable maintenance would be a good idea too. And if you want to go crazy then you could find a set of Pedersen Self Energizing cantilevers on ebay - these things are notorious for the frightening amount of braking power they provide.

I'll add that disk brakes being a fairly recent innovation requires a frame and fork designed for the stresses that they impart. Nor are they the perfect brake. I'd say a well adjusted cantilevers stop equally well. Their advantage is having the braking surfaces away from the slop of mud, at least in terms of MTBs In the context of Hybrids the advantage really blurs. In fact Specialized put disks on the Sirrus circa 2004; however, either due to cost or lack of performance advantage they returned to cantilevers for every year model since then.

Without turning this into a disc vs rim flame war(so tempting),I would like to point out that Sirrus(Sirruses?Sirri?) do not have canti's,they have V's('linear pull'),which are much stronger than canti's. Also,the OP could get better breaking by swapping his canti's for V's;they use the same mounts. V's do require more cable pull,however,so you'd either have to swap levers or add a set of Problem Solvers Travel Agents to take up the slack. I upgraded my old cross bike with V's plus TA's and got single-digit braking.

Without turning this into a disc vs rim flame war(so tempting),I would like to point out that Sirrus(Sirruses?Sirri?) do not have canti's,they have V's('linear pull'),which are much stronger than canti's.

To be VERY bike nerdish indeed - technically speaking a V *is* a canti. And no, they're not stronger. A typical V has more mechanical advantage for unit of pull, but the two brake systems use levers with different leverage so that this comes out the same, if the the levers are set up for equal travel. And anyway, MA is not the same as real braking power - ie the ability to stop the bike. It's rather a measure of how little finger pressure you need to get a certain amount of braking.

The real advantages of V bakes are brain dead maintenance and set up and ease of mounting on suspension frames. The disadvantages are poor modulation and lack of flexibility in set-up - cantis can be set to trade mud clearance against MA; V's can't. (I'm summarizing Keith Bontrager's views here - and he did invent the V brake.)

As for Spesh dropping discs on the Sirrus: Spesh are a brand management company rather than an engineering dominated one. And the branding of the Sirrus is "It's a flat bar road bike." Discs are off the marketing message - this is a bike aimed at Armstrong fans who are scared of riding drops. Racerish looks and low-ish weight - discs are heavy - are part of the package.

To be VERY bike nerdish indeed - technically speaking a V *is* a canti. And no, they're not stronger. A typical V has more mechanical advantage for unit of pull, but the two brake systems use levers with different leverage so that this comes out the same, if the the levers are set up for equal travel. And anyway, MA is not the same as real braking power - ie the ability to stop the bike. It's rather a measure of how little finger pressure you need to get a certain amount of braking.

The real advantages of V bakes are brain dead maintenance and set up and ease of mounting on suspension frames. The disadvantages are poor modulation and lack of flexibility in set-up - cantis can be set to trade mud clearance against MA; V's can't. (I'm summarizing Keith Bontrager's views here - and he did invent the V brake.)

As for Spesh dropping discs on the Sirrus: Spesh are a brand management company rather than an engineering dominated one. And the branding of the Sirrus is "It's a flat bar road bike." Discs are off the marketing message - this is a bike aimed at Armstrong fans who are scared of riding drops.

Not completely true they did put disks on for one year. I do agree that the return to V brakes had to do more with marketing but also very likely cost.