Dave Mayer

Riding something that demonstrates that you are a slave to fashion or flash in the pan trends in the bike industry is uncool. Road biking is now the new 'thing' (you cannot sell a lmid-range mountain bike) that consumes the industry, so a lot of new road riders are mountain biking transplants. What these folks think is kewl is definitely uncool to the grizzled veteran road riders who were riding nonstop through the 10 years during which you could not give away a road bike. So here are the uncool fad/trend things:

1. Discs - heavy and unneccessary unless you are riding steep 'cross races or loaded touring in the rain
2. Sloping top tubes/compact frames. Useful on mountain bikes where you don't want to smash your 'nads, but pointless on a road frame.

That is all.

markjenn

To some extent, this is true and one reason why adoption hasn't gone was quickly as it might have otherwise. My comment was not one of why the market is the way it is, it was that for most riders, the speed of a wheel change is unimportant and therefore this consideration is inconsequential for the majority of riders; they can choose rim or disc brakes based on the merits of the braking system, not what the peleton uses.

I find the polarizing opinions on disc vs. rim brakes to be all out of whack with the actual technical merits of both systems. Disc brakes are, as a rule, better brakes, not just in certain applications, but overall. And they do reduce rim wear/tear. On the downside, they're add a little weight and put a little extra stress on the wheel/spokes. Disc brakes are not "necessary" as rim brakes can do the job. But that doesn't mean they can do as good a job. So it's really a matter of whether the weight tradeoff is worth the improved braking performance. It is for me, but I don't have any issue with many preferring rim brakes. It's like vanilla lovers think there is no need for chocolate and vice versa. Choice is good.

- Mark

NormanF

They're found on country bikes - where added stopping power is vital under load.

Road bikes on the other hand are meant for fast riding and disk brakes don't offer any advantage so that's why road bikes still have old fashioned caliper brakes. They work well enough and there is no compelling need to reinvent the brake.

SirHustlerEsq

Seriously uncool, but I'll have them on my CAAD11.

cderalow

I'm not sure why everyone thinks discs are 'heavy'. total my discs (calipers, bolts, rotors & pads) weigh in around 330g each wheel. Is that more than a high end road caliper? Yes are my discs the lightest thing out there? in no way. are there equally as heavy road calipers? yes.

at the pro level are riders having to add ballast to their bikes to meet the UCI minimum... YES!

I think people seem to forget.... at the pro level there's a weight they can't get below, and quite a few of the bikes they ride can get to that limit without going to the absolute lightest of each item.

hell a lot of them run crank based power meters which weight as much as my crappy MTB triple (SRM weighs in around 750-800g) and they still get down to the minimum! who cares if you've got an extra 300g.... that's 300g that you offset somewhere else.

kv501

I can't believe no one has brought up the nasty looking brake levers yet.

SRAM's look like you added a set of bar end bullhorns, and Shimano conveniently went back to the bulbous 105/Tiagra hood shape which I can't stand. One of the reasons I got rid of a 5600 group on one bike was the gigantic shifters. The same ones shown on that Specialized bike above.

There has to be a better way to fit the hydraulic stuff in there.

redlude97

Which is why you are seeing a lot more aero frames. When frame weight is no longer the limiting factor, added material for improved performance is my preference. I ride disc brakes on my commuter but have never needed them in the PNW on my road bike, and i've done hundreds of miles in the rain.

dalava

You are too slow.

redlude97

I guess all the other guys in the fast group were also too slow? No one who shows up for the A group sat morning hammerfests has disc brakes

dalava

A's don't ride in rain

redlude97

Yep, we only ride the 6 weekends it actually stays dry in Seattle.

dalava

I see the wet weather is killing your sense of humor

raptor22

Definitely cool.

They enable a wider range of design choices in engineering rims, heat build up on descents is a much smaller problem, they deal better with a wider range of weather, and its cheaper to replace rotors than worn out rims.

Compared to the slight aero drawbacks, I think those are some pretty major advantages.

Bob Dopolina 

Correct. There are already thru axle designs for road that have accomplished this. Non-issue.

Pretty much every major brand has one now and the UCI has said it plans to make them legal in 2016.

I think pros will use them selectively like they do with any other piece of equipment. Time will tell.

Bob Dopolina 

+1.

We have a disc specific rim in production (no brake track) that is 40mm deep and 26.5 wide (at the widest point) that will come in at 420g. Because we weren't bound by the constraints of designing to accommodate a brake track we shaved 60g off of each rim AND that includes the added weight needed to make it tubeless compatible.

And that is just what we could do our first kick at the can. If we had more time and deeper pockets for R&D who knows what we may have come up with.

We are also working on a mud specific design (for disc brakes) that is very, VERY different from anything out there right now. It's more of a cross thing but it would be impossible to do if we needed a brake track.

WestPablo

+1 ^ This!

The BF Bicycle Guru and in-house Nostradamus predicts that Disc brakes will take all road bikes by storm, no later than Spring of 2016. Nostradamus also predicts that all Touring bicycles will switch from Triples to compact doubles, by Spring of 2017.

Namaste

hairnet

yeah, my bike is dorky. woes of being tall

achoo

CF rim I assume?

A 40mm deep CF rim seems a bit of a no-man's-land for a road rim. Or maybe a good all-around rim depending on how you look at it.

rdtompki

To each his/her own. If you live in Florida you can get by with one brake, maybe no brakes whatsoever. If you weigh 140 lbs, no sweat on descents. My personal experience with discs at 200 lbs is I have the same braking power at the end of a 2800' steep descent as I had at the very top. The classic retort, of course, is that as long as you can lock the brakes you have enough braking power; this ignores the vastly superior modulation of disc brakes (IMHO). I happen to have TRP HY/RD brakes which I find superior to BB7s. On a separate note I really, really like my tubeless road tires despite their being expensive, heavy, unnecessary, suitable only for mountain bikes, etc. I'm also shamed by riding such an ugly bike. Oh, and I'm riding a triple. I'm quadruple shamed to have an ugly, tubeless, triple and disc brake "road" bike.

StanSeven

Unless someone rides down lots of mountains or just hills fully loaded, I don't see advantages. But there are disadvantages.

Lazyass

Where did you get this information? On March 31 they said a decision will be made in 6 months. I know the major companies are working on race ready systems that would have to be approved but I would be surprised if pro teams would actually use them. Yes they are heavier, though I suspect race ready systems would be pretty light. Even if wheel changes could be as fast, what happens if a rider goes down and the hydraulic line busts, or the caliper breaks? Not good. What if the rotor gets bent? Well then the rider would have to wait for a wheel change he might not have needed otherwise. I just don't think the pros will ever out weigh the cons. This is from the UCI wheel guy last summer:

The committee met most recently just before the Eurobike show, with a discussion about disc brakes. The UCI don't currently allow disc brakes in road events. Paul Lew has provided his observations coming out of that meeting. We'll print them in full...

"The day before Eurobike started, I participated in the most recent UCI disc brake discussion. In that meeting, compelling evidence was presented that indicates the UCI may postpone its approval of disc brakes indefinitely. With most of the industry’s key suppliers embracing the new technology, one might ask: “Why is UCI resisting the technology of road disc brakes?”
For some insight as to why the UCI is resisting the technology of road disc brakes, here is an excerpt from its presentation. Please excuse any typos, misspellings, or grammatical errors — these are the words, spellings and phrases from the UCI’s 27 August 2013 presentation (everything that follows in bold italics comes from that presentation).

1 Disc brakes are still considered as technical innovations on the road and have to be submitted to the UCI and approved by the Equipment Commission to be allowed in competition after one or several test events.
2 Until today no disc brakes adapted for the road cycling was never presented to the UCI.
3 Challenges on the road are very different from the mountain bike or cx with
• Higher speed
• Longer braking time
• Higher temperature accumulation
• Bigger disk which means bigger issue in case of crashes
• Braking behaviour that may block the wheel and make the bike slip
• Difference of braking performance between disk brakes and rim brakes that may cause crashes inside the peloton
The UCI don’t want to allow dangerous, non-adapted braking systems in competition that may cause even more crashes instead of improving safety
If disc brakes will be allowed on road events, enough time will be given to the industry to adapt to this decision
Why won't the UCI allow disc brakes on the road? | road.cc

Stravacyclist79

Uber Cool and efficient no wheel rub I would think. My G-Fish Marlin had disc brakes.

Bob Dopolina 

Yes, carbon.

40mm is a do it all depth. Think Grand Fondo.

Bob Dopolina 

Link to article.

Do you think every major brand now has a disc road bike for no reason?

alexaschwanden

Uncool.