Just a thought as a lot of forum members have been asking about Zero Grav brakes........When Disc brakes become available for road bikes do you think you will use them? I guess you will need to have a compatible frame too though. The main question is will you use them, since unless I am mistaken-- they are still heavier than v brakes when put on mountain bikes, so they will still be heavier for raod bikes. Will better power outweigh weight? I'll stop now, I'm rambling....

i was interested in them when i bought my first road bike, but i was told there is only 1 road bike with them installed from the factory, and i would look like an idiot with them, unless the road bike was a daily commuter through mountains... but id still be interested.

Probably not.............the braking power of traditional road brakes are sufficient.

Sufficient unless the road is wet. Then you just get killed. Whatever.

I'm astonished that disc brakes haven't made an appearance on high end road bikes to date. Or maybe I am missing something here. Enlighten me.

Its simply not needed. If you cant stop on road style brakes, you either need to go to Weight Watchers or get new brakes. If it rains, get some wet weather pads. Also, discs ARE a heavier system, no arguing that. The current breed of road wheels cannot take the torsional stress of brakes close to the hub. Compensating for this would result in added weight, and you would probably end up with somthing that looks like a mountain bike wheel anyways.

Weird. I've been riding for more than half my life, more than occasionally in the rain. Shouldn't I be dead by now, if I've been relying on rim brakes?

On a roadbike, you can get by with junk.
A mountain bike, discs are a must.

I've seen a road bike with disc brakes and it doesn't too different. I thought it was rather cool.. The reason that the rider had disc brakes was because of downhill speeds. The person was too scared to ride fast and would ride the brakes the entire way. The person got scared after overheating the rims... now that is a not a problem...

Get them if you want but my Dura-Ace brakes do a great job of stopping... Have no idea why I would need more stopping power...

get em https://www.redlinebicyclehttps://www....st-disc-r.html

Become available? My first brand new ten-speed back in 1974 or so had a front disk brake. It's not exactly new technology.

Sure?

First Mountain Bike with a Disc Brake: Tankagnlolo: Built in Spokane for riding in snow, Bob Crispin widened the frame of a Schwinn Varsity and added the unique features of a Shimano Disc brake and Shimano alpine gearing. The following summers found him riding the trails of Spokane and having others ask him to build bikes for them. The story was published in the May/June 1978 issue of Bike World Magazine, page 83.

Disc brakes really aren't necessary for a road bike...

Of course I'm sure. I may be older, but I ain't senile. I got the bike when I was still in junior high...by 78 I had already been in the Marine Corps for a year. Besides, the story you cite concerns a mountain bike...something I had never even heard of in junior high. The closest thing I had to a MTB was my old Schwinn fixed cruiser with the balloon tires and the front spring shock - flipped the handlebars, got rid of the chain guard and tore up the bridle paths with it.

This was a JC Penney 10-speed road bike, nice one too, I had it all of one summer before it got stolen.

Edit: looking at the article you cited, it seems he got his disc brake to make that MTB from a JC Penney ten-speed!

I'm surprised disc brakes aren't on road bikes by now as well. I honestly don't feel besides materials that road bikes have evolved that much. STI's have helped, but in general my old Fuji Royale and Litespeed share alot of the same designs. The Royale was heavier, no STI, was 6 speed, and had toe clips - but 21 years and compact frames and ten speed are it.

Although a newer design and concept compare a mountain bike 20 years ago, even 10 years ago, to the current batch and the changes are huge. Why is the road bike industry so unprogressive with frame and bike design when compared to mtn industry?

Sometimes I just think man we pay alot for a design thats getting gimmicked and rehashed for the last 20-30 years.

I'd consider it if I lived in a hilly area. I'm a big wimp on downhills that I haven't seen before. For now I'm stuck in the flatlands, so I don't see the use. I've never had a problem braking in the wet.

Who knows, though. If TDF guys start riding disc brakes and the high-end companies start hyping them, they could become the next big thing. Could you imagine some Zero G disc brakes? I think cyclists would eat them up because we're sheep like that. Just look at the conversion from 9 to 10 speed.

I could see a make over on design to get dics on a road bike. get the weight down and maybe a smaller rotor. disc brakes feel nicer and they don't wear out the rims.
if your light then you don't need the extra stopping power. but at 220 I could nto getgreat braking on my road bike. my recumbents I could stop far faster with using v brakes or the discs.

I think slvoid has one. He got a Giant touring bike with them. Better stopping power would make sense on a fully loaded touring bike. Not overheating the rims on long downhills would be the advantage. Even tandems with two smaller riders frequently have a disc or drum brake in the back.

That's why wet weather pads exist...salmon kool-stops....best <$20 upgrade you can perform IMO. They do foul easily though due to the stickier sompound, but that's a few passes with a flat file.

because road bikes have about a 100 year head start on mountain bikes.

theres not a whole lot left to do on a road bike without going backwards. the are already the most effeciant machines on earth...

that and the uci requires traditional "double triangle" frames for racing. the bike companies make all their high end race bikes with double triangles and thats what trickles down.

in the 90's there were some pretty crazy tt bikes made (for lower drag) but the uci stepped in and insited on double triangles so now at first glance it looks like nothing has changed in forever.

in materials road bikes have been very progressive.

No inovation?! The beauty of the road bike is in that through the centuries our world has gone from SHAKESPEARE to now but the bike stays the same. Why does the bike need to go through some total overhaul?

And what about materials? We've gone from steel to titanium to aluminum to carbon fiber, in the future possibly boron fiber. Parts have also become much more reliable and longer lasting.

I can't even imagine what it would be like in criteriums if one guy gets nervous. There can be too much stopping power....

And what roadgator said... theres not a lot left to do without going backwards...

the avid ball bearing seven is your choice for 160mm road disc brakes... issues to be considered:

most 700C carbon forks with a disc mount are designed to accept 700x35 and 700x38 touring/cyclocross tires on similarly larger rims. example: advanced carbon "woundup" Team X Cyclocross fork, rebranded by Trek as a Bontrager fork.

mounting one on a regular road frame will rake out the head tube angle, as the fork's axle to crown race height will be at least an inch higher than a normal 700C road fork, if you intend to use lightweight 15mm wide road rims (mavic cxp33, open pro, etc), and 700x23 tires.

there's a real lack of road geometry frames that have a rear disc mount on the seatstay. most are intended for cyclocross, with the sort of forks mentioned above. the best example I can think of easily is the Lemond Poprad Disc, which should be available to view at larger Lemond dealers. If not you can find photos of it on the net. The Lemond, being a cyclocross bike, comes with a 48/36 crank. There is a cannondale cyclocross bike that uses the same avid brakes as the Lemond.

REAR HUB SPACING - 6-bolt disc mounting rear hubs are intended for XC mountain bike use, and have 135mm rear spacing. obviously you can't use these on any normal road frames. I think there might be a few 130mm disc hubs, but they're really rare, much more common are 700C aluminum or steel frames with 135mm MTB rear hub spacing.

the avid brakes when properly set up are VERY powerful, on a mountain bike with the right technique it's relatively easy to endo yourself by locking the front brake. it's also a lot cleaner and less messy in rainy conditions... no more black brake crap on your rims and hands when changing pads. it also won't drip black crap onto your office carpets on rainy days, if you're a commuter. it's less expensive than rubber pads, I've gone 5 months, including a lot of wet weather, on one $14 set of avid pads in the front brake. It's a great way to avoid wearing out rims, but some people might be better served by using a separate $150 winter/bad weather wheelset.

I have a Specialized Pro Sirrus hybrid that has Shimano hydraulic disc brakes. They were, in part, one of the reasons I bought the bike 'cause they made the bike look very cool - great reason to buy a bike I know. I really like them on that bike.

My gut reaction is that they are better all out brakers than the Campy Record rim brakes with standard pads which I have on my SAECO Replica 'Dale. They probably do not have as much "feel" but that may be a function of my not being that used to them as that bike does not get much use. Discs would definitely be better where brake fade was an issue.

There are two problems: First they make getting the wheels on and off harder. You have to insert the disc into the pads and sometimes they need to be retracted. Second I'm guessing that the total weight of the disc system, including the small resovoir, is greater. I think they would be a great idea - and they'd look really cool.

Without having any specific knowledge of that, I'd venture an educated guess that disc brakes piss all over rim brakes in every respect, particularly in wet weather performance. What's 'adequate' performance? If you bike stops 3' BEFORE you hit the car, it's 'adequlate'. If it doesn't you're DEAD. So I would imagine the big reason that disc brakes aren't on road bikes yet are:

• The overwhelming weight weenie factor that permeates roadies

• That in 95% of roadie braking scenarios, rim brakes ARE adequate

• Yes it does complicate things quite a bit in a couple of areas, so maybe it's deemed too much of a hassle for a braking benefit that would only be apparent in relatively rare situations in the real world. Of course that's the situation that might kill you if your rim brakes don't stop your sorry ass in time, but that's the way it goes.

It's that last 5% that concerns me, mainly in wet weather conditions. I will admit this:

• I don't have special wet weather brake pads (and probalby never will).

• Mainly in large part because I try NOT to ride in the rain and on wet roads, although sometimes it's unavoidable, and every roadie I know does the same.

So we're not riding on wet roads much anyway, are we? But I can assure all these clueless comments about rim brakes being as good as disc brakes that there's NOT A FRIGGIN CHANCE this is the case. I wonder why motorcycles and cars don't have rim brakes? Don't kid yourself. There may be reasons why rim brakes still predominate on road bikes, but their awesome stopping power isn't one of them.

https://www.konaworld.com/shopping_ca...8&parentid=253

I didn't say it was new technology. But you won't be throwing on a set anytime soon at you LBS smart guy