Commodus

The Sutra comes with BB7s, which are excellent brakes. Far superior to any rim brake ever made.

PlatyPius

Gunnar.

https://gunnarbikes.com/site/bikes/rock-tour/

For light-medium touring: https://gunnarbikes.com/site/bikes/fast-lane/

mulveyr 

I could have sworn I had disc brakes come stock on my Raleigh Sojourn. ;-)

sstorkel

Sounds like the brakes weren't properly installed. Most bikes use Avid BB5 or BB7 "Road" calipers when they need compatibility with STI levers. When installed and adjusted properly they work better than the vast majority of rim brakes that I've tried. Failing to dial the brake pads closer to the rotor after installation can lead to very poor braking performance and an extremely spongey feel at the lever...

John N

To me, it depends on the location and type of touring. If you are on the TransAm or in western Europe, then either brake system will work as you could get parts relatively easily within a day or two if needed. However, if I were on the HemisTour (Alaska to Terra del Fuego) or central Asia, or other remote locations, I would definitely want something common and easy to get parts for, thus no disc brakes.

MichaelW

You can get full-on tourers with discs , se the Tout Terrain Panamerican.
It takes some thought to integrate discs, racks and fenders.
One disadvantage of discs is that you need a stiff fork which can result in a harsh ride.

JoeMan

My 2007 REI Safari came stock with Shimano disc brakes. I recently changed over to Avid BB7 and Avid levers and Clean Sweep rotors . I like this set up especially when I am towing my Bob trailer. I like the disc brakes on those long downhills in Oregon, Nevada and Washington.

AsanaCycles

and yet another option

a custom 29er

has disc brakes

6thElement

I thought I recognised those bikes, then I read your name Mr Self Propelled

AsanaCycles

yup, you got me on that one

Nigeyy

I used to think like that too. However, after having disc brakes for many years now and never experiencing a problem aside from slightly warped rotors and frozen brake cables (guess that could happen on a regular brake equipped bike as well anyway -or else just not go out touring in freezing weather!) I'm now not so sure.....

Don't get me wrong, I've never gone touring in some really out of the way place in the world, but if I do, I'm far from convinced I'd give up my tourer with disc brakes. They just seem to be really reliable -my biggest concern would more be the kind of heavy duty racks that could be compatible with disc brakes -but again, I've never had a rack break yet (huge caveat here as I realize I haven't done "heavy duty" touring). I also think in todays world of UPS/Fedex delivery, you'd have to be in a really out of the way place not to be able to get delivery of parts (and if you were, you probably couldn't get regular rim brakes either).

Anyway, as usual, it's your own personal choice!

bobframe

I picture a fully loaded touring rig on a long, steep technical descent. Which type of brakes would you rather have? I have no scientific basis for saying this, but intuitively I'd choose disc brakes. Have you ever felt how hot a rim can get under heavy braking? This is why I chose to put Avid BB7 disc brakes on my touring bike. If disc brakes are inferior, someone should call the manufacturers of virtually every high performance motor vehicle on the planet and clue them in.

kayakdiver

bobframe... Either disc or canti or whatever will skid both front and rear tire. That is all the braking you get. With a car, truck or whatever you have tons more contact area for braking. That is the real difference and also limitation of bicycle tires. Not the method of doing so. A rim is a much larger surface area for cooling as well. If you go by that reasoning than you should be running 203mm disc brakes instead of the smaller mountain bike type BB7's. Why not have more stopping power than you have now? Your tire width/contact area is still the biggest problem.

Neither are perfect.

electrik

Unfortunately your shop either didn't set the brakes up correctly or the pads were not broken in yet. Too bad.

I think in a lot of the cases people don't choose disc brakes on tourers is because people who are touring want to go with "what is proven to work" and this does not include disc brakes from their experiences(since discs are "new'). So demand dried up in the last few years with a number of touring disc rigs getting the ax - mostly due to poor design regarding caliper mounting. Anyways if you ask me it is a case of "what you learn limits what you do" because i doubt discs would really limit you unless you were REALLY out there... one could always carry an extra disc and pads, but not an extra rim.

Anyway, there are a few options out there - keep looking

PlatyPius

I agree that the shop obviously had no clue what they were doing. That was evidenced by them saying that the brakes sucked and they would never stock that bike again. Those brakes have been proven on many, many bikes to be both powerful and reliable.

I don't understand the fear of disc brakes, really. No, they don't look traditional, which I know is a concern for some (myself included, to a degree). But to question their efficiency, longevity, or power is just silly. I've had disc brakes on my mountain bike since 1999. Same rotors. Pads have been replaced once. Hauling my 300 pound arse around on the bike is probably about the same as a fully loaded touring bike with rider. I didn't baby the bike, either. The bike was jumped off of loading docks, ridden down stairs, flown down rocky singletrack descents at 35mph+, etc. It has a much more peaceful life now - riding at the nature park - but it still has the same rotors, and has never had a failure.

Just a guess, but I'm gonna say that loaded touring isn't really going to be a challenge for a good disc brake.

There are some framebuilders doing it right. Gunnar has the brake mount out of the way of the rack mounts, and I know some other builders do the same.
OMM makes disc brake racks that are designed for real touring.

One last benefit: If you need to pull the rear wheel off while fully loaded, you don't have to dig around under the rack, "stuff", etc. to unhook the rear cantis - just pop the wheel out.

KonAaron Snake 

Given some other experiences I've had with that shop, I find it very easy to believe they were dead wrong and that they didn't set the brakes up properly. It also tracks because my friend's Soma with STIs and discs stopped on a dime. If the frame I'm building up now had disc options, I'd definitely try it.

sehsuan

agreed. i wouldn't give up disc brakes for anything, although v brakes and cantis would have better stopping leverage just because they're at the rim - and also because of that, it's the downfall during wet weather :-p

i'm looking out for a steel-type frame, with the disc mount between the seat and chain stays. the only one i've seen so far are i think the salsa fargo and on-one inbred horizontal dropout. i'm a mountain biker by default, and although i wouldn't be tackling trails loaded with gear, i sure wouldn't want to go to 700c or cyclocross wheels - that rules out the salsa for me. as for the on-one, it has a sweet disc mount design, but the front triangle is just microscopic for my size to fit in a large 1.5 liter bottle! urgh.... the main reason why i'm looking at the on-one is the fact that i could mount my tubus directly to the frame and get the disc caliper out of the way...

Metaluna

Yes that's really what sells me on discs too, the wet weather performance and long downhill braking performance. Also, for some reason on my bike cantilevers squeal like crazy, and I got tired of constantly tweaking the toe-in. I'm not sure why. I've tried different pads, brakes, and even a different fork (went from the default Surly Cross-Check fork to a Nashbar/Winwood carbon disc fork). It must have something to do with my rim (Velocity Dyad). The rear is always whisper quiet though.

I can't say the disc had noticeably better stopping power in my case but the other factors outweigh that.


Check out the Gunnar Rock Tour. From the pictures it looks like it needs a suspension-corrected fork though. There's also the Rock Hound and Rock Hound 29'er, but from the pictures it looks like they don't have the rack-friendly caliper mount.

gregw

"so why no disk brakes on touring bikes?"

Short answer is it's just an old school thing that is prevalent in the touring community, additionally, touring bikes are typically built very well and are handed down. These older bikes are not designed for discs.

But as you have read, lot's of folks are using and loving disc's. Trying to retrofit them to an older bike will / can give you fits, better to use linear-pull cant's in that case. Even with Linear's you have to select the right levers. If all else fails, you can use traditional cantis, then just be sure to get the right pads for your application and learn to set them up.

KonAaron Snake 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Metaluna

Yes that's really what sells me on discs too, the wet weather performance and long downhill braking performance. Also, for some reason on my bike cantilevers squeal like crazy, and I got tired of constantly tweaking the toe-in. I'm not sure why. I've tried different pads, brakes, and even a different fork (went from the default Surly Cross-Check fork to a Nashbar/Winwood carbon disc fork). It must have something to do with my rim (Velocity Dyad). The rear is always whisper quiet though.

I had the exact same problem with a set of Avid 4 cantis on my JTS (which had open sport rims). I switched to a DT brake pad set and that helped a little, but they still squealed like mad in some conditions. In rain people looked around for the truck.

chipcom 

I had no problem retrofitting a front disk to my Fuji World


of course, the next time I do a fully loaded tour I'll be using this:

gregw

Help me understand that type of set-up.
You move the rear panniers back which allows you to make them bigger(without heal clearance problems), eliminating the need for front panniers. Is that the basics?
Weight distribution is essentially the same, more of your body weight gets transferred to the front tire, but the front pannier weight goes to the back.

KonAaron Snake 

What's the benefit of the curved top tube? I've seen a Kona cargo hauler that looked a little like that, but I remember it having a straight tt.

chipcom 

The main advantage of a Big Dummy, xtracycle or other long bike is that it is easier to pack and unpack, easier to pack more stuff (if you can tolerate the weight of it) and much easier to haul longer items like tent/lodge poles.

I'll still be using a front rack & panniers and handlebar bag, it handles much nicer with some weight on the front, especially when climbing.

chipcom 

The only benefit I can see is more stand over clearance. You'd have to ask Surly what their thinking was in this case.