by Bopomofo » 15 Apr 2016 21:18
I'm a bit confused about how disc brakes are to blame for injuries. Surely there are far bigger dangers when falling off in a peleton: chain-rings; cassette; everybody behind you; the floor... all that stuff.
I'm sure I'm not the only person who has felt, at some point, that they could have done with a bit more braking power on some occasion although, as the Witch spelled out (thank you, thank you) it is usually downhill in wet and filthy conditions when your wheel rim is covered in flint and sheep-shit. I have found myself on many occasions pulling the brake lever as hard as possible - with correctly maintained brakes and decent pads - and found the bike is just not slowing down. All of my bikes have decent (Ultegra) brakes, by the way.
So I'm a bit interested in disc brakes as I think they can be further improved and could be useful in certain situations: I'm in agreement with the Witch on this.
Appreciating all the comments about aero-ness etc I think a few points remain:
Firstly, has anybody yet seen a really good aero wheel design that completely takes advantage of the fact that the load bearing rim doesn't also have to be a braking surface? Wheel rims have to withstand edge pressure (your weight), expansion (tyre trying to blow the rim apart) and compression (brakes squashing it). I have no idea how you could improve a wheel when the last of those issues is taken away... but I'm pretty sure the marketing department can come up with a bloody good name and a lovely brochure.
Secondly, hydraulic brakes have the advantage of making the leverage ratios completely tuneable. So you don't necessarily need a long brake lever to apply sufficient pressure. Years ago there was a motorbike racer called Mick Doohan, a hero of mine, that bust his legs and knees so many times he was unable to use his left foot to operate the rear brake. His engineers made him a thumb-operated lever on the handlebar and it was so precise that other racers started complaining and then copying the idea.
So with hydraulics you could have tiny brake levers and you could have several of them. Just as Di2 gives the TT / Triathloner the option for gear shifters on the base bars, hydraulics could give you the option of thumb operated brakes on the aero bars. This could be a good thing.
Yes, I've mixed two issues here: discs and hydraulics. Disc brakes can be cable operated, of course. Anybody know of any hydraulic rim brakes?
I had fun once. It was awful.