My 30 plus year old Mafac centrepulls (with 2011 KoolStop Pads) have both plenty of power and excellent modulation. They surpass every modern road brake I’ve ridden recently in terms of feel and power (if needed). They weigh only a few grams more (if that).
I will concede that something has gone amiss in the last 10 years with road brakes. Prior to that the improvement was massive and brilliant compared to older styles but it seems recently that gram shaving has become the only factor of influence, to what I think is a detrimental effect on brake feel and modulation.
That being said I don’t think discs are the answer. Maybe that now people are talking about discs for road the designers will actually make some much needed improvements to most road brake designs.
I’ll also add that most road forks and rear stays will need to be beefed up to handle the torque and strain of disc brakes. Try telling a roadie that their 2012 'ello/ago/ini weighs more than their old model. Most of them will buy something else just because it’s lighter.
They’re obviously going to happen, but being adopted by pros is a different thing entirely - slow wheel change and associated fiddling = lost race; how many standards are neutral service going to need to carry?; how do the asymmetric bits (rotor, caliper) affect airflow and therefore ‘getting aero’; will bombing an Alpine descent at pro speed eat your pads or fry the fluid? Because there goes the consistency if so…
What they will be awesome for, is for dentists and fatties to be able to ride carbon clinchers in the hills and not kill themselves due to melting rims or exploding tyres.
surely they’re designed like that for a) bigger braking area, and b) better heat dissipation? not so much of an issue on a bicycle, but on a motorbike that can go over 200km/h and weigh half a tonne it’d be pretty critical to have rotors that large!
The pros ride whatever bikes they get told to ride. If the latest top line BMC has discs, then Cadel rides discs. They can get away with personal preference on smaller components (ie shimano cassettes on SRAM-equipped bikes, or even DA mechanical over Di2 ala Cancellara) but if the people paying for the bikes say discs are in, then discs are in. IMHO. FWIW.
my own theory is that it will be adopted bottom-up (through commuters/cross bikes) rather than road-pro down.
that is until the PRO-spec (light/sexy) version is ready. the pro tour can be pretty suspicious (or their mechanics can be) so forcing teams
are they really necessary? probably not, but as spirito says recent gram-shaving (of rims and brakes) has attacked the braking performance of many models (not all) and work-arounds/specific solutions are frequently now needed at the high end. I remember hearing about how many people come back each year from TDU with fried pads/warped carbon rims after ‘experiencing’ the local hills for the first time (and being on the brakes more than they would be on their local hills/beach road).
whether a technology is actually necessary often plays a reduced part of bicycle technology development…
Most motos (above ~600cc) have twin front discs. The Buell only has the one because two rotors that size aren’t necessary. I suspect the main reason behind it is that it looks cool and most other makes don’t do it, thus providing some marketing material.
they suck serious arse - if you’re on a gradient serious enough to cause issues, chances are, you’re in the middle of nowhere. Took me 2 lifts, one train ride, and enough walking to leave me with zero skin left on the balls of my feet
as far as feel and performance goes, best I’ve experienced was a set of magnesium TRP calipers - light weight but the chunky-ish forged arms have bugger all flex providing very progressive, consistent and confidence inspiring feedback through the lever
It strikes me that braking is of little concern whilst TT/Tri’ing, my thoughts is that the Ridley Noah FB would have been much bigger news for the pro peleton.
I read that article - it is very long. He could have summed it up by saying “My disc brakes were not designed for what I was using them for, so I crashed”
