Hydraulic Intro for a Roadie

[mnmasotto]

To the Original Poster....
Welcome to road disc brakes. They are here to stay. They are really not necessary but a nice thing to have if you ride in wet conditions. I bought a Specialized Tarmac S-Works szie 52 Disc. I believe the advertised stock weight is around mid 15 lbs. What a joke......mine was not even close. More like 17 lbs. Other than changing the seat post, seat, stem, bars and calipers I was unable to get the bike down to around to 15.2 lbs. My bike came with Shimano S785 hydraulic disc brakes. The calipers were absolute boat anchors. If I recall they weighted around 90 grams each. I exchanged these for a pair of Shimano XTR magnesium calipers. Because the stock calipers utilize direct fit fitting and the XTR use the older banjo type fittings I had to replace the original hoses and calipers at the same time. The switch cost me $400 for a total weight savings of about 80 grams. You can decide if it is worth it to you. There are really not alot of other places to save weight on my bike. So I am stuck with a 15.2 lbs bike unless I want to spend $2500 for a new pair of Enve Disc Wheels. If I match these rims up with the new extralite disc hubs I can get the wheel weight down from 1440grams to 1260 grams. I hope this helps.

[eliflap-scalpel]

remember the custom rear wheel dimension in your bike

have you the other RD hanger , to use other wheelsets ?

[mnmasotto]

If I switch to the aftermarket standard 135 mm rear wheel and use the optional rear derailor hanger the rear shifting is slightly degraded....so I am told.

[eliflap-scalpel]

but why ? for the short chainstays ?

[mnmasotto]

Yes.....running aftermarket 135 mm rear wheels with the optional Specialized Rear Derailor Hanger brings the cassette back out of Shimano Recommended Specs.

[maxxevv]

Personally, between SRAM/Avid hydros and Shimano, it will be Shimano as a matter of proven ease of ( lack or requirement for) maintenance. And the easier handling of mineral oils versus DOT hydraulics.

But this Bikeradar test, which I do not think is really thorough nor scientific in its treatment, does bring up an additional consideration if we were to take it as it is presented though.

http://www.bikeradar.com/road/gear/arti ... deo-44489/

[eliflap-scalpel]

Yes.....running aftermarket 135 mm rear wheels with the optional Specialized Rear Derailor Hanger brings the cassette back out of Shimano Recommended Specs.

so , seems specialized went wrong ...

not a bike to choose, in my opinion.

[spytech]

popular opinion is a thing, I want to have my opinion in every thing I can ... I used for 10 months Kettle Sicc rotors , 160mm sized.

the only bad thing in their behaviour is the missing bite at the end of the stopping procedure.
other are only good things.

they slow down you from 50-40 km/h to 8-7 km/h in a great way.

steel rotors from 8-7 to 0 km/h are great, instead Kettle don't give you the feeling of power in this step ... so you need 1-2 meters more to be at 0 speed.

knowing it, you have only to use brain while braking.

in august 2014 on holiday, done 2500km in a big cycle group ( every ride with 50-70 riders, on 15th aug we were 150 guys) with 1200 meters of climb/descent every ride as average, every day without rest : Kettle were great, no zing zing noise , no stopping noise, only a bit when wet.

Any chance you have ridden the scrub workhorse or raceday mmc rotors? maybe you can compare to the kettles. the kettle website doesnt work well, some links are broken, is the company still in business and producing the rotors?

one of my questions of concern is are the kettle brake rotors straight? ive read that is one of the complaints about those rotors, and because of the nature of the material made, it would be hard to true them. i know they redesigned them, and do you have the latest design? how do they work in the rain and cold? usually carbon ceramic work best when they get up to temp - i could be confusing them with carbon/carbon rotors on GP bikes.

Will shimano do a Dura Ace version of their current Di2 hydro shifter/brake? is this in the works or will there only be that one version