Yesterday I've been in Kalmthout to attend the Bosduin Cyclocross race (Sven Nys won).

I haven't seen a CX bike with disk brakes yet, so looks like I'm not the only one that doesn't like them

A number of wheel sponsors don't have wheels disc ready with light carbon tubular rims, either. It's not just preference, it's also equipment.

Also, believe it or not, there is a bit of "tradition" in cyclocross, which will have to be overcome before disc brakes run rampant.

I find this amusing. I work for a manufacturer of bike parts and as soon as we brought out disk brake CX gear, the first thing we were told by an industry man is "They won't catch on".

We persisted anyhow and kept them on the market for 1.5 years.

Zero orders came in. (out of over 600 products in our repertoire, only a handful of service parts also went completely ignored)

I'm a guy with MTB background and I've made the switch, even using an A2Z adapter for my old Rocky Mountain fusion before upgrading my frame. And when I first started riding, I used to use cantis. Comparing Cantis to V's to V's with booster to cable disc to my Hayes 9" on my FR rig in any and all weather conditions in Canada, it boggles my mind that CX as a WHOLE doesn't want to have anything to do with disc.

It boggles my mind even more that they consider canti's to be a superior choice to disc.

But then again, I've always considered the ability to stop to be much more important than the ability to go fast.

If you don't go fast enough, you have to pedal harder or possibly lose a race.
If you don't stop well enough, you slam into stuff, break stuff and might even wind up in a hospital.

My last ride with cantilever brakes involved about 90 feet of super-loose gravel-loam switchbacks (OK, so any type of brake would be 80% useless here), suddenly ending in a log built into the terrain that was the end of the trail... before a 6 foot drop onto a small ledge... followed by another... followed by about 5 more...

I ended up with my bike fully over the edge and me on my tip toe on my left foot, throwing all my weight back as hard as I could, right on the edge... reaching out to grab the back tire of my bike to prevent having to walk home.

Yep, cantilevers have no place on triple black diamond technical descents in the North Shore area. But why anyone would consider them as useful for other types of riding is similarly bewildering to me.

cross in about using the brakes as little as possible
disks may catch on with newer riders but riders who are technically good really do not need a boat load of braking power to naviagte a cross course. The conditions you talk of above then yes disks are better. I think it boils down to is- are the pros gonna go faster due to disk brakes? I am sure they have tested them and they would be on them if they felt it was an advantage.

Not saying they will never be the norm it just may take a new generation of riders learning and progressing on them to have this happen.

nathan

There are a lot of pros in the USA that are using discs fro cx, like the Cannondale-Cyclocross World boys and the Raleigh-Clement Team and the Rapha Focus will have disc bikes available soon. I suspect that disc won't fully replace cantis in pro cyclocross, not for a few years at least until disc tech improves for road and cx. But I think we will start seeing US and Euro pros start using canti bikes in dry conditions and disc in the really nasty wet and muddy and snowy races.

Where I live the races are generally dry and fairly flat so discs have no advantage. There was one race last year where discs would have been an advantage on steep, muddy downhills but I can't justify a new bike for the possibility of using discs in one race.

eschelar, I have seen all of your arguments made for linear pull brakes too. But the simple fact is that in a cyclocross race stopping power isn't as important as handling. Discs are better than linear for handling but still not as good on a cross bike as cantis.

My issue with disc brakes for cyclocross is the brakes can overpower the tire. The event of a full lock up-skid-crash is greater with discs than with cantis, I found mini v brakes to be a happy medium. Discs work awesome on MTB cause the tires are 18-24mm wider, thus more contact patch.

I never lose cross races because someone can stop faster than me, its the opposite.

The manufactures push disc so they can sell all of us new bikes and wheels, not cause they are better.

My $0.02

DP

Having lost part of my thumb to a rotating mtb disc rotor in a crash, I won't be running disks on a bike designed to be shouldered and steadied by holding anywhere near the front end/forks/hub/wheels.

I can see the performance advantage, and have no doubt it will catch on, but there is something endearing (if a bit low tech) about the simplicity of rim brakes on road and cx bikes where races are less technical.

I don't think it's as complicated as you guys think. Disc brakes have only been allowed in cross races for what? 2 years? People run what they already have rather than buying a new frame set just to change brake sets. It has very little to do with what's better but more so what's cheap.

Agreed. Although I am all in and will be racing on a carbon disc cross bike this season, the switch required new frames, new brakes, new wheelsets, and since this is weight weenies, a bunch of trial and error with things like ti bolts and light weight disc rotors.

_________________
Michael - The Anaerobic Threshold is neither...

In the races I go to it seems like people buying new bikes are getting discs. The people that already have cx bikes seems to be upgrading them to mini-vs. Seems like the trend is to stop faster. Why that is I an only speculate. Personally I've gone to mini-vs and love them. The biggest reason is being able to haul down hills and such, past people with cantis already braking for the upcoming corner. Now, I'm not experienced, and neither are the people I race, but the trend I'm seeing is maybe 1/4 on discs, 1/5 on mini-vs, and the rest (11/20 for you non-math types) on cantis.

For reference, I'm from New England. Also, I just started doing cross last year

Disc brakes aren't about stoping faster. They are about being able to brake the same on lap 1 and on lap 10

_________________
"Step forward the climber and all those who worship at the altar of lightness" - R. Millar

What about when the disc caliper gets mud in it? Mud splashes and gets everywhere. Most of the calipers I've seen have a fixed inner pad - grit does get in there.

If you are an average joe racer with a single bike and pit wheels... discs are a terrible choice as imagine trying to swap a wheel in the pit, after you just ran there, you're anaerobic... and then you need to carefully line up that rotor into the caliper?

rapha focus "pro bikes" were shown on cycling news early this cx season, but so far the 3-4 races that i've seen coverage from, jeremy powers has yet to use the disc brake iteration of his bikes.... i dunno.

From my experience, it remains the same if not similar even in that situation. That is from doing some pretty muddy and wet races last year as well as a wet race with a long sand section in it.

Changing the wheel at least on the front is easier than with my Avid cantis unless I really let the cantis have more clearance than I like.

_________________
"Step forward the climber and all those who worship at the altar of lightness" - R. Millar

besides all technical (dis)advantages - what i really like about the cx/disc-discussion is, that we - as consumers - and the pro´s, ignore the industry´s offering and withstand the latest marketing hype. the roadbike industry also invents solutions for problems that do not exist, on an annual basis. but the average roadbike addict or weekend warrior is quite open for all this ueber-stiffness, extra aero and comfort products.