Did today’s Tour Stage just prove that disc brakes on road bikes are a manufactured marketing sham?

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ome rodriguez
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by ome rodriguez

Flat stages = disc brakes
Mountain stages = rimbrakes

Should be the other way around?

bilwit
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by bilwit

The disc fanboy and antifanboy arguments are silly. No one needs the $4000 frames the pros use either but that doesn't stop joe schmoe from buying one--isn't cycling all a manufactured marketing sham to some extent?

:P

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tymon_tm
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by tymon_tm

fair point. but no one forces you to pay top dollar for bikes - all manufacturers have pretty vast product lines, and most of us know well even middle of the range stuff is often superb. the difference with discs is - they want you to use them, introducing disc bikes only. price wise, it's like Shimano dropped all groupsets from 105 down and Mavic stopped selling wheels below 2k euro
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Nefarious86
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by Nefarious86

kgt wrote:Obviously Sagan's 'superior' disc brakes did not help him...
Calnago is right. Riders must be free to choose whatever they want but the promotion of discs by some big manufacturers in pro racing is just part of their marketing strategy. It's a shame that most other manufacturers are obliged to follow since more and more buyers are asking for discs nowadays.
Did you actually read the part where he said he over cooked it into the corners not realizing the train and hence binned it?

Wr go from asking if discs could have prevented a broken kneecap to asking why discs didnt stop a crash.

We all know at the elite level that the brakes aren't the deciding factor in most of these crashes and that its generally getting lost in terms of where on the descent they are and coming in too hot as a result.

Rim brakes in the hills are generally a result of the weight, nothing more, for some of these guys 2-300g can mentally break them so they grab what they are comfortable with because unlike most punters they have several options to choose between. Give them a pair of bikes, one rim one disc both dead on 6.8kg on 50mm wheels and then see what they use.

Do they need them? No, are many embracing the change? Yes. Does it really matter what someones opinion from the sideline is? .....

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ome rodriguez
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by ome rodriguez

The pro teams can easily build a 6.8kg disc brake bike.
I don’t see many embracing the change in the peloton especially stage 17, you only see a handful using disc brakes. Even some bora and quickstep riders are on rimbrakes. The pros opinion does matter to me.

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Lelandjt
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by Lelandjt

themidge wrote:
Thu Jul 26, 2018 12:35 pm
Just a thought, why does it matter to us people who want to keep rim brakes whether they only make frames with discs or whatever? They'll make cables forever, so seeing as the humble rim brake won't be seeing much improvement, we'll be just fine with what we've got.
Because I look forward to improvements. I'm happy with my current bike but it would be nice if in 5 years I can have something lighter and more aero. Because manufacturers are stopping developement of rim brakes and some are stopping production entirely it's very concievable that my current bike is the fastest, lightest bike I'll ever own. To someone who takes interest in the gear side of the sport that's boring. I'm not against discs or options in general. I'm against killing off a superior braking system to increase sales.

spdntrxi
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by spdntrxi

The only thing that could slow disc's roll.. is loweing the UCI weight limit by a bit. Then all these 7.5kg aero bikes will seem like tanks in everyone perception.
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Lelandjt
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by Lelandjt

spdntrxi wrote:
Fri Jul 27, 2018 4:21 am
The only thing that could slow disc's roll.. is loweing the UCI weight limit by a bit. Then all these 7.5kg aero bikes will seem like tanks in everyone perception.
Seriously! Several years ago when there was discussion about lowering the limit that went no where I suspected that the manufacturers had lobbied the UCI to keep it at 6.8 to help them introduce discs. It's silly how much heavier the disc bikes in the pro peloton are compared to the average on this forum.

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MayhemSWE
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by MayhemSWE

There is one reason and reason only why most pro riders still use rim brakes – faster wheel swaps in case of a puncture. That's it.

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LeDuke
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by LeDuke

MayhemSWE wrote:There is one reason and reason only why most pro riders still use rim brakes – faster wheel swaps in case of a puncture. That's it.
Having watched WT mechanics and WC MTB mechanics change wheels, the problem is mostly with the personnel, not the equipment.


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joejack951
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by joejack951

LeDuke wrote:
Fri Jul 27, 2018 3:55 pm
MayhemSWE wrote:There is one reason and reason only why most pro riders still use rim brakes – faster wheel swaps in case of a puncture. That's it.
Having watched WT mechanics and WC MTB mechanics change wheels, the problem is mostly with the personnel, not the equipment.
Any videos to share? I am genuinely curious as to the actual time difference for a pro mechanic. I have always assumed that road pros avoided discs in the mountains due to wheel change concerns but I never thought deeply enough about it to consider how pro MTBers deal with wheel swaps. I say all this as a happy owner of disc and caliper brake road bikes (though I like braking on the disc bike way more).

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LeDuke
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by LeDuke

joejack951 wrote:
LeDuke wrote:
Fri Jul 27, 2018 3:55 pm
MayhemSWE wrote:There is one reason and reason only why most pro riders still use rim brakes – faster wheel swaps in case of a puncture. That's it.
Having watched WT mechanics and WC MTB mechanics change wheels, the problem is mostly with the personnel, not the equipment.
Any videos to share? I am genuinely curious as to the actual time difference for a pro mechanic. I have always assumed that road pros avoided discs in the mountains due to wheel change concerns but I never thought deeply enough about it to consider how pro MTBers deal with wheel swaps. I say all this as a happy owner of disc and caliper brake road bikes (though I like braking on the disc bike way more).
Schurter’s mechanic did one in 2016 or so in 18 seconds.

A guy on one of the Dutch pro conti teams did one pretty fast two years ago.

https://road.cc/content/tech-news/17854 ... -road-race

I’ve seen plenty of 30s+ rim brake wheel changes.


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spdntrxi
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by spdntrxi

^ you keep saying that... but the fact is it takes longer and in most cases alot longer. It can be significantly more complicated you must admit. BTW I'm getting 2 (gravel/road & aero) discs bikes in the next fews months.. so I'm not biased against them.
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LeDuke
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by LeDuke

spdntrxi wrote:^ you keep saying that... but the fact is it takes longer and in most cases alot longer. It can be significantly more complicated you must admit. BTW I'm getting 2 (gravel/road & aero) discs bikes in the next fews months.. so I'm not biased against them.
Why? Get a Kabolt and a 6mm hex bit on a drill. Rider pops the clutch and holds the bike. Axle out, wheel off in three seconds.

The fact of the matter is that many people (WT mechs) are super slow at a very important aspect of their job.










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Calnago
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by Calnago

What happens when the drill isn’t handy and you just want a quick swap with your teammates wheel because the Team car is stuck way back somewhere. Fact is, they are sloooowwwwer.
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