Disc brakes 2019

[cshong88]

Been following the Vuelta and am noticing how many of the riders are still riding traditional rim brakes, even the Specialized sponsored teams when it comes to the Tarmac. Now that the UCI has fully approved disc brakes and it seems like every manufacturer has a disc brake version of their lightweight and aero models, any thoughts or inside info as to the prevalence of disc brakes in the pro peloton next year? I wonder if any more teams will go full disc like Trek did this past year. Or perhaps riders will use disc brakes for the aero bikes (especially given a lot of the new aero bikes are disc brake only) and still stick with rim brakes for the lightweight climbing bikes?
Interested to see what a team like Sunweb will do - new S5 being disc only - wonder if the team will go to disc only and ride the R5 disc as well or stick with the rim version for climbing/GC riding.

[TiCass]

If you can't build the full bike at 7kg with the sponsors gears, it won't be a GC bike.
And if you're a GC team, chances are that everybody in the team will ride compatible bike.

[scale29]

I personally think that the bulk of teams hanging onto caliper brakes is nothing to do with weight or Aero, more due to the amount of wheels their service course need to supply and re-glue, the speed of wheel change mid race and the maintenance of the equipment, which is easier with caliper than disc.

Disc is brilliant for gen pop. I’m all in with it, But in the pro peloton, getting the job done is most important, whatever equipment it takes.

A lot of people think too much. I rode full time in my prime, and teams would often ride whatever kit paid the most sponsorship £, not what made us happy. We just had to get on with the job.

[seaneT1]

The past few weeks, we saw some new disc specific frames being both fully aero and close enough to the 6,8 goal when fully build with the current gen disc parts. What about the next gen of parts? As with the frames, we saw them taking a huge leap forward this year I believe, so is it possible that the rest of the parts will follow, and maybe in a year or two, 6.8 disc aero bikes will become more and more common?

[themidge]

Sounds to me like we need to start lobbying the UCI to lower the weight limit. I bet you anything as soon as that happens weight will be the biggest selling thing again, and rim brakes will be marketed using all the current disadvantages of discs: more aero, 500g lighter, better looking, you don't need discs anyway...

[spdntrxi]

Sounds to me like we need to start lobbying the UCI to lower the weight limit. I bet you anything as soon as that happens weight will be the biggest selling thing again, and rim brakes will be marketed using all the current disadvantages of discs: more aero, 500g lighter, better looking, you don't need discs anyway...

lowering the UCI weight limit.. would hurt disc usage.. Money had been paid so I doubt that happens.

[MisterNoChain]

Isnt the biggest problem the compatibility between all brands? Let's say you're riding Roval wheels and you have a flat, the chances you'll get disc brake rub when changing to Mavic or Shimano arent slim. When Bouhanni won a stage there were echelons in the last 20k, someone from Bora had a flat tire and when the neutral service moto stopped they couldnt help him. Now it was only a domestic so he didnt care about the loss of time. But when you're fighting for GC that's a disaster. When was the last time someone won a race because he had better brakes on his bike? So why take the risk?

[kgt]

lowering the UCI weight limit.. would hurt disc usage.. Money had been paid so I doubt that happens.

+100
Accusing UCI for their "silly" 6.8kg limit which was against the technological evolution etc. etc. was rather typical a few years ago in this forum.
Now everyone seems to have forgotten it.

[wingguy]

IIRC part of Brian Cookson's election manifesto was taking a fresh look at the tech regulations and bringing the 6.8 rule up to date with what's possible now... and instead we ended up with a subtle relaxation of the aero tube shape regs. Maybe that does show what the manufacturer lobbies are pushing for

[c60rider]

Races aren't won by how fast you can brake. When that's the case then everyone will be on the best brakes possible. Until then unless there is a huge push by manufacturers (there's just been a small one so far by a selective few), that's frame and component manufacturers, then we'll continue to see rim brakes. Fast forward 5 years and it could be that everyone will be on disc brakes in the pro peleton. It will be a slow transition much like clipless pedals, indexed gears, hard shell helmet use and so on.

[asiantrick]

Still undecided on disc brake bikes. I'm holding on to my caliber brake bikes for now and wait to see if there'll be new technology with disc bikes in the near future.