Another day, another rant

I sometimes come across as someone who could referred to as a curmudgeon and a bit of a retro-grouch. You'll often hear me rant against whatever new and improved technology is being rammed down our throats as the next best thing. While it's true there are numerous things to complain about in the bike industry and maybe one day I'll tackle integrated seatmasts, spokes made of tubular carbon fiber, and despite the fact I have a stash of new-in-box LOOK S2R mountain bike pedals that will last me through the apocalypse I take little glee in hearing about the recent recall of 40,000 pairs of LOOK Keo pedals. I really do like the new stuff but wish there was more consideration for quality over lightweight or performance over style. Which brings me to the impetus for this blog entry.

We've recently built up a couple of cross/touring bikes and while I usually recommend a decent set of cantilevers for this type of bike in both cases the client opted for disc brakes. I actually like the idea of disc brakes for road bikes, I'm okay with it, really. And there are a number of very nice cross bikes out there where you have no choice but to use disc brakes with them. And being a guy that generally rides Campagnolo who doesn't make disc compatible hubs, I've even gone as far as to find a hub manufacturer who makes both road and mountain hubs and both Shimano and Campagnolo compatible freehub bodies (DT Swiss, though White Industries also does this, perhaps others) so that I could install a Campagnolo freehub body onto a disc hub and run disc brakes with Campagnolo shifters. So let it be said that I have at least given it a try before becoming suitably unimpressed by this appropriation of mountain bike brakes by the world of road and cross bikes.

Check this video out:



Four for four rotors came out of the box brand new and this bent. It's hypnotic how it dances with the music in the background which is amusing enough but doesn't make me any happier about the additional set up time required to "tune" as in "bend the crap out of" four disc brake rotors. Avid BB7 disc brakes aren't the most expensive or high end disc brakes available, they aren't even that high up the Avid line-up, but when dealing with the relatively new frontier of disc brakes on road bikes there aren't many choices and these represent pretty much the highest end disc brake option available for road bikes. Firstly, most higher end disc brakes are hydraulic while road component manufacturers don't have any plans to offer an integrated hydraulic compatible shift/brake lever in the near future. This means cable actuated disc brakes are realistically the only option. Of course most cable actuated disc brakes are designed to work with a v-brake lever which pulls more cable than a road brake so even in the cable actuated disc brake world the options are limited. Hence the conundrum, to use disc brakes on a road or cross bike your options are limited to a single hard to get model from Shimano, a couple of Taiwanese knock-offs, a sole IRD model, and these Avid BB7s which are considered by most to be the "industry standard" for road compatible disc brakes.

I will admit disc brakes as a concept are a pretty good idea. Brake pads last longer, the brakes work better in the rain, you can beat the bejesus out of your rims knocking them out of true without compromising your braking, but if the industry is going to push this concept while touting these and numerous other benefits, shouldn't they offer a more impressive product? And while there are advantages to using disc brakes there are plenty of disadvantages too, like convoluted fender mounting techniques snaking their way around the calipers like in the following picture.



Also, bolting on stoppers where things like racks might normally go creates it's own set of problems. Like the rack you need to use which moves the "hooks" where your pannier might attach further up the rack frame rather than right down at the bottom where they would traditionally be and a weird appendage on the rack that despite articulating in three dimensions and being spaced out from the rack itself still needs a bunch of spacers to get it to attach to the frame properly.



So that's a whole lot of complaining about something to get to this point. Do the brakes work? Yup, and though I'm not happy with how they are designed and what needs to be done to get them to work on a bike and the adhoc redesign and modification of standardized items like racks and fenders, they do work pretty well. But considering how well a properly set up pair of cantilever brakes work I'm not sure they are worth the hassle. That said, I'm sure these won't be the last set of disc brakes I put on a road bike and I really do look forward to the day when more effective and better designed disc brakes are available for road bikes. Until then, call me a retro-grouch, I'll be sticking to cantilevers on my cross bike.