First road bike: mech disc brakes vs v-brakes?

[figbat]

Neither bike has V Brakes, the Decathlon has standard rim calipers, they could well be Tektro and rubbish, a cheap upgrade would be 105 callipers and it’ll stop on a sixpence

Nothing wrong with well set-up Tektros. My old Synapse could lift its rear wheel.

 

[chris-suffolk]

Neither bike has V Brakes, the Decathlon has standard rim calipers, they could well be Tektro and rubbish, a cheap upgrade would be 105 callipers and it’ll stop on a sixpence

Assuming that the pull ratios work ok. Doubt that is has Shimano STI levers on, but I may be wrong

 

[DRM]

Nothing wrong with well set-up Tektros. My old Synapse could lift its rear wheel.

The ones on my Defy were lethal, they went in the bin, the best place for them, the 105’s that replaced them are like night and day

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

If buying a new bike I'd be more interested in other attributes, such as quality of assembly and after sales service. Decathlon for me over Halfords.

Halfords appear to be very inconsistent, so the assembly & set up quality seems to depend on luck; i.e. if that branch has any decent staff and whether they were in on the day you went in there! Personally, I reckon anyone who buys from Halfords needs to be prepared to check the whole bike over very carefully themselves after collection, and must be willing and clued-up enough to put right anything the shop got wrong! You shouldn't really have to do this on a brand new machine, but in reality if you want it to run well, you may have to tweak it yourself.
Personally if I'm going to be riding something on the road, I'm going to give it a good going over myself, no matter where it came from and who built it. I check out my secondhand bikes myself, and if I was to buy a new one I would check that as well.

 

[si_c]

I'd opt for the decathlon myself, as others have said for your likely use cases rim brakes are fine.

I'm a huge fan of disc brakes, but cheap cable disc brakes are frankly shite and I'd opt for rim brakes. The 105 rim brakes on my Trek have the same stopping ability as the 105 hydraulics on my other bike in most conditions.

The rest of the spec on both bikes is OK but I'd edge towards the decathlon again for ease of maintenance.

 

[T4tomo]

Assuming that the pull ratios work ok. Doubt that is has Shimano STI levers on, but I may be wrong

Microshift, which have same pull ratio's as Shimano for appropriate #gears and brakes.

My son rode a Decathlon Triban road bike, for a while, the microshift stuff worked well (his 8spd had/has a reassuring clunk noise as it changed, but never missed a beat - The 10 speed on my GF's bike is quieter) and the Tektro brakes were fine, stopped as well as the Ultegra brakes on my Bianchi. I guess DRM was unlucky.

 

[chris-suffolk]

Halfords appear to be very inconsistent, so the assembly & set up quality seems to depend on luck; i.e. if that branch has any decent staff and whether they were in on the day you went in there! Personally, I reckon anyone who buys from Halfords needs to be prepared to check the whole bike over very carefully themselves after collection, and must be willing and clued-up enough to put right anything the shop got wrong! You shouldn't really have to do this on a brand new machine, but in reality if you want it to run well, you may have to tweak it yourself.
Personally if I'm going to be riding something on the road, I'm going to give it a good going over myself, no matter where it came from and who built it. I check out my secondhand bikes myself, and if I was to buy a new one I would check that as well.

Good advice. I recently had some disc brakes fitted by a (usually) very good LBS. Is was a tricky fit, and they don't charge to fit parts that they supply, so why not. Anyway, one of the threads on the bike couldn't have been cut correctly because the bolt they fitted didn't quite seat all the way down. It was only me going over it afterwards that spotted the loose caliper. Now, it wasn't about to come off, so would have stopped the bike, but just goes to show that even competent mechanics can sometimes get it wrong.

 

[fossyant]

Decathlon IF you can get a bike. My local store still has very few bikes, and it's been like that for a long time.

 

[cyberknight]

Microshift, which have same pull ratio's as Shimano/SRAM for appropriate #gears and brakes.

My son rode a Decathlon Triban road bike, for a while, the microshift stuff worked well (his 8spd had/has a reassuring clunk noise as it changed, but never missed a beat - The 10 speed on my GF's bike is quieter) and the Tektro brakes were fine, stopped as well as the Ultegra brakes on my Bianchi. I guess DRM was unlucky.

Shimano and SRAM have different pull ratios although they share th same cassette spacing the actual shifters for the rear have different cable pull ratios micro shift and Shimano do share the same pull ratios

 

[T4tomo]

Shimano and SRAM have different pull ratios although they share th same cassette spacing the actual shifters for the rear have different cable pull ratios micro shift and Shimano do share the same pull ratios

My bad - will edit

 

[vickster]

Decathlon IF you can get a bike. My local store still has very few bikes, and it's been like that for a long time.

Indeed there is still no stock of that model online in any size nor at any store within a fair distance of London (in fact there aren't any anywhere)

 

[chris-suffolk]

Indeed there is still no stock of that model online in any size nor at any store within a fair distance of London (in fact there aren't any anywhere)

Same story country wide for most bikes (and parts) right now. Friend from another forum recently had problems with sourcing a £3500 bike, so not just limited to entry / average bikes.

 

[vickster]

Same story country wide for most bikes (and parts) right now. Friend from another forum recently had problems with sourcing a £3500 bike, so not just limited to entry / average bikes.

Indeed hence my upthread suggestion of second hand...

 

[pdc97]

Indeed hence my upthread suggestion of second hand...

Hi, yeah I did consider second hand but being new to bikes, I wouldn't know how to check if it was decent/in working order and I would prefer the peace of mind knowing that the bike isn't stolen and that I can go back to Decathlon for help.

I don't mind the wait

 

[Blue Hills]

Re the simplicity of V brakes, a Deore pair for sale at the moment for a tenner in the forsale bit.

https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/some-bits-and-pieces.272421/