So many new road bikes, still non-disc

[Drago]

Out of interest, does anyone on here buy kit because the professional riders use it.

Nope, although i got a strange urge to buy a Sloda when Lance Wiggins got given one.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Nope, although i got a strange urge to buy a Sloda when Lance Wiggins got given one.

The Skoda Needle with turbo injection.

 

[ColinJ]

With the amount of cycling I do, especially in wet and grimy weather on my commute. Discs are a no brainer. I used to go through rims every 18 months. Pads I went through a pair every 3 months. With disc brakes I don't have to worry about that. Rims never wear out and pads last more then a year.

However for my leisure rides.. I mostly ride my Van Nick which is rim braked bike and have no plans to change.

The rim brakes on my old CAAD5 road bike are great but I almost wore its front rim out and did wear a couple of pairs of blocks out riding it through last winter. It is the descents round here - heavy braking with wet gritty rims is almost unavoidable in the winter. That bike will probably last me another 10 years but I am pleased that my CX bike and MTB have disks and I wouldn't buy another road bike without them unless I moved somewhere flat, which I don't intend to!

 

[Racing roadkill]

Changing the subject slightly but another one which can split opinions is what about using tubeless tyres.
We now have the combination of discs and tubeless in the mix. Both developing and will develop more in the future.

I discovered a very interesting thing on a 50 miler last weekend. I was running a very light summer type tyre on the front, with a slime tube.The tyre got absolutely peppered with all sorts of pointy cr@p after only a few miles. Unsurprisingly I got a loud ‘pop tsshhhhht’. The tube self healed with only a small loss in pressure, so I hooked out the offending object, only to realise the hole left behind was over about 5mm in diameter. I carried on riding having just topped up the pressure, but within about 20 miles I got another ‘pshhhht’ it was the hole that was causing the issue, but again the tube survived, and I carried on, another few miles later, another Pshhht, another survival, the tube self healed again. Then about 3 miles from home, yet another intrusion through the hole, and again the tube survived, and I got home with another top up. Now had that been a tubeless tyre, without access to a worm, that would have been a messy pain in the rump to sort out. I could have stopped, taken the tyre off, and put a gel wrapper or something in to patch the hole, but because it was a slime tube, I got away with out having to, a tubeless tyre would have been a nightmare in that situation.

 

[Racing roadkill]

Yes they are, as thru axles are held in place by the thread the lever is simply flipped over with no real force so your cold wet fingers don't have to struggle to pull open a tight qr lever that can be difficult in good conditions sometimes. Turning a screwing action with those numb hands is much easier and painless.

Funnily enough, that’s completely the opposite to what I’ve found. There’s a surprise. The thru axle has to go through both holes on opposite sides of the fork, that alignment is a nightmare with cold, wet dark conditions, as you’ll no doubt discover if you actually have to do it. The QR system is a doddle in comparison, as you’ve only got to drop the forks onto the skewer.

 

[Jenkins]

I'd probably go with disc brakes with thru axles if I was after another road bike, but the problem at the moment is that there are at least 3 different thru axle standards, but only 1 QR standard

 

[Yellow Saddle]

I discovered a very interesting thing on a 50 miler last weekend. I was running a very light summer type tyre on the front, with a slime tube.The tyre got absolutely peppered with all sorts of pointy cr@p after only a few miles. Unsurprisingly I got a loud ‘pop tsshhhhht’. The tube self healed with only a small loss in pressure, so I hooked out the offending object, only to realise the hole left behind was over about 5mm in diameter. I carried on riding having just topped up the pressure, but within about 20 miles I got another ‘pshhhht’ it was the hole that was causing the issue, but again the tube survived, and I carried on, another few miles later, another Pshhht, another survival, the tube self healed again. Then about 3 miles from home, yet another intrusion through the hole, and again the tube survived, and I got home with another top up. Now had that been a tubeless tyre, without access to a worm, that would have been a messy pain in the rump to sort out. I could have stopped, taken the tyre off, and put a gel wrapper or something in to patch the hole, but because it was a slime tube, I got away with out having to, a tubeless tyre would have been a nightmare in that situation.

I thought you ride on Tannus airless tyres. I must have been mistaken.

 

[Racing roadkill]

I'd probably go with disc brakes with thru axles if I was after another road bike, but the problem at the moment is that there are at least 3 different thru axle standards, but only 1 QR standard

There is that.

 

[Racing roadkill]

I thought you ride on Tannus airless tyres. I must have been mistaken.

Only one of my bikes has the Tannus tyres

This one.

This one is standard pneumatic tyres.

So does this one.

And this one as well.

 

[fossyant]

Every week I see another road bike launch, sometimes they are a long running design and other times they are all new - but they still keep coming with non-disc

e.g.
https://road.cc/content/review/252154-storck-fascenario3-comp-ultegra

I am planning to get a new road bike next year with discs but maybe I don't need to go down the disc route?

Quite right too - I can't see the need, unless it's a commuter bike and it saves rim wear.

Race bikes/training bikes, no need. Adds weight, and I can't say I find my Shimano 600 and Dura Ace single pivots that are 25 years old, lacking braking power with good pads.

Fugly too

 

[pawl]

I was recently looking at a giant Fast Road Hybrid with the idea of getting back into touring,perhaps with alight off road use.what put me off was discs and concealed cables.which I don’t like To me there could difficultly carrying out repairs not only out on the road but with general maintenance.I have Ultegra rim brakes on my road bike a carbon Planet X and external cables Perhaps i am a bit old school but i do like my cycling as simple as possible.

As they say horses for courses.

 

[Salty seadog]

Funnily enough, that’s completely the opposite to what I’ve found. There’s a surprise. The thru axle has to go through both holes on opposite sides of the fork, that alignment is a nightmare with cold, wet dark conditions, as you’ll no doubt discover if you actually have to do it. The QR system is a doddle in comparison, as you’ve only got to drop the forks onto the skewer.

Not difficult at all. The hard bit would be fixing the puncture.

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

Not difficult at all. The hard bit would be fixing the puncture.

RR has rode with Chris Froome and is very experienced so his word on all things he has an opinion on, is final.

 

[derrick]

RR has rode with Chris Froome and is very experienced so his word on all things he has an opinion on, is final.

Chris Froome does not fix punctures.

 

[Salty seadog]

RR has rode with Chris Froome and is very experienced so his word on all things he has an opinion on, is final.

Yep, fully aware, it comes across loud and clear, I guess we're lucky to have him.