looking into a bike and curious as to if it would be worth the extra $$ to go with disc brakes compared to the regular clamp brakes?

any help is appreiciated.

9/13/2008 10:01:42 PM

disc, hands down, ESPECIALLY mountain biking...they're less susceptible to slippage when wet or when there's mud/dirty between the disc and pad

9/13/2008 10:14:26 PM

disc

prevents overheating and warping of the rim on long downhills which lowers the risk of blowing out a tire

[Edited on September 13, 2008 at 10:15 PM. Reason : 

9/13/2008 10:15:21 PM

discs are better in the wet/mud, but good vbrakes can stop just as well and are much lighter. mechanical discs are very heavy, hydros not as bad, but still much more much than v's.

discs also don't care if your rim is bent and/or untrue and its slightly quicker/easier to take the wheel on and off.

hydro discs are cheap enough now days, i'd buy last year's model off like pricepoint.com or something and add them yourself later if the cost of the upgrade on a new bike is too much. But make sure your hubs, fork, and frame are disc ready.

9/13/2008 10:19:14 PM

i just got some 2008 XT hydros with oversized discs (requires an extra stand-off mounting bracket) and they are amazing. Really good stuff. Great stopping power, great levers, great feel.

9/13/2008 10:29:27 PM

disk breaks ftw. I just switched from a bike with disk breaks to a bike without and its the only thing I miss. It makes a huge diffrence

[Edited on September 13, 2008 at 11:34 PM. Reason : a]

9/13/2008 11:32:44 PM

funny i just bought a mtn bike today. decided to go with hardtail instead of full suspension but the disc brakes were a must. depending on the kind of riding you're going to do, mechanical vs. hydraulic may not make much of a weight issue, but if you do go with hydraulic make sure the lines never get pinched

9/14/2008 4:29:26 AM

hydraulic? Wow, I must really be out of the loop, I didn't even realize they made hydraulic brakes for bikes.

I've got disc brakes on my new GF Marlin. It added $100 to the cost of the bike, but that's not bad compared to buying them after marked and mounting them myself. I love them and I'll never buy a mtn. bike without them.

9/14/2008 6:27:01 AM

i have avid juicy 7's (hydraulics) on my cannondale rush, and i can pretty much throw myself over the handlebars instantly with 1 finger. (that's a good thing).

9/14/2008 10:58:20 AM

^ assuming that's the bike in your profile, that's a sweet bike. How do you like the single pronged fork? Every time I see one I think they're crazy.

9/14/2008 11:18:17 AM

mechanical disc brakes are good enough for most riders. hydraulic, although nice, require more maintenance and would be used for downhill racing, trials, etc.

[Edited on September 14, 2008 at 11:26 AM. Reason : dislexia ]

9/14/2008 11:23:25 AM

^^ sexiest thing i've ever ridden. the lefty is such an awesome ....fork....

the fox float rp3 is also amazing. the propedal thing is actually pretty legit.

9/14/2008 11:28:31 AM

^^ hydraulics require more maintenance? how do you figure?
I had one set of Shimano LX hydraulics for almost 2 years and didn't touch them at all. I can't even think of what would need to be adjusted or maintained on a regular basis. Unless you have an oil leak, they should be good to go.
Mechanicals, on the other hand, although i've never used them, I would suspect would have the same issues that shifter or v-brake cables have, in that after a while water and dirt and shit gets into the cable housing and you have to replace the cables or at least clean out the housing and regrease the cables

9/14/2008 1:52:16 PM

I've never owned hydros, but i've ridden on em a couple times. felt great. but yeh, from what i understand theyre, set it and forget it. self adjust for pad wear, etc.

I had Avid BB7 mechs which are pretty much as good as mechanicals get. They were nice, but every few you weeks you have to click the knob to compensate for pad wear. They also have another knob on the other side of the caliper that adjusts bite/modulation. I always run continuous housings from levers to calipers and never had any trouble w/ crap in the housings. I'd highly recommend continuous cable housings whereever possible.

9/14/2008 7:09:36 PM

I have some Shimano Hydraulic's on mine and freakin love them. Havent touched them in almost 3 years of pretty hard riding except for replacing the pads.

9/15/2008 9:29:35 AM

only downside is my disc brakes squeal like a mother if i don't fairly regularly rub them down with rubbing alcohol. they always stop great though.

9/15/2008 9:35:39 AM

you can't get a decent bike with rim brakes anymore...

9/15/2008 9:41:21 AM

Quote :

"discs also don't care if your rim is bent and/or untrue"

True, but discs can get warped too. I don't know how, but my last set warped repeatedly and it would take me a good 15 or 20 minutes to get it relatively true afterwards.

9/15/2008 10:58:18 AM

Quote :

"True, but discs can get warped too. I don't know how, but my last set warped repeatedly and it would take me a good 15 or 20 minutes to get it relatively true afterwards. "

What brand? Were the rotors the same brand/model as the brake? Were they installed correctly? Was the caliper aligned correctly?

I find it extremely hard to believe that a non-defective, installed correctly, disc set up would have this problem.

I would wager that I put my brakes through a bit more than most other people on this site, and I while I have bent rotors, for them to "warp" seems like something was way outta adjustment. Even more difficult to believe is that this would be a repeat issue.

eh...

9/15/2008 2:22:21 PM

I was using warp and bend interchangeably. I don't remember the brand. They came on my Giant XTC. I later replaced them with Avids which have been much better.

9/15/2008 2:33:08 PM