If you ask around in the industry, assessments of the potential of the disc on the racer are rather cautious. There is talk of a niche topic, of comfort and touring bikes. There is not much in it - at least as long as the UCI does not play along. The world cycling organisation continues to prescribe two caliper brakes in road racing and also has more important reforms on its plate than the technical regulations. But that's another story. Product developers know from experience that anything that falls outside the regulations does not sell well. They point to experiments with suspension forks and Y-frames, legendary failures of the nineties.
Nevertheless, there are reasons to develop products. The ban on the cross-country discipline was lifted three years ago, and since then both supply and sales figures have increased. But cross will remain a small segment; the industry would love to bring the trend to the road with new models. If possible, even without the blessing of the UCI. The autumn trade fairs in 2013 showed that the frame manufacturers are ready, even if there were still a number of prototypes on display. "If there is demand, we are prepared," was the almost unanimous message.
And the brake manufacturers? They are simply opening their drawers at a strategically well-considered time - after all, it is a trend with an announcement, the technology has matured over the years on mountain bikes and has long been completely in-house with big names such as Shimano or SRAM, you might think. The selection of cable-operated systems that can be combined with standard road bike levers is already impressive, even though only a few suppliers are involved. Our comparison test included models from the major groupset manufacturers SRAM and Shimano as well as the brake specialists Tektro/TRP and Hayes. Each manufacturer was able to take part with two products; SRAM's inexpensive BB5 is currently being revised, so the Americans only sent the tried and tested BB7 Road into the race. In another comparison, the fully hydraulic systems from Shimano and SRAM were supposed to compete against each other. However, shortly before the editorial deadline, SRAM had to recall the entire production of hydraulic brakes due to a problem with the seals of the brake master cylinder. With 19,000 products, the recall is one of the largest ever in the bicycle industry. Of necessity, this test is therefore limited to a comparison of mechanical systems.
The test results of these mechanical disc brakes can be found in the PDF download:
- Avid BB7 Road
- Hayes CX Pro
- Hayes MX5
- Shimano CX 77
- Shimano BR-R 515
- TRP HyRd
- TRP Spyre
Downloads:
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