Should you buy a road bike with disc brakes?

Our blog this week looks at the question on some people’s minds at present. Should their next road bike have conventional rim brakes or be disc brakes equipped following the path of MTB and hybrid bicycles.  So should you buy a road bike with disc brakes?

UCI standards

Currently disc brakes are banned at UCI sanctioned competitions over concerns of differing braking capabilities being applied through the field. There is some additional noise on the rotors causing additional injuries in high speed crashes than conventional brakes.  Lots of journalists believe it is only a matter of time before this decision is changed and we see these bikes throughout the peloton.

Benefits of disc brakes

So assuming that the world will head to discs what are the benefits that make this an obvious choice?

1. no degradation in braking performance in wet weather xonditions
2.  rims can be lighter and last longer as they don’t need to cope with the force from braking
3. better braking performance with the calliper systems gripping the disc with increased force

Drawbacks of disc brakes

In terms of the drawbacks they can be heavier and they certainly are more complex making maintenance a specialist exercise potentially.  In terms of the future we reckon your going to struggle to have anything else moving forwards. With bikes such as the Cube Agree SLT Disc coming into the market creeping over the £3k marker it is a reasonable signal that lower end models will follow suit. The Boardman SLS Disc released last year is a lower end example of such a bike and sub £1,000 models are starting to become available.

Changes in UCI regulation

The UCI ban is the final hurdle for road bikes with disc brakes as they have relaxed the ruling for cyclocross. As they have given approval for trials in road bikes there is still possibility for the ban to be lifted in 2017 opening the door for mass market adoption. Across the Team Trivelo range of bikes we are yet to have any road bikes sporting discs but with so many on offer this year is likely to see that change.  Our current favourite is the Pinarello Dogma F8 Disc. Bloody gorgeous.

Over to you but hopefully this has helped you decide if you should buy a road bike with disc brakes.

Pinarello – gorgeous

BILLY

About the author – Billy is the founder of Trivelo Bikes and a big Cannondale fan