Disc-braked road bike round-up starring: Colnago, Parlee, Eastway & more

Until the maintenance-free, self-centering hydraulic brakes (that most/all MTBs use) come out there's no way I'd get one of these. They all look like interim solutions to me.

looks good that specialized. one to add to the list...

Meanwhile, on Specialized's Canadian site: http://www.specialized.com/ca/en/bikes/road/roubaix/roubaix-sl4-expert-c...

Yes, it's a 2013 Roubaix. Carbon, internally routed shift & brake cables, Ultegra w/ a carbon FSA crankset, a slightly heavy but durable DT Swiss wheelset, and oh yeah, Shimano CX 75 cable discs. You guys miss this one as well?

All joking aside, it's exactly the road bike a lot of us in BC have been waiting for. And I do mean waiting for. I don't ride bikes that don't have disc brakes because I value my life. It rains a ton here, our roads aren't the greatest, and our back yard consists mostly of massive mountains. Our mountain bikes all have discs, there's no reason our road bikes shouldn't as well.

Neutral support, wheel change difficulties, blah blah blah. You won't see discs on many high end, competition-oriented road frames for a while still because that's not where the demand is. Discs will come on bikes like the Roubaix that people use to train, commute, ride around for fun, and maybe a grand fondo or two. Pros will figure it out sooner or later, but discs are likely to trickle up, not down.

I think the biggest headache is going to be for those of us on neutral service. At the moment we carry three rear wheels, Shimano 10, Campag 10 and Campag 11. In some races / sportifs we can rub along slamming a Campag 10 into a Shimano 10 and vice-versa, but it's not ideal. In 2013, we'll need to add Shimano 11 to that & it remains to be seen whether we can bodge Campag 11s into Shimano 11 bikes - it should be possible because Shimano discussed 11 speed cassette widths with Campag when they were designing the new Dura Ace 11 freehub body.

The headache comes if we have to start carrying that lot with discs on as well, plus disc or conventional fronts - maybe at a push with fronts we can do dual wheels, so a rim brake on a disc hub (so long as the forks will permit the rotor - some won't, for sure) ... but the disc rears that we have seen so far are all 135mm hubs and road bikes at present are all 130s, so we will have no choice other than to carry both.

I spy with my little eye, absolute chaos for a couple of seasons ...

If anything slows down adoption in the pro peloton (apart from UCI intransigence) it'll be that.

I don't think that there is any debate about whether discs will work, whether they will give less hand effort for the same braking so greater control on long descents, etc - that is all patently "not a problem" ... though it's painful enough watching 3rd & 4th cat races now with riders hitting the brakes all over the show ... God knows what it will be like when the brakes are even more efficient ... I think the problems are likely to be much more mundane and practical.

Of course, it'll all be great news if you are a frame manufacturer or a hub / brake manufacturer ... gotta keep those boys in China churning out the tat, eh, boys? There are only so many pointless basic variations of headset (27 basic specs at last count, believe it or not)and BB system (6 and counting) that can be foisted on an uncritical market! This must be the next "Next Big Thing" ...

Sorry to sound cynical ...

They were supposed to be Shred… they must have slipped of David's list, we've even got a pic too. I'm surprised they haven't got a UK distributor (in fact I'm gonna checked that they haven't picked one up in the last weeks). Most of those bikes on the list are available now though or pretty much imminently.

I'm surprised Volagi bikes was not shown. Unlike some of these, they are available now, although, alas, no distributor in the UK.

If hydraulics can be made to use less watts, it won't matter how ugly they are - we'll all be using 'em

Or are these the future?
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kettlecycles/siccc-bicycle-brake-rot...

That Kona frame is proper ugly btw

I can see the appeal / understand the benefits but as I have said before, they ruin the classic road bike look imho.

So ugly. They all look like cross bikes now! Not that cross bikes are ugly but they don't road bikes either!

I don't think we will see widespread adoption until 1. hydraulic levers are released by SRAM and Shimano and 2. until every cyclocross rider is using hydraulic discs proving to road riders that they are more than good enough for pavement

What's with the BMC's chainset? Are my eyes deceiving me, or is that a CX ratio on there?

I went to the Alps on a road bike with discs in the summer. 160mm was fine even down fast 6-7,000ft descents. Heat wasn't a problem at all, in contrast to the MTB where i've experienced fade even on 200mm discs due to dragging them down very steep slow tight technical trails.

That was on normal rotors too. Ice-tech won't fit BB-7's without cutting the tabs of the brake pads.

I've been on a less hardcore Kona Dew Drop with BB& discs for a couple of years now as my commuter- if it needed replaced (which it in no-way does, it does its job brilliantly) that Rove would rather tempt me.

Quote:

and what the manufacturers do with rims when they don't need a braking surface any longer...

not a great deal, look at a DT 4.2 disc rim, you loose some sidewall and that is about it. If you look at deep rims, basically you end up with a rim that looks identical, just lacking the brake track, the rim has a job todo. hold a tyre on, you can't loose much weight if the rim is to have the strength to do that, the aerodynamics are the same. etc.

As for the other comments, i suspect discs will be bigger than some think, if icetech rotors can melt on tandems and mtbs it suggests rotors on road bikes will need a decent surface area. higher speeds more speed to loose etc.

All it needs now is for the UCI to get sensible about it and discs will be used throughout the pro ranks before long. Makes a lot of sense (particularly for racing in poor conditions - e.g. spring classics, wet mountain days), but it will be interesting to see what the eventual standard becomes for rotor sizes, and what the manufacturers do with rims when they don't need a braking surface any longer...

The Time looks ridiculous, mind you most Times look ridiculous without the disc imo. Colnago and Parlee for me.

So Ugly.Bikes should look nice.

I'm with Bez. That Parlee looks lovely and the Kona looks sensible.

The Colnago and everything else don't look quite right to my eyes.

I'll have the Parlee and the Kona, please.