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Video: Man from Katusha says disc brakes don’t cut your skinMaertens disc brake - 1.jpg

Video: Man from Katusha says disc brakes don’t cut your skin

Pro team's communications manager demonstrates stopping a disc brake with a bare hand
by Mat Brett
Wed, Mar 08, 2017 13:10
10

Team Katusha Alpecin’s communications manager Philippe Maertens has posted a video on Twitter demonstrating that you can stop a fast-revolving disc brake rotor – at least one of those with non-square edges used by the professionals – with your hand.

Maertens turns the cranks of a Canyon Aeroad CF SLX, gets the rear wheel spinning fast, and then uses the palm of his hand on the edge of the disc rotor to stop the wheel without damaging his skin. He's not putting his bodyweight or any momentum into his effort, so you could argue that it's not a particularly realistic crash scenario.

 

 

This follows on from Tom Boonen’s claim last week that he (and anyone else) can stop a disc fast-spinning brake rotor with his hand.

“I maintain that they are not dangerous,” said Boonen. I’ve dared to stop a wheel at 60 kilometres an hour with my hand.”

Several pros, including Team Sky’s Owain Doull, have raised safety concerns about the introduction of disc brakes.

On the other hand, the World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry (WFSGI), the body that represents many of the biggest manufacturers in the bicycle industry, says that, “Evidence on cuts under racing conditions is not available since there has been no reported accident with disc brakes so far.”

We conducted our own not-entirely-serious research which you can watch here. 

disc brakes
disc rotor
Philippe Maertens
Katusha Alpecin
Mat Brett

Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.

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10 comments

Avatar
Masterchief | 7 years ago
0 likes

"Man from Katasha says" sounds like something Jeremy Clarkson would say as a joke in Top Gear, try reading it in his voice, and you'll agree.

Avatar
tritecommentbot | 7 years ago
3 likes

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Avatar
ColT | 7 years ago
1 like

I may be missing something here, but surely a bigger risk of injury from a disc is if you hit it at speed?  The sustained friction scenario is possible, no doubt, but if you are flying through the air and then your knee strikes against a moving or static disc at say 40mph, then any injury would be entirely different to the friction type injuries being debated.

I'm neither pro nor anti, although I am still not sure that there should be a mix of rims and discs in a race.

Avatar
Redvee | 7 years ago
0 likes

Who's going to try the same on a bike with disc brakes after an alpine descent? 

Avatar
DrG82 | 7 years ago
0 likes

Despite not following the disc brake chainsaw brigade I'm quite surprised he didn't et some sort of injury from this, even if it was just a bit of a graze.

 

i wouldn't have been brave enough to try it.

Avatar
step83 | 7 years ago
0 likes

Safe to say I wont be trying that with my hope saw blade discs

Avatar
puppet-head | 7 years ago
0 likes

Dont try this at home, you will be fetching your fingers from the gutter!

Avatar
KiwiMike | 7 years ago
4 likes

Before people claim this 'wasn't a race scenario', let's compare apples with apples then: time for a disc-downer to demonstrate how safe inserting your hand into a typical bladed-spoke wheel at a similar simulated speed is.

Away you go.

Avatar
DaveE128 replied to KiwiMike | 7 years ago
1 like
KiwiMike wrote:

Before people claim this 'wasn't a race scenario', let's compare apples with apples then: time for a disc-downer to demonstrate how safe inserting your hand into a typical bladed-spoke wheel at a similar simulated speed is.

Away you go.

Or catching a falling bike by the cassette or chainrings. 

Avatar
Yorkshire wallet | 7 years ago
2 likes

Given the team history, yes, maybe you are thick-skinned.

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