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TECH NEWS
Maertens disc brake - 1.jpgVideo: Man from Katusha says disc brakes don’t cut your skin
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.
Did the test: disc brake @tonymartin_procyclist is no knife. Or my skin is too hard… #parisnice #SRAMroad pic.twitter.com/5FykAkIPRE
— Philippe Maertens (@philmaertens) March 6, 2017
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.
We conducted our own not-entirely-serious research which you can watch here.
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.
Latest Comments
- BBB 2 hours 21 min ago
Inhumane system that now will be getting even worse.
- Bungle_52 5 hours 45 min ago
In case anyone missed it in yesterdays blog here are the two pevious articles. The second one contains the testimony from the driver....
- David9694 5 hours 54 min ago
The old role was appointed at the Mayor's pleasure; is in addition to the permanent staff of the Combined Authority. I'm not sure if Adam was an...
- WillPage 7 hours 20 min ago
Nothing says "welcoming environment" like uniformed thugs, umm I mean "security patrols " roaming the area.
- galibiervelo 8 hours 38 min ago
That is class news. Super bikes and vision. Bet there will be no stand at the Taiwan bike show next year! Big luck to all the team
- Destroyer666 9 hours 20 min ago
Pretty clearly stated several times in the text that the issue was not related just to his son. And besides, everybody watching the races could see...
- Rendel Harris 9 hours 36 min ago
All Fizik and Selle Italia saddles (though not all their other products) are made in Italy I believe, and their 3D printed models definitely are.
- chrisonabike 10 hours 1 min ago
If you're not on the road with a car, I bet its driver is much less likely to swerve into your space *. Because you're not "in the way"! (Any...
- mdavidford 10 hours 18 min ago
The problem with this argument, though, is that it's just not true....
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10 comments
"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.
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.
Who's going to try the same on a bike with disc brakes after an alpine descent?
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.
Safe to say I wont be trying that with my hope saw blade discs
Dont try this at home, you will be fetching your fingers from the gutter!
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.
Given the team history, yes, maybe you are thick-skinned.