Discs at Nationals

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Permalink Reply by Rich on January 10, 2014 at 10:08pm

The Redline guys have the option of going disc but never seem to (as much as I have paid attention, which isn't too much).  The Giant guys are on disc for certain so there is 3.  Oh, and I know for sure Sho-Air Cannondale's Eric Bostom was on discs last season and loved them.  That's all I know.

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Permalink Reply by Adam_Mac on January 11, 2014 at 7:35am

Good info.  Seems like most of the photos that I see of the races the majority of riders (age groupers) are still on cantis certainly

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Permalink Reply by DStudley on January 11, 2014 at 8:45pm

In the context of the Redline crew, they have had the disc option this season and last, but didn't have tubular disc wheels especially the wide setup of wheels for every condition that was available for non-disc.  Next season they will be all disc for the factory team riders.

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Permalink Reply by Adam_Mac on January 12, 2014 at 9:27am

The interesting thing to me is the non-sponsored riders... The club folks like us(me).  I know that the brands want to push disc, but what's the working class rider looking like out there?

I know for me, the wheel situation is a real deterrent

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Permalink Reply by Chris S on January 13, 2014 at 12:41pm

I raced this whole season on clinchers and am moving to tubulars next year. The wheel situation has put me in a real quandary as far as what to do next. I've been thinking about finding a new-to-me frame as well, but I'm afraid to miss the disc revolution if its actually coming.

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Permalink Reply by Kurt Schauwecker on January 13, 2014 at 1:14pm

Being that you don't own tubulars now, you are much better positioned to make the switch over to discs without having to sell multiple wheelsets. 

 

I have raced the last 3 seasons on cantilever/clinchers then cantilever/tubulars and disc/tubulars and I can tell you that tubulars over clinchers were a much bigger gain in performance.  That said I will never race cross on rim brakes ever again, hydraulic disc when running correctly was amazing and even the frequent bleeding with first generation SRAM was less work than dialing cantilevers in constantly adjusting for wear. 

 

SRAM 2.0 and shimano DI2 will be both be on the market for next season and I expect most of the initial problems to be ironed out.  Additionally every wheelset manufacturer should have 11 speed disc tubular/clincher options available and the bottom will drop out of the equipment market.  There isn't an 11 speed clincher wheelset option available for much less than $500 and same with tubulars.  Once bargain wheelsets like williams get in the game you will see tubular options new for $400 and cheap clinchers all over ebay. 

 

I don't really get the disc brake hate, once hydraulic options prove reliable it will be a real game changer as it was in MTB 10 years ago. I realize that good bike handlers don't need good brakes, but few people here can claim to be that good.  The Europeans were still dominating world cup mountain bike races on 26" hardtails well after they were dead for racing in North America. 

 

The disc brake revolution isn't really a question of if, but when.  Most people view cyclocross as a secondary discipline and I think people will be slower to sink lots of money into parts that won't cross over to the road.  The only real technological questions with regard to cyclocross is will thru axels become standard and when will tubeless technology equal and kill tubulars for racing?

 

The great thing about disc cross bikes is that they are better than mountain bikes from 10 years ago on most reasonable cross country terrain while being 95% as fast as a road bike.  Throwing a 17 lb disc cross bike around on otherwise mediocre single track is a blast (this doesn't apply to people with actual mountains).

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Permalink Reply by Kurt Schauwecker on January 13, 2014 at 6:43am

Outside of the context of nationals I see more disc bikes in the cat 4/5 races locally by a long shot versus the 1/2/3 categories.  I think it comes down to having a stock of tubular wheels for road/cantilevers already and there are many new bikes in the new guy categories.  Once you race as a fast cat 3 rider tubular wheelsets are a requirement 9/10 times. 

 

Having made the switch this year without switching frames thanks to a BH RX1, I can say that there are very few good hub options available outside of white industries, DT Swiss and prebuilt high end carbon wheelsets. Novatec has the only 11 speed disc hub in the sub $350 category.  There are also very few disc hubs available with spoke counts less than 28/32 hole as they are just repurposed mountain bike hubs.

 

If you look around in the classifeds there is no shortage of ready to ride $300 tubular rim brake wheelsets.  I think most people here would agree that having 2 or 3 good alloy tubular wheelsets is preferable to 1 set of zipp 303's. 

 

I think the 2014 season will see a flood of ready built disc tubular wheelsets and 11 speed clincher/tubeless training wheelsets.  You have to believe with a Shimano hydraulic disc option on the market and a 2nd generation SRAM hydro option that disc will take over in the next year or 2. 

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Permalink Reply by Mike on January 13, 2014 at 9:05am

I can tell you that when JPOWs went by us yesterday, he was running cantis. Did not seem to stop his complete domination, nor did the cantis prevent Compton from doing the same. 

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Permalink Reply by J.D. Kimple on January 13, 2014 at 9:05am

The wheel situation is the deal killer for me, too. Last several years I've bought four decent wheelsets, thought I was set. Now I need to ditch them all and buy four more expensive wheelsets? Sorry, not with my wallet.

Will probably get into disc via a new/different bike if I do get another bike but there is no reason to, really. Happy with my current stable.

Besides for better braking I took the CX mag example and am going mini-Vs. All the folks who are going disc, you can sell me your old wheelsets cheap. 

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Permalink Reply by Dave brown on January 13, 2014 at 4:54pm

I thought I'd weigh in as having recently gone to disc. I was in the common situation having a canti bike with 3 sets of tubular wheels built up for it. I never had a problem with cantis and never had stopping issues. I wasn't happy with the fit of my current frame and decided to sell and buy something new and went with a ridley xfire disc and love the performance of the discs. Riding SRAM levers and Hayes mechanical calipers and I have no complaints. I have one set of training wheels which came with the bike and I'm going to order a set of stans iron cross to race with next year. The tire situation was actually pretty easy. One set of pdx and one set of las and the tubeless is great, after 7 years of tubulars I have no complaints and the two sets of clinchers were less then one set of handmade tubulars plus will last longer with easier maintenance and the wheels are now set up with road slicks for the summer/ rollers through the winter. Only complaint is I have three sets of tubulars I'm looking to get rid of if anyone is interested.

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Permalink Reply by Adam_Mac on January 17, 2014 at 4:05pm

I also found it interesting in the velo article that Powers had planned (supposedly) to move back over to cantilevers for his Euro campaign.  Citing them as easier to work on, since he has to do his own wrenching.  I am still on the fence as to whether I will make the jump, one of those horrible waffling situations that will drive you crazy in the offseason...  If I switch, that means I need to swap my wife too, since we like to be able to share a wheel if needed.

I don't plan to be on hydro until it is a bit more affordable, as I would need to outfit multiple bikes, but there seem to be some decent mechanical options out there

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Permalink Reply by Dan Davis on September 4, 2015 at 2:52pm

Funny this is really going through my head right now as my canti Crux is three years old and getting a little long in the tooth, so it’s do I upgrade what I have to go to a new disc bike? I have been on new hydro bike and see that they are really nice,  But I’m racing the first cross race this season and during it I’m telling myself don’t brake so much or just use the rear, so that tells me I don’t need any more braking power then my shorty ultimate are providing! So why the overwhelming rush this season to disc brake bikes? And let not be started on the wheel thing!!!! Tubie’s all the way!!

Dan…

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