Disc brake failure in CX...

In article
,
Andre Jute wrote:

On Nov 9, 11:27*pm, "Tom Kunich" cyclintom@yahoo. com wrote:
"Andre Jute" wrote in message

...



I think you'll find the pads just wore out, Ryan, and you'll also
find, if they're the pads that came with the brakes, that they're
"organic". Anyone with low-end (and some high-end "environmentally
aware") disc brakes knows the symptoms, and has had a scary experience
or two. The brakes just keep on going, and then suddenly, even if
brand new or apparently thick on the pre-race check, they get some mud
(or even just dust and a little water) on them and the wear rate
shoots up logarithmically. Sintered or metallic brakes do not display
this accelerated failure mode but they squeal and require more bedding-
in and are said to be less good in the wet than the organic kind. At
the mailorder discounters the two kinds of pad cost about the same, so

That sort of makes old fashioned pinch brakes seem pretty effective.

No such thing as a free lunch, Tom. Disc brakes may, as Jim Beam says,
be the cat's whiskers, but they require a certain level of awareness
which isn't quite maintenance. That's one of the reasons I love roller
brakes, they're the true set and forget brake. But I don't know that I
would take Ryan's Ride with rollerbrakes...

It was a pretty demented ride. Basically the course is around a
farmyard, but with an exciting trip up into the back woods, which are
also up a hill.

The course featured the foulest run-up I have ever experienced. I should
have had my toe spikes mounted.

The metallized pads sound like the solution. I should say that for the
first part of the race, the brakes were great! Smooth, effective, and I
was making a good time on people who would ordinarily be beating me,
most of that in the really technical section.

Things changed a bit once I lost the ability to slow down. It was a
minor miracle that the nature of the course was such that I could finish
the race without a serious risk of hurting myself. As it was, I overran
the course a few times on the last lap, but I still had enough
wherewithal to pace a teammate who passed me and then sprint around him
at the finish.

Did you see Chalo's very interesting post about the advantages of rim
brakes a few days ago? I'm trying to decide on buying or building up a
Rohloff bike. The distinguishing feature of a bike with one hub
costing well over a grand is that price cannot be the absolute final
arbiter. So it is probably indicative that an amazing number of the
available bikes with Rohloff rear ends use the Magura HS-11 or -33
hydraulic rim brakes, which cost half as much again as the cheaper
disc brakes from good-name manufacturers. I started noticing after
studying Chalo's letter.

--
Ryan Cousineau http://www.wiredcola.com/
"In other newsgroups, they killfile trolls."
"In rec.bicycles.racing, we coach them."

On Nov 10, 12:50*am, "Mike Jacoubowsky" wrote:
my last CX race was 35 years ago, and
I'm not chomping at the bit to try it again.

Yeah, there are some things you're happy to have done in your youth,
and content that you were smart enough to give them up when the time
came. I gave up rugby (like American football but much more violent),
polo, transocean racing, and so on, with so little affect (1) that I
can't even be bothered to watch them on television, never mind go in
person. But when I heard my son booked a skiing holiday, I wondered if
my sense of balance would still be as good on the slopes as it is on a
bicycle. -- Andre Jute

(1) Not a misspelling; look it up.

On 10 nov, 01:01, Andre Jute wrote:
On Nov 9, 11:27*pm, "Tom Kunich" cyclintom@yahoo. com wrote:





"Andre Jute" wrote in message
So it is probably indicative that an amazing number of the
available bikes with Rohloff rear ends use the Magura HS-11 or -33
hydraulic rim brakes, which cost half as much again as the cheaper
disc brakes from good-name manufacturers. I started noticing after
studying Chalo's letter.

That is because Rohloff equipped bikes are meant to be very reliable
and fool proof. I have one bike with HS33 and I can say the are very
reliable. Pads can be changed in a few seconds. They don't stop any
better as well adjusted V brakes, but you don't have the cable hassle
and they still eat up your rims. For stopping and modulation hydraulic
disk brakes are better, but they are more complicated.

Lou