Disc brake (history of them ?)

[Maxipedia]

Oh, now I see it! I guess I am a tad blind tonight, in the end. ) I am sorry, I really missed that, I am so stupid!

 

[andrewl]

Loving that 70s Shimano stuff - anyone ever ridden any of it? Why didn't it catch on until so much later - didn't work, not needed or wildly expensive?

I's say it didn't catch on for a few reasons:

Built for touring bikes and thus not widely seen. I doubt many (or any) of the orignial Repack riders had seen a set of these otherwise they would have been trail tested. The stories around the adopting of deraileurs would support this (CK can correct me here if required).

Cycling is also pretty conservative and slow to adopt new technology. Purpose built bikes were also around a good 10 years before the fiorst suspension fork. If you read through the various threads you'll also note a reasonable proportion of riders unwilling to have any suspension and believe cantis are perfectly acceptable for braking. I remember similar argments when we changed from 6 to 7 speed, 7 to 8, 8 to 9, 9 to 10 etc etc.

So I'd say a combination of never new it existed and an "it's overkill" attitude meant that it wasn't a big seller.

Shimano in the 70s also wasn't as big as Shimano is today so thats a likely factor too.

 

[andrewl]

Still my favourite disc equipped bike

 

[Bpool77]

...BUT! But Shimano had disc brakes in the 70's; I am pretty sure I read that somewhere.

Mx

Me, very first opening post


Here's the Auto adjusting 1978 version

MINT.

 

[merckx]

pretty amazing stuff. goes to show just how progressive shimano really is. that 70's hydraulic brake looks not far off what a contemporary version looks like! particularly the lever with reservoir.

 

[yeti-man]

Still my favourite disc equipped bike

yes this is nice!

 

[Thunderchild]

A bit of mechanical disc history. I had a first or early mechanical disc from Hayes. It would lock up when you would brake hard; so hard that I had to use pliers and pull very hard on the cable to release the calipers. Yes it was on the front wheel; yes I endoed but got lucky. When I reported it to Hayes they said, oh yeah. Please send that in and we will give you a new hydraulic. That was in 1999 or 2000.

While walking past a bike rack at a local university, I noticed this Shimano disc and took a picture. The bike was pretty low end.

 

[FST4RD]

I had a healing lo-line (real similar to raleigh 20). It had a factory disc brake on the back, cable pulled.
I'm guessing it would have been late 60's early 70's.
I talked to a bike shop owner who had been opened since the 50's and he said they came out factory like that. He used to sell them like that.