Disc Brake Power......

[Grisley Paul]

Evening Guys,

Am after a bit of advice/ opinion on the following.....

Just got back into biking after many many many years away.... anyway, I've never ridden disc brakes before and my new (old) Proflex that I've just bought has a Hope M4 mono on the front and Deore V rear......

Now I'd not even ridden a bike in about 4 years until 2 weeks ago and since I've been out on a regular basis and I just thought discs would be more powerful ?

Without getting into brand wars and ''oh that's an old setup'' etc..... bear in mind I've only ridden cantis till now, I was surprised at the performance.... they are good and do the job but was expecting to get the back wheel flying up in the air....

Is this a common misconception to newcomers ? I'm not a tiny guy either 6ft 13.5 st so they have mass to stop but I genuinely think the Deore V rear is more powerful...... :?

 

[stewlewis]

I can proper lock up a wheel with disc, they do lose power if the pads and/or discs are even slightly contaminated. Maybe your old ones are? They may need bleeding too, or pad adjustment if your brake model provides that.

As for brands etc, I have many differing ones and in my opinion any of them are great, disc are brilliant.

The beauty of discs for me is the feel, hydraulics are so smooth to use it's a joy and the modulation through the lever allows such fine braking they're great.

As for differing brands there isn't much between them, the lever feel, the build quality, the pads adjustment and centring etc.

But, I still think hydro discs are the bees knees. And yeah, I'd have them on a road bike, for lever feel alone. The power may not be needed on a roadie but the modulation and feel is good and it's allow different rim design in the road world without a braking surface.

 

[suburbanreuben]

THey may well need a bleed. instructions are available on the Hope website.
The trouble with these old Hopes is that they are often neglected, especially in their old age, and yours are lik,ely to be about 10 years old or more. When they work as they should though...

 

[jamabikes]

they are new pads buddy and neeed time to bed in. take em down a few descents to get them nice and hot then douse them in water. can take a good few miles to reach max performance.

 

[02gf74]

from simple mechanical persspective, on paper v-brakes should be more powerfeel as they grab the wheel at the rim whereas disc brakes grab the wheel near the centre but there is more to it than that.

 

[Grisley Paul]

Thanks for replies, There's nothing wrong with the brake and it's fully bled..... as jama says the pads are new and I'm off out tomorrow for around 30 miles or so, and hopefully they will bed in nicely and come to me a bit more.....

Like I said though, nothing wrong with the setup at all, was maybe just expecting too much....