Road disc brakes question

[gregblow]

I am interested in disc brakes, but every time I ride with someone who has them, they always seem to squeal. Do you guys have the same experience? I actually test road a BMC disc bike from a local bike shop and it squealed so bad that I was completely turned off by the technology. It is probably overkill to have one down here is South Florida. I would love to hear some feedback from the forum.

[Clancy]

Maybe not overkill, they far outperform in rain, not only in descending. Out perform in every aspect really.

Squealing brakes can result from pads not quite seated yet, or dirty pads, dirty rotors. My hydraulic road brakes are silent, the mechanical brakes I've had, BB7, tended to squeal if not set up perfectly.

My experience is properly set up disc brakes don't squeal. Well, maybe once and a while, but seriously, are pretty quiet.

[sales guy]

Brake squeal happens for two reasons. The biggest, the pads haven't been burned(bedded) in yet. If they are cleaned and set up right, make sure they are burned in and they shouldn't squeal. If you ask the shop if they burned them and they say Huh? Pretty easy to figure out the problem.

[AJosiahK]

I would agree with Clancy on how and why they make noise.

Properly bedded and set up correctly they could hardly make a sound.

I have several disc bikes, and love the feel, power and modulation. That being said my road bike is still the good ol rim brake caliper kind. Brakes just fine.

You would likely save a little weight and certainly money if you went with a rim brake road bike. Especially being in FL.

Good luck with the search!

[oldpotatoe]

Originally Posted by AJosiahK

I would agree with Clancy on how and why they make noise.

Properly bedded and set up correctly they could hardly make a sound.

I have several disc bikes, and love the feel, power and modulation. That being said my road bike is still the good ol rim brake caliper kind. Brakes just fine.

You would likely save a little weight and certainly money if you went with a rim brake road bike. Especially being in FL.

Good luck with the search!

Gotta agree. 'Out perform in every way', disc brakes, imply that road calipers are lacking, soft, flexible, unsafe somehow. They make a big difference in certain scenarios, others, not really 'worth' the expense, weight, set up procedures.

Imho, of course.

Squealing? Pretty common, yup, gotta 'bed' them or turkey gobble for sure.

[dustyrider]

Originally Posted by oldpotatoe

Squealing? Pretty common, yup, gotta 'bed' them or turkey gobble for sure.

Unless they're sram of course!

[FlashUNC]

They shouldn't squeal. Sounds like a bad set-up.

Have them on my groad bike. I'm a fan, but still not sold on the need on road.

[gregblow]

Thanks for all the responses guys

[Ken Robb]

Can anyone comment on how long disc pads last vs. dual pivot/canti pads? How much do they cost? How often must hydraulics be bled?

[biker72]

Use resin pads. Fixed my problem.

[sales guy]

Originally Posted by Ken Robb

Can anyone comment on how long disc pads last vs. dual pivot/canti pads? How much do they cost? How often must hydraulics be bled?

Second part first- Shimano hydros last longer and need bled less often. Also, they are immensely easier to bleed.
SRAM is getting better. But they are not as easy as Shimano. Back when it was just Avid hydros from SRAM, they sucked huge. They needed bled constantly. Even when a pro did them they sucked and really quickly.
You can get the bleed equipment anywhere. The videos are good and the instructions given on paper suck.

Ok, pads- disc pads, it depends on how hot they get and what kind you're using. Similar to regular caliper pads. I have a set of discs since 2005 and I've only changed the pads once. It depends on the junk you ride thru too. That saying, caliper pads for me, they last almost as long. But I maintain my stuff all the time. After every ride I lightly clean my bike. So things last much longer.

IceTech pads with the cooling fins, they are more expensive. More than even carbon specific pads from people like Enve or Swiss Stop. Regular ones without the fins, a little cheaper than caliper pads.

[dem]

Resin pads and Icetech rotors, I'm gettin' about 1500 miles for pads and 3000 for rotors. I suspect there's correlation between worn rotors and fresh pads and vice versa, but I haven't figured it out yet.

Take this as literally the absolute worst possible conditions however - mud, rain, 15-50% descents that I ride the brakes on, 15,000+ feet of ascent every week (Check the Paceline Forum Strava club leaderboard for proof!

There's no reason to bleed hydraulic brakes unless you crack them open, might not be a bad idea every couple of years, I suppose.

I'd say consumables are the only downside for me, but the improvement is enough that it is doubtful I'd ever buy a rim brake bike again.

[etu]

unless you're riding a lot of long descents in the rain with wider tires, they're not really worth it IMO. i'm surprised that they've become such standard equipment on new bikes.
even for gravel in the hilly SF Bay Area, I am finding rim brakes even on carbon wheels to work just fine.
yes, i did have a bike with wide tires, fenders and discs and it did work better in the winter when it was really wet.

[bikinchris]

If you are riding in the dry, especially flat world, disc brakes are not going to excite you. When you are riding on the flat and it's raining like the proverbial cow pissing on a flat rock, you will like disc brakes. If you are doing so on a hilly or worse road, you are really going to like disc brakes. Not because they stop faster or harder, but because they are much more consistent and predictable.
Disc brakes that are set up correctly and have had a mechanic bed them in correctly are NOT going to squeal. Especially with non metallic pads.