Di2 Discs
It’s not the want, desire, or that they’re finally ready for prime time that’s going to sell disc brakes on road bikes for customers or NOT. It’s how they sound. The screech will either annoy you or you’ll have to just block it out of your mind. Road.cc picks up the story of a CX racer who tweeted his Di2 Hydro setup. That tweet has since been removed and it reminded me to write about racing discs at CX Worlds.
I now love/hate them. If you recall, I was racing the grassy-mud horse in Louisville and in those conditions, they worked exceptionally well. I never used the front brake and rode that bike until it froze up. With cowbellls deafening all other sounds, I didn’t care so much about the grating screech it made. Just that when I grabbed a handful of brake, they worked.
Grinded to a halt, but the brakes worked!
In fast grass crits, where speed is scrubbed, nuanced, and brakes barely tapped, I want a rim brake. Hyrdaulics won’t replace the immediate feedback of a pad into a rim. They also don’t work when your rim and bike is frozen like Han Solo in carbonite.
A touring, rain bike and a Dura-Ace level? Sure. Welcome it for the rainy conditions we ride in, if the sound isn’t deafening.
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