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| *Vultures Knob>>>Mountain Bike |
What is the best braking system for a mountain bike? V brakes or disc? |
are discs brakes better than V brakes for all weather, cross country riding taking into account time taken to change or repair whilst in the middle of nowhere Depends on the application. For all-around use, V brakes are by far the easier of the 2 types to use and maintain... they are even lighter. If you are in relatively flat but heavily wooded terrain V brakes would be my choice. For discs, I have to break this into 2 categories... mechanical and hydraulic... Mechanical discs, if they are good ones (from Shimano, Avid, or Hayes) are relatively troublefree, but they really aren't any better than a top-of-the-line v brake. When you get into Promax and some of the "budget" discs it is usually a better idea to go with V brakes unless you like the look and are willing to tinker with them pretty frequently. Hydraulics are about the same story. The cheaper hydraulics (Avid Juicy 3, etc) are about as good as higher end mechanicals, but tend to have a shorter maintenance cycle which means brake tuneups will likely be more frequent. They do allow much better brake feel than mechanicals though. As you get into the upper range of hydraulics it becomes a preference thing... right now the poison of choice- when you can find them- is Shimano XT. The real bad thing about hydraulics is that they are practically impossible to service on the trail so if you tear a line, you have no brakes. Source(s): 27 years in the industry disc brakes are better i reckon disc brakes are better in all weather conditions. The problem with V-brakes, that I find at least, is that they really slip when they get wet or muddy or dirty or anything like that. It's a pain when you're going off road, and then your brakes start to fail as you're screaming down a hill. Sure, they still "work" but that slammin' stopping power is gone. Disc brakes are better for off-roading situations. As well, if you're out biking and you smack up your rims and bend them out of shape (just a bit, not totally), the rims will clip the v-brakes. They won't bother the disc brakes. So, when you're bombing it off road, and hit a tree or a rock or w.e. and bend the rim, it won't start snagging your brakes. However, v-brakes are lighter. If you're racing, you'll want v-brakes. once you used disc you will wonder why you didn't do it sooner. Remember never to squeeze the brake lever of hydraulic disc with wheel off. Found out hard way. In mosquito back-country around anchorage. Fast is good. I use hydraulic disc now but tried mechanical 1st. Still have them on 2003 Jekyll. All the rest of mt. bikes I use hydraulic. I got bleed kit and cable cutters. As far as v- brakes> usually reserved to the short distance racers but that's changing as events change like 24 hr races, endurance racing, extreme endurance (Costa Rica, X-Africa). Persoal choice Time factor is about identical to change, except------------ when u r tired, muddy, mosquito infested, Adrenalining out, freezing, racing, late or in a similar super fast predicament, YOU DECIDE Sorry this is so long, but I had to tell that story. :o) There are a lot of great advantages to disc brakes, but a few frustrations as well. They're a different animal. V-brakes are GREAT in dry conditions and when they are set up properly on a decent rim with good brake pads. They're light, simple, and stop really well. Where v-brakes really suck is anytime there's moisture or water.....and that goes triple if the moisture is on a sandy or clay trail surface. I remember fondly the sound of v-brakes grinding my rim sidewalls away and filling the woods with loud abrasive noises! You have to be vigilant about this if you use v-brakes in moist areas. Ritchey makes some awesome blue pads for wet conditions, and there are some great trials-bike pads that are hard to find in shops (green color, but not like the ceramic rim green pads). They still won't do as well as discs when it's wet, though. A v-brake story: a couple years ago at the 12 Miles of Hell (which, oddly, has never been 12 miles in length, usually 15 to 17....and yes, it's hellish).....I watched this guy's tire and tube exPLODE! We figured it was a sharp rock, because that happens alot out there, but it turned out that his rim sidewalls had been worn so thin from braking that the hook bead had completely torn away from the rim over about 1/3 of the circumference. The tire pressure just finally made it blow up. He actually rode his bare rim on bare rock for several more miles.....sounded like a Sherman tank! Last I saw him, he was holding a bird's nest of 8 pieces of rim, spokes sticking out everywhere, and carrying his bike on his shoulder. So disc brakes avoid all that.....and an added benefit is that having a slightly damaged wheel (or out of true) won't affect your ride as much. I like simple, and I like field-fixable....so when I finally tried discs, I got mechanicals. I love 'em. If you bed the pads properly when you first set them up on the bike, they'll stop better than v-brakes and nearly as well as hydraulics. You have to be more careful with oils so you don't get the pads contaminated (the rotor can be cleaned, but the pads need to be kept safe). Car exhaust will sometimes dirty up your rotors. The good thing is that discs will still stop really well even if they're a little dirty, and work great when it's wet. If you go on extended far-out trips, all you need to bring is a cable and some pads, and maybe a few extra rotor torx screws....then you're pretty much set to work on them if need be. I worried at first that rocky areas would make it easy to bend the rotors, but in reality it hardly ever happens. Even in my urban rides (i.e. crashes and screwups) I haven't managed to ding up or bend a rotor yet. Hydraulic discs are usually more grabby, and they're much lighter weight than mechanicals. They have a lot of hassles and issues, though.....more to learn, harder to find service parts, more costly to service and repair, need special tools, and they're generally not serviceable on the trail. Big crashes can cause broken or weepy fittings, and then you're stuck. If you have little problems with them, sometimes they don't stop at all -- you'll never get that problem with mechanicals unless your fork blows and you get oil all over everything. BUT....hydraulics do stop better most of the time. The benefits outweigh the risks for most people. For all those reasons, I still like mechanicals better....if you need more stopping power with mechanicals (steep downhill trails, for example) just go up to a larger front rotor and be sure to use semi-met pads. Hope this helps, sorry it was so long. Disc brakes are better in muddy, wet conditions. How many times have you heard a nice grinding sound from your rim-brakes after flying through a nice deep muddy patch? With discs, unless the mud is 12 inches deep, you're not going to get that happening. As for changing the brakes - the pads are a hell of a lot easier to replace than v brakes. Take the wheel off, pull out the old pads (held in by magnet, and with an easy to pull tab), push the pistons back into place with a flat tool that you'll no doubt be carrying, and slip the new pads in. There's no concerns about aligning the pads properly or anything as this happens automatically. In fact the only difficult thing with disc brakes is bleeding them, which you surely won't be doing mid-ride, and also if the rotor gets bent then you're pretty much stuffed out on the trail. People say they're a lot heavier than v brakes, but buy a bike with a disc specific frame and wheelset and you'll save some of that weight back in disc-specific rims and a lack of v brake mounting bosses. Some other strengths of discs - you can change rotor sizes to affect stopping power (as in stick on a larger diameter rotor and you'll stop better); rather than squeezing v brakes onto a bollow wheel rim, you are braking against a solid piece of metal (the pads can grip harder with zero flex in braking surface); they look pretty damn sweet too ;) Personally since moving up to discs, I won't be going back. They're so easy to maintain (apart from bleeding the hoses), have excellent stopping power and, with my new Avid Juicys, they have plenty of modulation to avoid the brakes slamming right on and throwing you off. The only other downer is that the pads (like in a car) need burning in, which basically means taking it easy for a short while until the braking surface roughs up, and the true power of the brakes becomes apparent. |
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