Quote:
Originally Posted by mc-m3
On a road bike, disc brakes are more about modulation and heat capacity. When going down hill at Tour de France speeds not melting your breaks or blowing a tire become real issues.
Most of us don't reach those kinds of speeds so it really isn't an issue for most of us. I have hit those kinds of speeds a couple of times briefly on a tandem and did wish for them at those times.
|
I've only ever heard of tire blowouts from brake heat on tandems. Never on a single. There was a time when alpine descents caused enough heat to soften the glue holding sew-ups to the rim, which would then "roll" and cause a crash, but that was a long while ago.
As I mentioned earlier we have a drum brake on the back of our tandem. I use it as a "drag brake" on tricky descents, constantly engaged. I control it with a bar end shift lever. We've come down from the Blue Ridge Parkway with that setup without any drama whatsoever.
But then I'm pretty old fashioned when it comes to bikes.