How long does it take to change a wheel with a disc brake in a professional road race? About 19 seconds, judging by this video uploaded to Youtube from the Tour of Qatar.
The 2016 season has started with most of the pro teams choosing not to switch to disc brakes, despite the UCI extending its trial first run last year, with the exception of the small Dutch Pro Continental Roompot-Oranje Peloton team. It has made the wholesale change from rim brakes to disc brakes this season.
– Are disc brakes necessary on professional race bikes?
The team is riding the new Isaac Element Disc bike, and the bikes are equipped with SRAM Red hydraulic disc groupsets and FFWD carbon fibre wheels. The frame (as far as we can tell) has thru-axles front and rear, but the bike company hasn’t yet released any details of the bike other than this leaked photo that we reported on recently.
One of the arguments we keep hearing against disc brakes is that disc brakes will slow wheel changes. This video, the first time we’ve witnessed a wheel change on a race bike with disc brakes, debunks that argument. It doesn’t look any slower to our eyes than a regular wheel change.
Do team mechanics practise wheel changes? Formula One teams run regular drills to ensure wheel changes can be done as quickly as possible, and it’s certainly something we reckon the Roompot-Oranje Peloton team has conducted.
– Everything you need to know about disc brakes
The other point worth mentioning, though the terrain isn’t the most challenging in the Tour of Qatar, is that there have so far not been any recorded incidents of the Roompot-Oranje Peloton team colliding with the rest of the peloton on regular rim brakes. The real test will surely be a mountainous race or one of the Spring Classics.
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17 thoughts on “Video: How long does it take to change a disc brake wheel in a professional road race?”
Fab change out- I just wish
Fab change out- I just wish they’d hold their camera phones sideways on when recording video- makes a hell of a difference!
Certainly seems to debunk the
Certainly seems to debunk the myth for team mechanic changes. Neutral service is another matter, mainly due to lack of standardisation. Like this team if you are going to go disk it’s got to be all the team. Having some on rim & some on disk will be a no no surely.
Bare hands whilst changing a
Bare hands whilst changing a deadly disc. Was it Chuck Norris?
When has the time taken to
When has the time taken to change a disc wheel ever been considered an issue? Be more interested to know how they deal with issue of disc and caliper alignment across multiple bikes and wheelsets.
mrblobby wrote:
Using the same framesets and wheel make across the board will mitigate this.
If you are using different wheel makes ie. Mavic and Zipp then you’ll have alignment issues.
Shims for rotor alignment
It’s pretty easy to align rotors from multiple wheels and differnt hubs with your caliper set up. They sell shims that install between the rotor and hub. I had this problem in changing my wife’s training wheel on and off her bike every time it rained and she wanted to use the trainer. I had to re-adjust the caliper every time I changed wheels. The shims are 0.2mm and I bought a backage of 12 shims. I used 8 shims to bring things into alignment. You have to figure out which hub pushes the rotor outboard the most and shim the other hubs to match. It took a little trial and error, but was not difficult. Now wheel changes are a breeze.
Looked about 5 or 6 seconds
Looked about 5 or 6 seconds slower than a slick change on a standard wheel. Difference between 1st and 7th or 8th in a stage race TT.
There are 2 extra operations, withdrawing and re-inserting the through axle. The extra delay is nearly as much as Greg Lemond’s winning TdF margin over Laurent Fignon.
Grizzerly wrote:
Is that for a rear wheel? And comparing the (possibly) first ever mid-race thru-axle change with the best QR changes ever probably isn’t a totally representative comparison. 😉
Either way, the time taken to change the wheel doesn’t directly mean that many seconds lost, though, does it, unless the puncture happens close to the end of a stage? Normally they’ll catch the peloton through drafting cars, sticky bottles etc, for slightly longer, right?
Personally I think the whole thing about neutral service is a bit of a red herring – how often do neutral service wheels actually get used? I suspect that we’ll just see a move to neutral service bikes rather than wheels if there are any issues with compatibility.
Grizzerly wrote:
Wow. I imagine when the sun came up this morning you shook your head in wry amusement that anyone would buy that Copernican heliocentric bullshit.
surly_by_name wrote:
Too heavy for 8am on a Saturday. So heavy I’m not even going to Google it to find out WTF your on about…….
But I will
surly_by_name wrote:
Wow, that was fast. And a
Wow, that was fast. And a rear wheel swap, too!
Get real, that took nearly
Get real, that took nearly twice as long.
This is no news to anyone who
This is no news to anyone who actually uses disc brakes.
“Be more interested to know how they deal with issue of disc and caliper alignment across multiple bikes and wheelsets.”
Within limits hydraulic disc pads will self adjust to accomodate small alignment differences, and wouldn’t this argument be the same for different rim widths and brake tracks on a rim brake wheel?
I’m also pretty sure that the humble neutral service mechanic can handle swapping either type of wheel and has enough room on the roof to carry enough of each.
The only valid question with respect to disc brakes in the pro peloton is “Will they make the rider quicker where it matters in a race?” and this will be answered in the white heat of competition, not the hot air of armchair experts.
Maybe I’m missing something,
Maybe I’m missing something, but why not just use QR axles like they do with their rim brake equipped bikes? Then it would be loads faster.
Chris wrote:
Stiffer. And there is some debate about QR wheel security with disc brakes. See http://sheldonbrown.com/skewers.html#disc
I suspect thru axle is just as fast as QR with “lawyer lips” anyway.
Never understood this qr pull
Never understood this qr pull out theory. I have qr with discs. The tyre breaks traction if I grab the brakes. If your qr come loose then they weren’t done up properly before the ride commenced. I have two sets of disc wheels. I interchange them often and I don’t need to adjust anything. If the pads tinkle against the disc, a quick press of the brakes aligns the pistons, job done. 🙂
Obviously you must be using the proper hydraulic set up 😀