Will disc brakes be banned at British sportives?

Was also there on the Mallorca 312 and with the weather the 167k was the right choice for me too!

Saw loads of disc brake road bikes and no one stopped them from riding the event. I used a hired bike with rim brakes and the weather was miserable and wet at the top of Puig Major and on the way down and Ultegra 6800 rim brakes on a hire bike that had done some miles were effective enough. Tyre grip was the main worry but I stayed up. I've never seen so many people go down though and into ambulances.

If people want to use disc brakes let them.

Disc brakes banned? Hurrah!

Glad my Pashley Roadster has drum brakes. Now the Sportive world is *mine*

If UK sportives ban discs I'll still ride the one's I currently ride the only difference I'll have to stop at pub for food instead of footstop.My entry fee will pay for my nicer lunch as all ones I do are open road no one can stop me

When I was a kid my racer's side pull brakes were rubbish. The number of times I came off, while bombing it down some steep hill, usually with a sharp bend at the bottom, while applying maximum grab on the levers, doesn't bear mentioning. Plus there a was no such thing as cycle helmets in the 70's yet not one of my many friends ever suffered severe injuries of any sort whilst riding. Maybe being so vulnerable to injury made us just a little bit more cautious; I don't know.

Would I have chosen disc brakes back then? If you'd have asked me immediately after each crash, I'd have said "Defo, get them discs on now!"

Did not having decent brakes stop me from bombing it down as fast as possible? Nope.

Did it toughen me up? Well, I'm not sure about that. I like to think you need to be a hard bastard in the first place, to not give a monkeys about stopping safely.

My toughening up came when I got rid of my stabilisers at Age 4 1/2 and repeatedly fell off all afternoon until I cracked that balancing thing. My father couldn't stop laughing as he held my seat to support me for a few yards each time and then pushed me into the rear of the family car, over and over again. He never once cared about the chance of a scratch on his beloved Ford Zephyr, put there by the head of his eldest. Don't you just love dads?

As to disc brakes, I wouldn't purposefully buy a sportive road bike with them, because I find reducing the weight of the wheel is much more important to get you up the hill more easily than worrying about the downhill bit but if they were fitted already then so be it. I've done the occasional touring fully laden and I think they have a definite place in that area of cycling. I also think I would probably choose discs over V brakes on a mountain bike.

I don't think banning them is the answer. Let's face it the odd minor cut that may be sustained from contact with a spinning disc is so unbelievably remote as to be irrelevant. Surely we want to breed tough kids not wimps & wusses.

It's a rollercoaster ride! UCI to reinstate disc brake trial in the professional road peloton in June

If this happens (and I very much doubt it will), then come ride Audax instead. Disc brakes (and pretty much everything/anything else) appear to be welcome in my experience

I recall that Campag's early quick releases had to be redesigned following fear of injuries in the pro peleton. The later type had a curved lever that tucked in out of the way.

Maybe disc brakes will need some rethinking...

Presumably they’ll have something to say once they’ve tracked down all that old kit and hired a new performance director and whatnot.

HA HA

Thanks Alex

I also rode the rather damp Mallorca 312 on Saturday, on a pair of carbon rim braked Boras. I was in the all-time top 10% of Stravamugs on the descents, proving that one anecdote is as pointless as another.

The only hairy moment came when accelerating out of a hairpin on a climb, the front wheel deciding to dart sideways instead of move forward. Luckily, it regained traction before I was given the chance to have a nice little lie down on the tarmac.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nANsrwcWeTM

Not for the squeamish.

I did the Mallorca 312 (actually the 167) on saturday with my disc bike, no problems at all and I wasn't alone. Rather glad that I did given the wet conditions.