1.Today I want to talk about disc brakes and how their solutions to a…

Today I want to talk about disc brakes and how their solutions to a problem that never really existed. Let's cue that intro! The big question is this. How do we use cycling as a tool to improve our health, our happiness and our longevity? That is the question and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Anthony Walsh and welcome to the Rowman Podcast. Rowman! Welcome back to another roadman cycling podcast. It's another Monday. It's the start of another week. And today I want to talk about the dirty truth behind disc brakes. Chris Froome has come out in the past week and he's basically torn disc brakes apart and almost not to put words in Froome's mouth because I will give you some direct quotes from him. But they're a little bit pointless and we haven't reached the stage in the evolution of the technology of the disc brake To make them usable at the very present moment. I want to go into that And I want to give you my thoughts on why they're just something that doesn't need to exist Unfortunately, if you've bought them you're probably stuck with them at the moment because it's difficult to flip flop between disc brakes and rim brakes and and ultimately look the manufacturers have spoken and that's the way they want the industry to move. So as Chris Froome said, I accept that this is the way the industry is going to go and as a boy-grader we'll need to adapt. I want to jump in and talk about all that but before I do let me mention patreon.com. Fox Patreon is how we fund the podcast and COVID has been especially tough on small businesses and you've seen how vulnerable they are and how transient they are and that you can't just take them for granted that they'll be around forever. And it sort of just brought up in my head the thoughts of we used to have a show on Facebook called the A1 show and it went out every week once a week and it was brilliant with thousands of viewers, hundreds of thousands of viewers towards the end of each episode. And it's disappeared and it disappeared because we didn't adequately monetize it and that's what Patreon has become. Patreon has become the way to monetize this podcast. And so what I ask from you the listener, if you're getting some value, if you're enjoying the content, to take two minutes, pause the podcast, head over to patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore watch, even if you've never subscribed on patreon before, I take you two minutes to do it. Buy me the price of a beer once a month to say thanks for the podcast. I'm getting some value out of this. I'm getting some knowledge out of it. I'm getting getting some laughs out of it, whatever you're getting out of it, because you must be getting something out of your coming back episode after episode. Do that over on patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore watch and the link is in the bio. Right guys, let's jump into a disc breaks and the dirty truth about them. Okay, there's no denying that disc breaks work. They stop you in the wet, they stop you in the dry and a drawback of rain breaks or criticism has been that if you're hurtling at serious speed, especially mountain passes on the west in carbon rims, breaking can be compromised, you have increased stop and distance.

2.Is the pro of disc brakes and that is the use case

So, that is the pro of disc brakes and that is the use case. But the cons, I'm going to jump into some of these, like, let's jump into them one by one, like the constant rubbing. So Chris Froome has identified and he said the difference between the pads and the discs is just too narrow. And I don't think the pistons retrace quite the way they're meant to. For me, anytime I've ridden a disc brake or any time I train with a friend who's on disc brakes, it constantly sounds like they're brakes are rubbing. And it constantly sounds like they're brakes are rubbing because they're brakes are rubbing. And if you stop and you spin the wheel, they're brakes are rubbing every single time. Now I've been in enough races and I've had enough training days on the bike where I wasn't feeling too well. My legs weren't good and I've always turned to a training partner. like, it's my back brake rubbing and he could drop back and go, now your back brake's not rubbing and mentally, psychologically, that helps a lot to know your brake isn't rubbing, especially if you're not on a good day and you go, oh okay, maybe I'll come around. But if that naglin feeling is in your head gone, it's my brake rubbing, it's my brake rubbing. I remember a few seasons ago I wrote a Merida with the integrated brakes that were kind of hidden behind the rear chainstay and hidden behind the front fork and I couldn't see if they're a rubbing. And ultimately that's why I moved away from the bike. I love the frame, I love the responsiveness of Maria, but I hated that feature of not being able to see if my breaks were rubbing. It just cracked me mentally and I couldn't go deep enough. If I'm suffering generally in a race or if I'm suffering on a try-in spin, I can take solace and go, okay, I'm suffering, but everyone else is suffering. And if I've tried to hurt, I know I can suffer more than other people. So I'm like, okay, I can suffer a bit longer than he can. But if it feels like I'm suffering and nobody else is suffering because my break is rubbing, cracks me straight away. So I need to know the brakes aren't rubbing and on disc brakes you can be almost sure your brakes are at all times rubbing. If you pick your boy go up spin your wheel you're always going to hear this that just absolutely cracks me. You've extra mechanicals you've more moving parts we've seen this with you know the transition across to electric from standard. There's something nice and there's something tactile about pulling something and being able to see it moving across or clicking a gear and it's the same reason driving a clutch car is nicer than an automatic transmission car. There's something nice about that hanaka boom boom. It's like you want to interact with the world around you. It's like doors that open automatically. Fuck off. I can open the door on myself like stairs that move like we can walk up the stairs where losing all connection with the world around us and I don't want the bike to go that way and the move across to electric gears and disc brakes, we're losing that hack-tiled sense of connection between man and machine. Another big problem with disc brakes, and again, it's something for whom it touches upon, is long descents, they're overheating and they're warping.

3.They're not keeping shape on these long descents, and as someone…

So they're not keeping shape on these long descents, and as someone who's just come back from Colombia on Alto de La Tras and you're descending for the best part of two hours, a disc brake's just not going to cut a comment down there because it is going to warp, but it's gonna overheat and it's gonna rub even worse than it did before. Also what absolutely cracks me beyond belief is when you take the wheel off the disc bike, if you pull the brake, the pads are locked, they need to spend the next half an hour with a fucking screwdriver trying to pry the pads apart. Absolutely shocking design feature, I don't know the people who love disc brakes, you just slip a little piece of credit card in there but it's It's just dumb. It's like take your wheel off, fix in a puncture, who brings two pieces of credit card with them. It's bullshit design feature. Also, they look dumb as shit like the disc brakes on the frame. Like there's something sweet about the old rim brake. They're heavier. And most of us that's been riding for any amount of time, we have a serious amount of wheels lying around. We have China wheels, we've race wheels, we've deep section, we've narrow section, Bike manufacturers please save us someone because they as from my identify he said look like set the industry wants to go this way and we will need to adapt. Well we only need to adapt if a bike manufacturer doesn't come out and save us. Please someone save us and keep making rim breaks because they work, they look cool, they don't rub, they're easy maintenance. Just please save us and if you're on the fence about a boing a boink at the moment or you're committed to boing a boink and you're on the fence between disc brakes and rim brakes. Go with the rim brakes. Go with your tradition because I felt at the very start when rim when disc brakes came out and I feel it more powerfully than ever now. You'll be on the right side of history if you choose rim brakes. People are going to look at disc brakes and go, that was a misstep in our evolution. It was the solution to a problem that never existed. Good night and God bless. Let's bury disc brakes. Once and for all. Hey everybody, it's Anthony again. Really quick, I want to invite you to join, arguably the best thing I've ever put out inside the roadman community. It's a challenge. It's a challenge called a 14 day kickstart challenge. So regardless of where your fitness is at right now, this is going to be the catalyst for making you faster and making you the leaner. I've created this challenge to take the guesswork out of everything. It's 14 days of training plans, regardless of what your level is. There's Masters, Beginner, Advanced. There's Mail Plans, Shopping List and even a video course holding your hand and talking you true at all. So what I recommend you do right now is just stop everything, press pause on this audio and go to roadmansoidglings.com forward slash 14 day or check out the link in the bio. That's roadmansoidglings.com slash 14 day.