Gattonero wrote:Some disk brakes are actually very reliable, and can be even bled on the field.
I.e. Hope brakes work with DOT 5.1 (any car shop sells it) and all you need is a piece of hose, a bottle to collect the fluid, and to gradually fill the reservoir at the top.
Shimano's can do in the same way, the mineral brake fluid too can be found in car shops, if emergency dictates it.
Damaging the hose? It takes a whole lot to do so, if an hydraulic hose gets pulled up to the point of being cut or simply bent beyond being usable, the whole bike must have had a big bash, and I would imagine big dents on the top or down tube...
Rotors can bend easy, but can easily be bent back too. Just put a piece of white paper under the caliper and use it as sight, while using common pliers.
FWIW, I've seen people more in trouble when a bike without wheels was knocked off, and the v-brake spring been damaged beyond repair.
I remember the skepticals in the Mtb world, many many years ago some people would go mad against suspension forks, then went mad against disk brakes.
It's all about getting used to, things have pro's and con's. Everything needs to be learned
Hi
I'm intrigued re rotor repair. In our fleet I briefly ran 10 front disc braked bikes. In the first year all of them had problems with disc rub - I suspect mostly caused by people ramming them into bike racks outside supermarkets and the like. I spent many an happy hour with a huge pair of adjustable spanners bending the things around but never got them to run properly and replaced the discs instead (they're cheap after all... ). I concluded that once bent the material had stretched and nothing would get it true again. Do you have some tip on how you got them dead straight again as with the change in Ridgeback spec I'm going to come up against the same problem again. I'll add that rear discs generally don't have the same problems.
Don't get me wrong I love riding discs - it's just the reliability/repairability of the system that concerns me.
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