Cycling UK Forum

I quite fancy swapping my road bike for a cyclocross bike but the thing that always puts me off is that I don't like using canti brakes with STI/ergo levers - in my previous experience I have found this combination just doesn't work very well no matter how much time you spend faffing about with your straddle wire, toeing in the pads, etc.

I know there are a few cyclocross bikes/frames with disc mounts nowadays and just wondering how well do STI/ergos work with road disc brakes (e.g. Avid BB7?) What is the stopping power/modulation like in comparison to dual-pivot calipers, v-brakes etc

Thanks

Bump.

Has anyone successfully used a cable disc brake with Campagnolo Ergo (drop) levers?

I've used BB7s with Campagnolo Chorus levers and both BB5 and BB7s with Shimano Sora levers. They work well especially on wet days in heavy traffic.

I've got 10sp 105 STIs with BB5s and in the rain last night and today they were superb, in some ways I'm glad the SS with v-brakes was off the road.

Aren't there two versions of BB7s one designed for flat bar levers and one for drop bar levers.

pete75 wrote:Aren't there two versions of BB7s one designed for flat bar levers and one for drop bar levers.

Yes MTN and ROAD.
For drop barred STI's the ROAD version is great,plenty modulation and very good braking in all weathers.

BB7's with Shimano sti's on fully loaded Tourer in the rain. No worries about braking.

fine as long as you get BB7 road not MTB. Avoid Tektro Lyras like the plague.

I've been running TRP Spyre disc brakes with Campagnolo Athena 11s levers for a while now, works great. I installed mine with compressionless housings which should be near mandatory with cable discs as the cable tension is somewhat higher than rim brakes. Overall very happy with the performance, great modulation and good power with not much hand effort. Still however, they are cable operated and can't compare with a proper set of hydraulic discs.

More thoughts here http://smutpedaller.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/trp-spyre-disc-brake-review-first.html

Smut Pedaller wrote:I've been running TRP Spyre disc brakes with Campagnolo Athena 11s levers for a while now, works great. I installed mine with compressionless housings which should be near mandatory with cable discs as the cable tension is somewhat higher than rim brakes. Overall very happy with the performance, great modulation and good power with not much hand effort. Still however, they are cable operated and can't compare with a proper set of hydraulic discs.

More thoughts here http://smutpedaller.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/trp-spyre-disc-brake-review-first.html

I've never used compressionless housings on my four BB7 disc braked bikes,one of which is a tandem on 203 rotors the solos are on 160's,I never need more than one index finger on the drops to stop PDQ and the usual two middle fingers from the hoods.One middle finger takes care of braking with the cross top levers.
In fact up until recently I hadn't even heard of compressionless housings

road discs do use a high cable tension than MTB discs but they don't use a higher tension than other road brakes; they can't do, else you would be pulling harder on the same brake lever.

BTW I have an idea that cable friction may make more difference with a stiffer caliper, because of the effects of sticking friction. But I have not fully thought it through yet, or tested the hypothesis.

cheers

Yes good point Brucey, I guess in my head I was comparing them to typical MTB cable discs which have higher cable pull and lower tension.

I was thinking about this the other day, although the Campag levers do work perfectly fine with Spyres, I think that the levers could do with slightly more cable pull as to get a decent engagement point on the levers I had to straighten the rotor up till it was dead straight and align the calliper. The compressionless housing also helped a bit, as well as improving the general feel of it. Anyone here tried them with the current generation Shimano STI's? AFAIK they have a slightly higher cable pull...

I have a new Croix de Fer. Sora levers and TRP spires. They work fine, stopping me easily from 40+, 2 finger operation from the drops, good modulation. The engagement point is good, after I adjusted it from the original set up, which touched the bar.
It has compressionless outers, but I have nothing to compare to, so don't know if they make a difference.
So good I had a front wheel skid on a wet road. That scared the crap out of me.

Neil

So what's the difference between compressionless outers and ordinary brake outers?

Previously used BB7 Road brakes with Tiagra 4600 STIs, and they were fine. Slightly more finicky to set up than the MTN version; I always find drop levers more fussy with bite point position, and the fixed piston requires a little more precision as a result.

That bike's recently been replaced with another which I've built with Tektro Spyres and 105 5700 STIs, and they also work well (with one caveat, see below). Perhaps slightly spongier-feeling, but in a "different rather than worse" kind of way. The one issue I have is that the full-length outer to the rear is causing almost complete loss of power (it's not the pads/discs, I've swapped those to check); I've just got some Jagwire Racer low-compression outers to try to fix that.

But as long as you get calipers designed for the lesser pull of drop levers, any combination should in theory be fine. As for feel, it's a little different to a standard caliper - but, again, different rather than worse: you shouldn't lose any ability to modulate the brakes. The main difference you'll notice is in the fork: discs require a beefier fork, so your front end may end up stiffer than currently, and if you have a lighter disc fork then you may notice the flex under braking. So if you really want a very compliant fork or a very lightweight build I'd maybe think twice; if they're not a major issues then discs are very likely to be advantageous.