Fran Ventoso: Disc brakes should never have been allowed in peloton

If it's just the sharp edges of the rotors, then couldn't the rotors be machined to have round edges?  Seems simple enough.  Cheer up bike industry, this is not a loss of sales, but an opportunity to sell even higher end round-edged disc rotors at an even higher price (for those willing to part with the money).    Even better for industry would be from UCI on down to require these rounded rotors for all sanctioned races.  Massive sales, massive $$$$.

I am not knocking disc brakes.  I love them.   I'll use calipers for all out lightweight sporting rides in the dry lasting less than 3 hours,  but for anything else I am changing to disc brakes.  

Disc brakes banned in pro level competition? I couldn't care less because I don't race - I see the advantages for myself and will buy a bike with discs even for the road for my circumstances.

As for those claiming discs are ugly and therefore should be banned, by that logic a lot of stuff should be banned (such as the fugly race kits some teams pay huge sums for), but I for one think discs look good. 

Re : chainsets. There is always an exposed part of the chainset, which is none too difficult to hit with your knee - believe me - even your own left knee on your own chainset from particularly intrepid commentor here. There is also absolutely no need for it to be spinning - if you throw yourself at any jagged piece of stationary metal with sufficient force you can cause some quite interesting injuries. That force is surprisingly low IME... I'm not sure if that's what happened here, or whether is was a disc, but then again neither is Ventoso.. I will say it doesn't look like any disc injury i've seen before and does have characteristics that seem to suggest other causes, but we just don't know.

WHat a lot of rubbish. The point before skidding is the fastest way to slowing so as disc brake will offer better modulation control and thus quicker stopping by feathering closer to that margin of fastest stopping. So if he was running disc then he would have avoided his injuries by stopping in time.

There's risk in everyday life even from crossing the street so to say what might happen or even happen because of disk is an illogical statement as many people have died on rim brakes in the past. You can wear full face helmet, pads and still get femoral bleeding, just as Cédric Gracia once did on an innocent farm track. The answer is to have someone stick a knee to it till medics take over. 

To follow the illogic of his train wreck of a thinking process then chainrings should be ban in place with belt drive. Full face and pads to be mandatory with stabilisers or perhaps everyone hook on a static bike instead of risking life on the roads. Everything bubble wrapped with a bow tie.

Also Pat McQuaid is synonymous with bribery, corruption, defamation, doping etc. The only quote I want to hear from him is an apology for the damage he has greatly contributed to the sport I love. 

This whole piece is an exercise in trolling.

Yes, there are lots of ways a rider (pro or otherwise) will be injured in a crash.

I would have thought it was more important to minimise the risk of injury from any part on the bike - and the rider.

Therefore, I do not understand why the discs are not completely round (no cut outs) and the edge not rounded - therefore blunt!

This would probably make them perfectly safe.

Hope he gets better soon, that's a nasty cut.

Less importantly - I've got no way of knowing whether that cut was caused by a disc rotor and I am not sure anyone else is either (there are lots of sharp things attached to a bike that can cut you when you crash, and plenty of blunt things as well - I got a gash like that on my arm from a gutter (I think) once). I think its a shame that a decision has been taken on the basis of anecdotal rather than statistical evidence, but on the other hand if the riders themselves have decided that they don't want to have them (I think this suspension of disc brakes has been prompted by the CPA) you have to respect that. Although I imagine teams like Roompot - who I think have decided (for budgetary reasons) to use only disc equipped bikes this season are going to feel some pain if the suspension continues.

I think some of this is also down to the riders and perhaps education/practise.  Going from a caliper to a disc is some jump in power.  If you're used to grabbing a big handful of caliper brake and not coming to an instant stop, it'll take a while to adjust to a system where the exact opposite happens.

Maybe the UCI are being a bit hasty here and could have implemented some form of educational riding course for the use of discs?

The really amazing thing about this is that Pat McQuaid appears to have been right about something.

The really amazing thing about this is that Pat McQuaid appears to have been right about something.

I can see this happening. From his account he goes into the back of the rider in front (not uncommon with or without disc brakes, as others have asserted). If he unclips his left leg to keep upright and touches the brake rotor of the bike in front (jack knifing across the back of the rider in front) his knee is going to be in the perfect position to be sliced across the top of the knee cap.

Disc brakes are perfect for mountain bikes, but not road bikes. The gripping surface on the road is less - as Ventoso notes himself, road bike caliper brakes usually cause you to skid if you squeeze them too tightly. Mountain bikers rarely ride in mass participatory events with as many riders (and so the chances of a mass pile up or crash are fewer). Single track - it's in the name.

I have disc brakes on my CX bike and have badly slashed my hand pulling  the pump valve off the tyre - I got two cuts down my thumb. Last time i did this I got my friend to cover the disc and would have had a similar wound if he hadn't. I like my disc brakes, but I don't find them much better than my standard brake callipers.

It's not as simple as just smoothing the edges (though I think that would work). There's a YouTube video showing how brakes are laser cut from a single sheet of aluminium. That's what makes them affordable. You're likely to double the production cost if you mill out the edge. But the other side is that you might need to make the brake calliper deeper because of the loss of braking surface.

Perhaps a rim guard could be made, but that would make wheel changes harder.

If you need a motorcade to go for a ride and you crash on a straight piece

of road you are probably not a real cyclist...

Hot off the press - the UCI have suspended disc brakes.

http://www.procycling.no/skrekkskade-stanser-bruk-av-skivebremser/

I hope your Norwegian is up to scratch. I don't think the piccies will need any translation though. 

One man hurt by a rotor, apparently, yet there was another injury caused by a motorbike this weekend.  I think I'd prefer to hear his arguments for/against motos in all fairness!  I also can't understand how a hole has developed in his leg if a disc is a rotating blade type implement? Surely it would just slice in a line?

Disc brakes are so ugly and dangerous. Getting cut up in the peloton, oh isn't that lovely!

They would be dangerous in the UK, crit and road races especially and sportives. Get rid of them, part of the skill of road riding is braking in a correct manner, I can't see disc brakes really improving things, though in the wet I heard they are better.

But you all must agree they look so horrible on an Italian beauty! Imagine Enve wheels and disc brakes, what a total waste, yuck!

I haven't seen the accident but looks to me that it wasn't caused by the disc brake based on following observation: It seems like the cut is on his left shin slightly to the outside. The disc brakes are on the left hand side of the bike. He said he didn't crash but his leg touched the other bike. Ergo, unless the guy in front of him ended up somehow back to front he couldn't have touched the discs. More likely he caught the rear derailleur/cassette in my opinion.

“I haven’t met any rider who has run out of braking power with traditional brakes; I haven’t known anyone who didn’t see his wheels skidding when you brake with all power you’ve got, no matter traditional or disc brakes. Then: why using them?”

Wot he said. Horrific injuries coming to a sportive near you. Don't look at the images on Facebook if you're squeamish.

I wouldn't normally comment on an incident that I didn't witness but 2 thoughts spring immediately to mind:

1. The bicycle in front, the one with disc brakes, that he collided with, was able to stop, but he didn't. All sorts of possible reasons for this: sight lines, reaction times, the bike in front itself colliding with another rider etc, but fact remains the disc braked bike stopped and he didn't.

2. Not that I've seen any disc brake injuries first hand, but that gash does seem both horizontal and ragged, not what I would have expected of a wound caused by a thin non serated disc. Almost looks like a wound I would have expected to see from a rear cassette, except that it's the right leg not the left.

In any event, wishing Mr Ventoso a swift and full recovery to race fitness.

Edit:

I don't know my right from my left. Apparently the wound is to his left leg, which would appear to make it unlikely that it came into contact with a brake disc unless the bike he hit was facing the wrong way or upside down which is at odds with his own account of what happened. Pictures of a crash involving another rider in the same race (Nikolas Maes) that Mr Ventoso claims in his letter was injured by a disc brake apparently show no disc braked bicycles involved. However it is only right that the cause of all injuries are properly investigated and that safety of the riders is the priority.

The point is you cannot get hurt by a rotating chainset as it is almost permanently covered by a riders leg and the rotating crank arm.  A rotating disc remains an rotating knive, mostly unprotected. I would also rate a stationary disc as more dangerous than a stationary chainring with a chain on it (high speed accidents happens with the chain on the big ring).

Let the pros decide what they want to brake with, us mere mortals we can use whatever we find more suitable anyway.