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TECH NEWS

6 disc brake road bikes from Eurobike

Starring Pinarello, Colnago, Cervelo, Focus, Cannondale and BMC

As you might expect now that pro road teams have the option of using disc brakes in a limited number of races, Eurobike is rammed to the rafters with disc brake road bikes. Most of the big brands have at least one option in the range.

Eurobike’s Show Daily quotes Focus road product manager Peter Kinzel as saying, “Thirty percent of Focus road bikes in 2016 come with disc brakes, and for 2017 we want to increase that share to 70 percent.”

The newspaper also quotes BMC’s Andrew James: “Road bikes with disc brakes will become the norm within five years. The fact that pro riders are going to use disc brakes surely is helping to speed up a broad implementation of the technology.”

It’ll certainly be interesting to see how the market develops.

Here are six of the most interesting disc brake road bikes from Eurobike.

 

Pinarello Dogma F8 Disk

Team Sky has already raced on the Pinarello Dogma F8 Disk – in the Eneco Tour earlier in the month. 

The bike is based on the standard Dogma F8 that Team Sky riders use regularly. The new Dogma F8 Disk is said to retain the “main characteristics” of the regular Dogma F8 in terms of the geometry, frame material, stiffness and aerodynamics.

The frame uses Shimano’s new Flat Mount brake calliper system (you can use adapters to make it compatible with other brake systems).

Pinarello has stuck with conventional quick release axles rather than adopting thru-axles like some other bike brands.

 

Cervelo R3 Disc

We showed you the Cervelo R3 Disc bike a couple of days ago and it’ll be used in the pro peloton soon.

Cervelo says that it has increased the stiffness of the disc-specific fork and made a stronger and stiffer rear triangle. The Canadian brand also says that it has placed the seatstays wider than on the existing (non-disc) R3 to improve stiffness at the bottom bracket.

The Cervelo R3 Disc will be available from November. We don’t yet have a UK price but it will be €4,899.


Focus Izalco Max Disc

In June Focus announced what it calls the ‘world’s lightest production disc brake bike’. How much does it weigh? The frame is 790g, according to Focus, and the complete bike is 6.8kg (15lb) – bang on the UCI’s minimum weight limit for racing.

The bike features thru-axles front and rear, using Focus’s own Rapid Axle Technology (RAT) system for quick wheel changes.

The frame has external cable routing. That’s as a result of feedback from the Ag2r team, whose mechanics prefer the simplicity when making frequent gear and brake cable changes.


Cannondale CAAD12 DIsc

Cannondale announced its new CAAD12 aluminium bike at the end of June, available in both disc and rim brake versions.

The new CAAD12 Disc frame is over 200g lighter than the existing CAAD10 Disc. Cannondale didn’t hold back on the stats at the launch, claiming that the bike is 10% stiffer in the head tube area and 13% stiffer at the bottom bracket, and also 50% more compliant than the CAAD10. You’ve got to love some crazy figures.

The CAAD12 Disc uses the same fork as the CAAD10 Disc. There’s no thru-axle, Cannondale deciding to stick with conventional quick release axles, at least for the time being.

The frame now uses Shimano’s Flat Mount standard, with the disc calliper located on top of the chainstay. The CAAD12 will ship with 25mm tyres, but there's space for 28mm tyres.


Colnago V1-r Disc

Colnago revealed the CV1-r Disc at last year’s Eurobike but it’s a bit of a looker so here it is again.

Colnago is very much a fan of disc brakes on road bikes. The Italian brand was the first big player to launch a disc braked carbon road bike with the C59 Disc back in 2012. 

Colnago spec the V1-r Disc with a thru-axle fork, with a regular quick release axle at the rear.

All cables are routed internally, even through the fork.


BMC Granfondo GF01

BMC’s Grandfondo GF01 will only be available with disc brakes for 2016. It comes in an endurance geometry with a taller stack and a shorter reach than a traditional road bike. 

This model is equipped with Shimano Ultegra Di2 electronic shifting and DT Swiss R24 Spline Disc wheels

Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. We send him off around the world to get all the news from launches and shows too. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.

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6 comments

Avatar
Meanredspider | 8 years ago
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Hopefully soon people will stop asking me if my 5-year old Volagi Liscio is a CX bike  3

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hampstead_bandit | 8 years ago
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I've actually just bought a brand new caliper brake road bike (super six evo), after 9 months of riding a hydraulic disc brake endurance road bike (which I was lent by my employer).

It's actually really refreshing being back on a caliper brake bike, and especially a snappy feeling race bike which is lovely up steep hills.

I will certainly be getting another hydraulic disc brake endurance road bike as soon as 2016 stock is available, and using it as my winter commuter and bad weather / long distance bike!

Avatar
drwinston001 | 8 years ago
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I know it's the future but I quite like rim brakes. Buying a new bike from the 2016 range once they're all out so I can make an informed decision but I won't be going disc. I'm sure one day I won't have the choice and I know they stop better but I just can't jump on board yet.

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surly_by_name | 8 years ago
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What do you think Campagnolo are planning to do about disc brakes? They presumably can't afford to ignore them, unless they exit the enthusiast market (Athena, Veloce). Maybe buy (Italian) disc brake manufacturer Formula?

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Mat Brett replied to surly_by_name | 8 years ago
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surly_by_name wrote:

What do you think Campagnolo are planning to do about disc brakes? They presumably can't afford to ignore them, unless they exit the enthusiast market (Athena, Veloce). Maybe buy (Italian) disc brake manufacturer Formula?

We have a meeting with Campag at 4pm. There are plenty of rumours going around. We'll give the PR guy a Chinese burn until he tells us what's really going on.

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700c replied to surly_by_name | 8 years ago
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surly_by_name wrote:

What do you think Campagnolo are planning to do about disc brakes? They presumably can't afford to ignore them, unless they exit the enthusiast market (Athena, Veloce). Maybe buy (Italian) disc brake manufacturer Formula?

Apparently there's a plan to develop in collaboration with another company for 2016, but some conflicting info on this.

As for whether they can afford to stay out of the market - they probably can't, but this may be less critical to their customer base than Shimano / SRAM (just a hunch)

The longer they leave it the more and more they will be omitted from the specification on new builds and the greater the risk of being left out of the pro peloton in future - the latter quite a marketing risk I'd have thought, but again, probably less critical than say for Shimano, if they were lacking a disc offer.

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