Video: Man from Katusha says disc brakes don’t cut your skin

Team Katusha Alpecin’s communications manager Philippe Maertens has posted a video on Twitter demonstrating that you can stop a fast-revolving disc brake rotor – at least one of those with non-square edges used by the professionals – with your hand.

Maertens turns the cranks of a Canyon Aeroad CF SLX, gets the rear wheel spinning fast, and then uses the palm of his hand on the edge of the disc rotor to stop the wheel without damaging his skin. He's not putting his bodyweight or any momentum into his effort, so you could argue that it's not a particularly realistic crash scenario.

Did the test: disc brake @tonymartin_procyclist is no knife. Or my skin is too hard… #parisnice #SRAMroad pic.twitter.com/5FykAkIPRE

— Philippe Maertens (@philmaertens) March 6, 2017

This follows on from Tom Boonen’s claim last week that he (and anyone else) can stop a disc fast-spinning brake rotor with his hand.

“I maintain that they are not dangerous,” said Boonen. I’ve dared to stop a wheel at 60 kilometres an hour with my hand.”

Several pros, including Team Sky’s Owain Doull, have raised safety concerns about the introduction of disc brakes.

On the other hand, the World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry (WFSGI), the body that represents many of the biggest manufacturers in the bicycle industry, says that, “Evidence on cuts under racing conditions is not available since there has been no reported accident with disc brakes so far.”

We conducted our own not-entirely-serious research which you can watch here.