2013 Disc Equipped Road Bike Buyer’s Guide

I am very interested in bicycle technology and spend a lot of time reading up on it. And I wouldn’t mind a bit more traffic up here on the blog!! General Topic posts do best so here is one!

2013 Buyer’s guide for Disc Equipped Road bikes.

I see this as a major upcoming change in road bikes. Pioneered by Mountain bikes and now becoming popular on cyclo-cross bikes, I see them pivotal for Road bikes for a number of reasons:

1- Rim braking is a bit of compromise. Carbon wheels and brakes in particular have less than ideal braking performance but are being bought in greater numbers.  Here is a link from Road Bike Action Magazine. To quote them: “with all carbon wheels, the heat generated while braking during long and steep descents has always been a challenge for the resin and carbon engineers designing the wheels”

2- Brake action decreases with Rain..regardless of wheel type. We all worry when the road gets wet

3- Rim Brakes are sometimes hard to adjust. How many times have you found your brakes loose or worried they are rubbing against the rim? Too high on the rim or forgot to make them tighter after a wheel change?

BTW not everyone is convinced, for another view go here

http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/08/bikes-and-tech/technical-faq/technical-faq-throwing-ice-water-on-road-disc-brakes_235280

The UCI has approved disc brakes for cyclo-cross, are road bikes that far behind and does it matter? If the public gets behind them they will grow in popularity. At this point a few notable brands are without disc brakes, including Trek, Cannondale, Felt etc, but a lot of info comes out in mid-August so 2013 may have more before too long.

I am not including Cyclo-cross bikes as for me it doesn’t meet the criteria for a true road bike, bit too beefy as opposed to the elegance of a road bike.  Low weight, slim profile and built for speed as opposed to cyclo-cross which are a bit wider and built for strength!

I find most buyer’s guides incomplete and only have a subset of what is available. I tried to find all the MAJOR brands that had disc equipped road bikes and I will add more as I stumble upon them and as the 2013 product launches happen so this list will be a living updated list. I have put the bikes in alphabetical order.

Pictures are copyrighted the original owners, but a lot of these are from bike rumour over at http://www.bikerumor.com

BMC

BMC look to be bringing out a disc equipped version of their Gran Fondo bike. Although the tire is a little bit beefier, I think you can slap on a skinny tire and it would be fine.

2013 BMC Gran Fondo Disc

2013 BMC Gran Fondo Rear Disc Detail

Nothing on their site yet but soon? May be a one off to gauge interest??

http://www.bmc-racing.com/us-en/bikes/new-granfondo-gf01-2013.html

Canyon

Online purveyor of bicycles offered up a teaser of a disc bike at Eurobike. Named the CF SLX Disc its seems to be a simple conversion of existing CF SLX frame(?). No real details yet and this bike isn’t on their official Eurobike 2012 site (http://www.canyon.com/_en/eurobike2012/roadbikes.html)

Canyon Disc teaser

http://www.bikerumor.com/2012/09/12/canyon-teases-disc-brake-road-bike-plus-new-29er-mountain-bikes-more/#more-48910

Colnago

Colnago has always been at the forefront of technology so no surprise they now have a disc bike, but still to have such a beautiful and functional bike means that I think it will be a catalyst for a lot of other vendors.

The C59 Disc is a sweet looking bike that can be specced any way your wallet desires. As for the price, well, if you have to ask…

http://www.colnago.com/c59-disc/

Nice video from the launch here http://www.bikeradar.com/road/news/article/colnago-launch-c59-disc-33359/

Culprit Cycles

Didn’t find a lot about this bike but it sure looks sweet. Seems like a new brand. No pricing details yet. [Update: Joshua from Culprit Bicycle provided some info in the comments below. This build is $6049. More info at http://www.culpritbicycles.com)

Culprit Cycles Disc Bike…sweet looking for sure!

http://www.bikerumor.com/2012/08/11/found-culprit-cycles-aero-road-bike-ready-for-disc-or-canti-brakes/

Foundry

Foundry is owned by the same company as Salsa (see below) so it more of a case of a single vendor adopting disc brakes. But their Riveter is certainly stealthy!

SRAM red edition is $5175 USD

And 105 Version is a more reasonable $2715 USD

Nothing yet but their web site should be updated with model info soon at http://foundrycycles.com/

Lynsky

I have always liked the concept of Lynsky bikes with their very cool Titanium frames and still think that one day I may own one. This might be the one some day!

High end components including Di2.  But they will build the way you want (although it would be a shame to put Sora on this!)

2013 Lynsky Disc

Lots more pictures here

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150925353078512.408614.35832143511&type=1

Salsa

Salsa has announced for 2013 a number of disc equipped bikes and this one is their road version.

The colossal comes in Titanium and Steel versions

2013 Salsa Colossal Titanium

2013 Salsa Colossal CrMo (Steel)

Nothing online yet http://www.salsacycles.com/

Specialized

Specialized has their first set of disc road bikes coming out in 2013 and seems to cover the endurance range mostly.

Roubaix has two versions at least, Expert and Expert Di2 (both with Ultegra)

Secteur also has a disc version, Secteur Sport Disc and is priced at $2100.

Not much detail online yet http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bikes/earlylaunch

These guys seem to have the Secteur at a street price of 1000 pounds, which I think is about $1700 USD? Still not in stock.

http://www.leisurelakesbikes.com/p/9193/specialized-secteur-sport-disc-compact-racing-road-bike-2013

Volagi

Volagi is a disc bike specialist and their Liscio comes in SRAM Rival and Shimano Ultegra and Dura-Ace builds. They were sued by Specialized as they used to work there but that got worked out.

Pricing:

Rival $2895 USD

Ultegra $3595 USD

Dura-ace $4495 USD

http://volagi.com/bikes/liscio-dura-ace

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