Spied! Prototype Avid BB7 Road SL Mechanical Disc Brakes

I like the polished look, but I’ll never put discs on a road bike.

Stoked! A different finish and titanium bolts on a 10-year old brake design! I’m going to run out and buy some because I am a sheep and I do what the bike industry tells me. The performance is so superior that nobody has bothered to care for years, until the UCI and the bike industry figured out there’s money to be made.

It’s the future, yo!

I don’t really like chrome, but I’m not a baby boomer.

Hi Everybody’s Friend. You fail to realize that people are buying new bicycles constantly – and these look better than the old ones and are a little lighter. Looks like a good product to me. If you race Cat A/Pro CX you probably know that you save a lot of time by turning with the rear wheel in the air. Switchbacks, 180 degree turns, barrel turns, etc are taken faster this way, and disc brakes provide WAY better control for this maneuver. Also, many people ride in heavy rain and mud on their cross bikes where disc is better. I feel I have to say this every time someone shoots down road disc – when rim manufacturers start making road disc specific carbon rims – without braking tracks – they will lose a 1/4lb at the outside of the wheel. This is a huge performance gain and it’s what I think will propel road disc to common acceptance. You sound like a dingus.

Turns out I’ve raced elite CX for 5 years.

Fun facts from the field: disc bikes are heavier, at the wheels, where rotating weight makes a bigger difference. Another fun fact: CX is about maintaining momentum, not…stopping…

And then if you were at some of the really muddy races back east last year you’d have seen early adopter teams going back to their rim brake bikes, once two laps had their acids dragging so bad that they barely rolled and bike washes didn’t remedy this. The Crumpton team guys even made noise about this on twitter.

Some people are excited about discs and that’s fine, but it cannot be denied that BB7’s have been available for a decade and very few riders cared enough to even consider them, despite the availability of brakes, wheels, frames and forks. The UCI says “approved”, the marketing machine starts spinning, and suddenly everyone talks about how awesome they are, or you know, surely will be. And the majority of riders don’t ride UCI events anyway.

If you like the idea of discs, you could have had them long before now, if you could think for yourself. If you’re just starting to preach the “benefits” it starts to sound like you’re jumping on the bandwagon, because that’s what you were told to do.

Nivlac I’m using ‘you’ in the universal sense, not you directly, just FYI.

Everybody’s friend:

Ever notice how Bianchi and Redline haven’t made a good cross bike in a decade? No wonder nobody rode their disc models.

You will be surprised how many Pro’s will be racing it this year. It’s game changing.

Also, the additional weight isn’t rotating weight really. It’s at the hubs, not the rims where the effects are much reduced.

Wonder how much weight they’ll save.
Will there be a mountain version, I wonder?

So, these were actually in another bikerumor post over one week ago. And since there isn’t anything but the obvious and speculation- this post is lame. I’m excited to hear real info on these though. Pimp my commuter.

The B7 is a very good, reliable design. With good cables, performance is almost as good as hydraulics but more reliable and maintenance is easy. I can really understand they didn’t want to change it too much.

wow. thank god! or well… I guess thank you SRAM.

really

it seems that the entire BB7 line is way over due for a revamp… maybe an entire revamp, like maybe actuation in both pads?

and when where there be Speed Dial in the road levers?

that seems like another no brainer.

Rival CX Speed Dial

duh.

@Walter – how exactly is a mechanic disc brake more reliable than a hydraulic?
I had a BB7, and it is a good brake for what it is. Very useful for matching a disc with a V-brake only frame.
But cable stretch and contamination are regular, unavoidable issues. I have had Shimano discs that I had 4 years and didn’t have to do anything more than change one set of pads. Another I’ve had to bleed once after 18mos of hard use.
Performance wise, it’s not even close…the BB7 only moves one pad, relying on a slave pad and flexing the rotor.

I’ve used BB7s for over ten years without cable rub ever being an issue. You do have to twiddle knobs, which is never a big deal, unless maybe you lose serious pad thickness in one long DH run- I can’t comment as I don’t live in a place with that kind of riding. About the pad flexing the rotor- we’re talking a short distance here, less than a millimeter. Cable stretch? Sure, but if you use Jagwire cables and housing, or get spendy and go Nokon, then it will be –close– to a non-issue (at the price of making it as pricey as a hydro).
Hydros are in some ways more reliable- there are plenty of people out there who’ve never bled or adjusted them after years of use. But if something does go wrong, particularly in the woods, you’re unlikely to be able to rig them to work and get back to the car. There are also special little parts, olives, special bolts with holes in them, banjos, and so on, and if something gets tweaked, you have to order and wait for non-standard parts. These are all rare occurrences, but they do happen sometimes to some people.
Anyways, each system has its pluses and minuses, and it’s good to see a high-end mechanical brake come onto the market.
BTW- there is a mechanical brake with two moving pads, the IRD Dual Banger. Unfortunately, it seems to be rather poorly executed, and the reviews on it seem to be generally bad.

I was told from an insider at eurobike they will be some 25 grams lighter than regular BB7.
To me it can be mostly from the titanium hardware, the design looks pretty much the same.

*EPS*

How about this for an angle, I have been having a lot of pain in my thumbs and wrists do to tendonitis. So much, that I hardly MTB ride much anymore. When I am descending on my road bike at speed, it can sometimes be pretty painful slowing down. I for one can not wait until hydraulic road discs are available for just this reason. I am not much of a weight weeny, so a little extra weight is cool with me when I can do 1-finger braking on the road like I do on my MTB.