Campagnolo direct mount brakes stop the gap in lineup…for now

Are these rebranded TRP’s like the Athena dual pivots and their aero brakes ?

no single-pivot “differential” option in the back?

Disk for road is a marketing ploy and incredibly stupid. There is not a large enough contact patch to take advantage of a disk’s stopping power.

Having trouble stopping your bike?

I’ve been in races and near the middle back of the peloton where the peloton is surging and “yoyoing”. Plenty of riders locking their rear brake during those moments. Can’t wait to see what happens when they grab their brakes too hard with disks.

@tomlaw have you ever ridden in the rain? Disks may not make sense for racing, but for everyday riding being able to stop effectively in the wet is quite useful.

SK: the skeleton Athena brakes are not campy they are made for them by TRP like the TT brakes. Campy US confirmed this to me after I could not figure out why my Mavic exalith pads for Campy would not work in the pad holders.

@Anthony- Do you mean brake pad holders are manufactured by TRP. Per Campagnolo tech documents the only difference between Chorus and Athena are the brake pad holders. Not sure why Campy would contract out something that shares so much of what they already manufacture…

Steven & SK: not sure why campy did this its the entire brake that was made for them by TRP.

If you run any of the mavic exalith rims you either need to drill a set screw hole in the pads or buy shimaNO holders or buy the Super Records holders which fit the TRP’s but probably cost more than the brakes themselves.

It was a pain as we already had lots of campy pads for mavic wheels so we outfitted 4 bikes with the brakes and found out after the fact we had to do a bit of DIY fixes to get rolling.

@ tomlaw “There is not a large enough contact patch to take advantage of a disk’s stopping power.”

True, if breaking were a binary action: on or off. However, it’s completely analogue. Riders may need to ‘tweek’ how they apply their brakes, but from riding disc brakes (TRP HY/RD) on (and off) the road for few weeks now I can tell you:
– No problems with locking out because of the “small contact patch” with the road at all. I’d have to squeeze quite hard to skid the tires. And then: If I really wanted to, I could skid my bike with rim brakes as well.
– With a light to normal tough, my disc brakes offer roughly the same power as my rim brakes. However, where rim brakes just reach their top power at some point – which can be quite scary om very steep descents – the discs always have power left if you just squeeze (a lot) harder
– Indeed, works perfect in the wet
– As easy or even easier to set up as rim brakes
– Aligning the disc inbetween the pads when changing the wheel is no problem at all (assuming non-race situation of course)
– And… the ability to change to as wide a tire as your frame can handle, thereby enlarging the “contact patch” with the road

So in short: In some areas the same as rim brakes (which – if that was all – would indeed qualify discs as a marketing ploy), but in other areas definitely better! Most noticeably: Braking in the wet and choice of (wider) tires.

Come over and try my bike if you’re still not convinced

Any updates on specs and official release date?