Time were one of the few manufacturers to display a disc-equipped road bike at Eurobike, with this Fluidity S running with prototype mechanical disc brakes from Shimano.
Will the disc-brakes-on-road-bikes trend take off? Or is it a flash in the pan? Time, at least, gave us a glimpse into the future with this take on the Fluidity S machine, the French company’s ‘comfort and performance’ bike, with a relaxed geometry to match.
We suspect we’re a couple of years off seeing disc brakes widely adopted across the industry but, once the initial tentative transition is made, blink and they’ll be two-a-penny among the major manufacturers.
There are two technological hurdles to overcome. Firstly, the carbon fibre layup of the fork and rear end has to be changed to cope with the different, and stronger, braking forces triggered by discs. Simple enough. More importantly, however, we’re waiting on an STI lever for hydraulic disc brakes.
Or we’re waiting in the sense that the Campagnolo EPS-compatible disc brake setup from Formula used on Colnago’s C59 Disc displayed at Eurobike is exclusively licensed to Colnago for one year. Formula are also working on a system to be used with Shimano Di2.
Otherwise, there’s the prototype mechanical disc brake setup from Shimano pictured here on Time’s machine, which uses 160mm and 140mm rotors at the front and rear, and which is actuated by an Ultegra Di2 lever. A well-placed industry source also told us SRAM are working on a hydraulic disc system. It’s a matter of when, not if.
