Even though Campagnolo have said that a hydraulic disc groupset is on the way (again, we expect to see it this year, otherwise what will the Campag-sponsored WorldTour teams – Astana, Lotto-Soudal and Movistar – be riding?), your choice right now when it comes to disc groupsets essentially consists of Shimano or SRAM.

Shimano currently have their R785 and R685 systems, the former being hydraulic paired with Di2, the latter being hydraulic with mechanical shifting. The beauty of Shimano’s setup is that you can pair the lever and brake systems with whatever components you want, in other words R785 works with either Ultegra or Dura-Ace Di2, and R685, in theory, would work with any of Shimano’s three 11-speed mechanical groupsets, though there’s a specific hydraulic setup on the way for the Japanese firm’s third tied, 105-level groupset, which will reduce the price of entry for discs even further. That’s exciting news for most riders who until now may have been priced out of the hydraulic disc market.

Hydraulic disc brakes house the master cylinder in the top of the lever, so one of the pluses of combining Di2 with hydraulics is that the body of the lever stays the same size because the electronics and wiring that control Di2 take up much less room than the internal mechanics of manual shifting. That’s why R685 level is a bit chunkier at the hood than you’d expect, though, in reality, it has little impact on ergonomics when riding.

SRAM, having not yet released their wireless electronic groupset, so can only offer discs with mechanical shifting but do so through three of their groupsets: Red 22, Force 22 and Rival 22. That may well change if (or, rather, when) SRAM’s wireless gruppo comes to market, but until now there’s been no indication of whether it’ll be a rim brake-only setup, or whether SRAM will accommodate discs. Looking at how the market is developing, and that they’ll want their sole WorldTour team, Ag2r La Mondiale, using the latest tech, we can assume for now that there will be a disc option.

That underlines an important point, though, in that disc brake technology is still developing quickly. Shimano have moved quickest, as you’d expect from the market leaders, but there’s still more to come across the board, be it a Shimano 105 hydraulic groupset, SRAM wireless with discs or something completely new from Campagnolo.