Comments by "earthstick" (@earthstick) on "James May builds a bicycle | Part 3" video.

@Rude_Potato But the front is just as bad. Disc brakes just don't work very well. The clearance between the pad and the rotor is so minuscule that they always rub no matter what you do.
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5:48 'if we stopped industrialising it we'd starve'. Don't given them ideas James.
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@placeofgaming Hydraulics?
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@martijnkosters9024 Rim brakes use the rim as a very large diameter and wide rotor. I adjust my pads to be 1-2 mm from the rim. I don't get brake rub.
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@najaneda Horses for courses. I'm a roadie.
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@Thic Jon Jones I adjusted them myself as James showed (but before) and I also got them adjusted by a shop. The rotors a very thin. They could do with doubling the thickness to prevent warping.
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@Fanaleds-software That's my experience so far
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@hiroprotagonist1587 Perhaps you are referring to MTB brakes with flatbar levers. In my case I was using BB5 road callipers with road levers on a cyclo-cross bike. I found brake run unless the pads were moved far from the rotor. That resulted in 75% dead lever travel, adjusting the pads closer to the rotor reduced dead lever travel but the brakes dragged in proportion to the reduction in lever travel. Close inspection of the rotors showed at least one was slightly warped. A problem made worse by the design of the BB5 brakes where only one pad moves and pushes the rotor onto the second. If the pads had greater movement then clearance could be greater, wider rotors would also help but with the compromise of a weight increase.
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4:50 Here lies the problem with disc brakes. Only the other episode did James show us how to align disc brakes. Now he tries to spin the front wheel and the rotor drags so much it stops immediately. You don't get that on a car so why can't they get disc brakes to work on a bicycle?
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