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Disk brakes swap on a new road bike with rim brakes

Bicycles Asked on January 10, 2021

I am planning on buying an Atomic Covert road bike.

Can I put disk brakes on it? Are there adapters for rigid forks/road bikes or do I need to replace parts?

3 Answers

Can I put disk brakes on it?

No. You cannot effectively convert a rim brake frame or forks to disc brakes.

(Alternative answer:

do I need to replace parts?

Yes, the frame and forks.)

Seriously though, if you are buying a new bike, buy the bike you actually want rather than planning to convert or upgrade. There are disc brake road bikes available across a wide range of price points theses days.

Answered by Argenti Apparatus on January 10, 2021

While they are a few "adapters" that might sometimes allow installing the rear disc caliper onto certain frames (if lucky), these adapters look ugly and certainly won't fit the aesthetics of a road bike. Such an adapter would be more fitting for a hybrid, utility or ancient mountain bike.

Similar adapters for forks do not exist because a rim brake fork is not designed to be strong enough to endure the twisting action that would arise at the fork leg if a disc brake somehow gets placed there.

A frame failure at the rear dropout in a case when such a brake adapter rips the chunk of the frame out is quite dangerous, but in many cases still allows to stop. A fork suddenly losing one of its legs is a certain visit to a doctor or even to a mortician.

Answered by Grigory Rechistov on January 10, 2021

Don't do it. Yes, back when disk brakes were new and few bikes were available with them it sorta made sense to "upgrade" the bike to disks (though you had to be a real bike nerd to do this). But, as the others have said, the compromises you'd have to make to get disks to work on a non-disk bike are expensive, dangerous, and just flaky.

If you want disk brakes, buy a disk brake bike.

Answered by Daniel R Hicks on January 10, 2021

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