Discovery

Way back in 2001 I designed a Cyclocross frame and fork, it was made from Easton Ultralite Alu, had large clearances and it proudly sported I.S. disc-brake tabs.

Mountain biking was my background, so slightly naively I suppose, I thought the CX brigade would embrace disc-brakes with open arms, because it would mean they could throw away those ridiculously ancient looking and ineffective ‘frog-leg’ style canti-brakes.

Wrong.

But now, the CX and road riding world have caught on, there are plenty of excellent disc-specific wheels, lightweight hydraulic drop bar braking systems developed especially for road, cable brake systems that are affordable, powerful, easy to adjust and totally reliable. This has spurred the development of all sorts of disc-braked ‘road’ bikes and this area of bike design has now become one of the most exciting and fast moving in the industry.

Disc brakes have huge benefits for a sporty 4Season bike, which is one of the reasons I started with these two models. They work consistently in all conditions, they definitely pull up quicker in the wet, they don't grind your expensive rims into black sludge and in my experience they change the whole riding experience for the better, especially when coupled with modern disc-specific wheels and 28mm tyres.

For this reason, I decided that the first two bikes from Mason would be disc-specific.

Discs make huge sense for a bike of this type and the first lesson I learned when using them was that it's really not about all-out stopping power. One of the greatest benefits is control.

You’ll find yourself riding in a more confident, controlled, fluid and ultimately more efficient way