Suddenly it catches up with him, the midlife crisis. After twenty years of working as a chemist, Dietmar Putzas gave in to his passion for bicycles, took the plunge into self-employment in 2008 and launched his bike store "Dbikes" in the picturesque town center of Zofingen. "My goal in life was not just to have my own specialist bike store. I wanted to launch my own bike brand. To clearly differentiate myself from the competition, I wanted to create something new and unique. My goal was to establish disc brakes on my own racing bikes".

As a balance to his professional life as a chemist, Putzas had been competing in road races as a hobby rider since the 1970s. As a specialist in mountain racing, Putzas realized that although lightweight full carbon rims are great to ride uphill, the fun quickly ends downhill and especially in the wet. "The technically outdated rim brakes don't allow for really relaxed descents on steep mountain roads. Especially not in wet conditions and when using carbon rims," explains Putzas. With this experience and equipped with his own bike store, the first attempts to bring the disc to the road bike started in the 2009/2010 winter season. "I started with a mountain bike hardtail frame, as 28-inch wheels with carbon rims and road tires fit on it without any problems. The disc brake levers were mounted on the horn handlebars, and the first braking tests quickly showed the braking advantage over conventional brakes, especially with thin road bike tires. The function and the simple look convinced me".

Putzas continues to work on making disc brakes compatible with racing handlebars and integrated brake/shift levers. On Whit Monday in 2010, the time had finally come: Putzas designed his own construction to marry disc brakes with the racing bike. In the "Dbikes converter", conventional Formula R1 brake levers are mounted on the top bar of the road bike handlebars. These can be activated directly from the top handlebar and can also be operated by any standard brake/shift lever via a brake cable routing.

This brake system is already fitted to its own disc-compatible road bike frame. At Eurobike 2009, Putzas is linking up with a carbon specialist; the manufacturer is also prepared to produce small series. "We had to make the Chinese frame builder understand that we didn't want to build a cross bike. The first drawings were basically a cross bike with a wide rear triangle and a fork that was too wide. After a few emails, I had to contractually guarantee that I wanted the fork and rear triangle to be built in this 'narrow road bike' dimension." Dbikes relies on mountain bike dimensions for the rear triangle in order to make use of the wide range of hubs and brakes from this sector. Just in time for Eurobike 2010, Dbikes presents the "Disc-Race" model, the first thoroughbred disc-only racing bike frame made of carbon with a weight of 1100 grams.

At Eurobike 2010, contact was also made with the hydraulic specialists from Trickstuff. "At Eurobike, we decided on a strategic cooperation with a handshake, according to the motto that I have the racing bike frames with disc mounts and Trickstuff has the accessories. Trickstuff was already present at Eurobike with a converter, but this still had to be extensively tested and developed to series maturity," says Putzas. The result is impressive: Called the "Doppelmoppel", the converter translates mechanical braking power into hydraulic disc power, is compatible with all shift/brake levers, is fitted under the stem and from now on will be mounted on all Dbikes.

At the Bike Days in 2011, 7-kilo racing bikes with hydraulic discs were also available for test rides, which were actively used by visitors for test rides. However, at the Swiss bike show in Solothurn, Putzas realized that despite the convincing functionality, the vast majority of racing bike customers still reacted cautiously to the additional component under the stem, the converter. "As soon as you explained to a customer what function it has, they almost automatically asked: 'Can you leave it out?

Putzas is therefore aware of the next development step that will be necessary to enable the breakthrough of disc brakes on road bikes. And Putzas also knows that the big competition has recognized the market opportunities of an elegant disc solution for road bikes. "Almost all component manufacturers have now recognized the marketing opportunities of a fully integrated hydraulic road bike brake, in which the brake cylinders are invisibly housed in the brake levers. Tektro and Sram in particular are at the forefront of development here, with Sram planning to launch a hydraulic road bike brake in fall 2012. Magura has already presented a hydraulic rim brake for road bikes".

For the 2012 season, Dbikes has diversified its range and offers cross bikes with hydraulic disc brakes - also with total weights of around seven kilograms and equipped with carbon frames. The "Dbikes converter" is also experiencing its resurrection on these bikes, as additional brake levers on the upper handlebars are already common on cross bikes. "Our converter is still the only system that allows you to brake hydraulically directly on a road bike without having to take the detour via a Bowden cable, as is currently the case with the systems from Trickstuff, Hope and Tektro."

Putzas is aware that he is in a race with the industry giants and that his lead is dwindling. "It's clear that as soon as one of the major component manufacturers mentioned offers a visually perfect solution without a converter, all the well-known bike manufacturers will follow suit with corresponding frames. Further development also depends on the UCI, which, as we know, does not yet permit disc brakes in official road races."

And how does Putzas see the further development of discs on road bikes? "Road cyclists are very conservative. The rim brake is not dying out, the braking power of a mechanical road bike brake is sufficient with aluminum rims as long as it doesn't rain. If you want to use super-light carbon rims, and in any weather, there is no way around the disc. In the entry-level class, rim brakes will remain dominant, while the superior braking power and modulation of disc brakes will increasingly prevail in the middle and upper classes."

www.dbikes.ch