The two most important safety factors in an electric bike are the helmet and the brake.
Your question about how to increase the brake strength of the electric bike is a very necessary question, especially since the electric bike
differs from the regular bike in many differences, and one of the most obvious of these differences is the weight of the electric bike.
Therefore, in this post, we will discuss the most important steps that you must take in order to increase the brake strength of your electric bike.
What is the Meaning of Ebike Specific Brakes?
You may have read or heard the term ebikes specific brake, but what does this mean? Does this mean that electric bike brakes are different from regular bikes?!
Will, let me explain.
As a general rule, ebike specific brakes are a standard trail lever paired up with a downhill caliper. the downhill caliper is usually four pots this means that there are four pistons working which will require bigger pads that will contact more with the rotor to assure dissipating heat much better.
Now let’s explain what is the most important information that you should know about each brake part in order to increase the brake power of the electric bike.
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1. Rotor Size Matter
As we explained in the previous part, the size of the pads in the brakes of the electric bike is larger, and therefore the larger the size of the rotor, the better the control, especially if you own a 29-inch fat tire electric bike.
this will assure dissipating the heat & will help you have more control on your ebike.
2- Brakes Pads
There are two main types of brake pads:
1-Sintered (some people called it Metal)
This type is longer in life but is considered to be slightly less effective than the Organic type.
I mean less effective here that it won’t feel that bite that you feel when you apply the brakes But on the other hand, this type is very good if you want to ride your bike in mud or wet areas.
If you have Metal pads you need to take care of glazing.
Glazing means that the top surface of pads response to heat by becoming shiny which will vibrate on the rotor & will make the performance of the brake weak
2-Resin (Organic)
This type is the most effective and will make you feel more in control of the electric bike, but the disadvantage is that it performs quickly in wet or muddy areas.
What you should do if your ebike brake pads are glazing?
although the Organic Pads are not glazing as the Metal pads you can either rap them with sandpaper or you can but them into the water & rub them together.
Once this shiny surface disappears then you are good to go!
Things that you shouldn’t do with your ebike brake pads.
There are common mistakes that some people make when they feel that the brakes pads are not working probably.
I will list some main mistakes that you should avoid.
1- Avoid keeping the pads in ebike cleaners overnight this will not help!
2-Avoid Keeping them in any sort of oil as this will lead to complete damage.
3-Avoid Burning them this will not work.
My Only advice to you if you felt the brakes pads are not working properly is to replace them as your safety always comes first.
3. Caliper Alignment is very important for High performance.
Caliper alignment is one of the most important ways to increase brake performance on an electric bike.
The goal of caliper alignment is to ensure that the caliper is perfectly centered and that all the pistons are working effectively on the rotor.
How to Align the caliper on Ebike?
1- Release the two adapter
2-Make sure the rotor is perfectly centralized
3-Push the Lever to see how the pistons are working
4-once you feel the performance of the brake while using the lever tighten the adapter.
Check this video for best hacks for caliper alignment
4-Lever Setup will Affect your ebike brake performance.
The position of the lever is optional according to your comfort, but are there preferred positions to get better performance from the brakes?!
In fact, it depends on the position of your body more than the position of the lever.
For example, if you lower the levers under the handlebar, you will tilt your body significantly forward, which will definitely affect the brake performance.
5-Check your ebike tires
If the tiers of your electric bike are worn out or need to be replaced, this will certainly affect the performance of the brakes, so always check the quality of the wheels of your electric bike.
6-Check your Ebike brakes cables.
If you have a cut in the brake cables, this will affect the performance of the brakes, and also if there is rust, it will affect the brakes.
In order to get better performance from the brakes, you should check the cables periodically.
7- Poor Braking technique & body position
One of the unusual factors that affect the performance of the brakes is the way the brakes are used, as well as the position of the body, for example, if you cannot use your body weight to grip the tire this will make it very difficult on the brake to give you the best performance.
Also, if you were gripping the brakes slightly this will also affect the performance of the brake try to push the lever in a correct way.
Conclusion
As a general rule, you can increase the power of your ebike brakes by using a bigger size rotor along with organic brake pads also you will need to make sure that your brake caliper is aligned correctly.
On the other hand, you need to check the position of your ebike lever also, to check the brakes cables & to make sure that your ebike tire has no purples or worn out. and use the correct braking technique to maximize the performance of the brake.
