EBIKE BRAKES: Everything You Need to Know About Electric Bike Brakes - E Bike How To & Info

Hey everyone, I'm Dustin. I have nearly 20 years of experience in the bike and e-bike industry, and today we're going to talk about e-bike brakes and everything you need to know. Stick around.

All right, so today we're going to talk about e-bike brakes and everything you need to know, but before I get into it, hit the subscribe button below. Stay in touch with us here at Sixthreezero. Be the first to know about all the new content we're putting out, giveaways we do, and of course, new product releases. Okay, e-bike brakes. It is one of the most essential components of an electric bike, if not the most essential, right? We need to make sure we can stop safely and you can stop on a dime. If you can't stop, that wouldn't be safe. Also, you need your brakes to work if you're coming downhill or if you're going 20 miles an hour, the max speed with a throttle, you need those brakes. You work. Now, most e-bikes are going to come with disc brakes. Disc brakes, as you can see here.

One thing I want to say before I get into it, if you feel like I missed something or there's anything you want to add that I don't message, put it in the comments below. A lot of people are going to read the comments. It'd be great to create a discussion and give other people tips about things they need to know about the brakes. I'm going to try to tell you everything I think you need to know at a high level. There's going to be a lot of details that I'm going to leave out. So go ahead and throw them in the comments where we can make follow-up videos to cover everything. But I want to give a general, everything you kind of need to know about e-bike brakes on the highest level. That's important for anybody who's thinking about getting an e-bike or already has an e-bike to know.

Okay. Now most e-bikes are going to have disc brakes. Traditional bikes, most standard bikes have caliper brakes, which are up here and they have a brake pad on the rim. Now, disc brakes provide more stopping power, which is why nearly all e-bike manufacturers have switched to using disc brakes in the front and the rear. Two types of disc brakes you can have. There's the disc brake that is controlled by a cable. So as you pull this lever here, there's a cable in here that is actually, we can do the front brake. There's a cable that's running through here that's connected, and it pulls this mechanism here, which pulls the brake pads closed on the rotor, and that stops the bike, right? So you can see here, and there's a cable inside of it. Pulling this back pulls the cable back, which pulls this and closes the pad on the rotor.

Now there's something called hydraulic disc brakes. Those are one step up from cable brakes. Inside this housing, instead of a cable would be a hydraulic brake fluid. And as you pull this, it's going to push the fluid down and do the same thing the cable would do. It's going to pop the lever open and close the pads. Now, traditionally or not, most people would believe hydraulic disc brakes have a faster reaction time than a cable brake, they're going to provide better stopping power than a cable brake, and they're usually a little more expensive. Now, hydraulic brakes may require a little more maintenance. You could also have leaks from time to time. So typically they haven't been something that a recreational rider has needed on their regular bike because they're just a little bit more in-depth and a little bit more costly than a standard disc brake.

Now with e-bikes, I am seeing some companies switching to hydraulic disc brakes. Currently, at Sixthreezero we don't offer hydraulic disc brakes. Could be something we get into the future. I believe that the cable disc brake does work amply if adjusted properly. But again, you can also upgrade your brakes to hydraulic brakes if you feel that would be better. There's just some additional maintenance that could be required, and again, you could have the possibility of leaks, but it wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. It'd be great. It will provide you with quicker stopping power. The reaction of pulling the lever with the hydraulic brake fluid in here will be faster than if it's the cable. How much faster? I don't know how to quantify that, but imagine that this whole tube is filled with fluid and you just push it and it's boom, it reacts to the brakes versus the cable.

You have to pull it and it pulls the cable. So going to be a little bit slower with the cable, but I would say most e-bike companies are still using the cable. When you get into the higher-powered e-bikes, maybe a thousand watts and over, I bet you more of them are using hydraulic to provide even quicker, more powerful stopping power. Okay, so number one with e-bike brakes I think you should know is that they're going to wear down faster than regular bike brakes. The reality of all these brake systems as it is today, now there are some new products coming out that are geared a little bit more towards E-bikes, but a lot of these disc brakes you're finding on e-bikes are disc brakes that were developed for a standard bike, not developed for e-bikes. These are e-bikes now using standard bike components. Now, with that said, standard bikes can travel equally as fast as an e-bike, and e-bikes are regulated in speed.

You can't travel faster than 20 miles an hour at the throttle, or 28 miles an hour in pedal assist, right? So these disc brakes are going to be rated to stop a bike at that speed anyway. In fact, a lot of road bikers, if not most, or a lot, are going to travel on average at speeds higher than 20 miles an hour. Now, that's a higher echelon of road bikers, but even a novice road biker can travel probably at 16 to 17 miles an hour on average. So it's not to say e-bikes are out there riding that much faster than a lot of road bikers are, and some of these disc brakes would be placed on road bikes and mountain bikes. So they've already been tested to do that. But with that said, they weren't designed for e-bikes necessarily. The brake pads weren't designed to take the kind of wear and tear that they're now taking on e-bikes.

So as an owner of an electric bike with disc brakes, you need to be aware of the fact that there are brake pads inside of your caliper and they will wear down. And if you feel the responsiveness of your levers decreasing over time, that's because your brake pads are decreasing as well. With that said, you need to check your brake pads, which I would recommend before every ride. And it's a simple pull on your lever, what's the stopping power? If this lever needs to continue to travel too close to your grip, that probably means your brake pads are worn down. Now, at that point, you can readjust your calipers and there are ways to adjust them that bring the calipers closer to the rotor. Most disc brakes will have one screw on the back that you can tighten which will bring the pads closer to the rotor, and that should make your lever more responsive.

Now, at a certain point, you're not going to be able to turn that anymore and bring those pads any closer. That's going to be the point at which you need to replace your pads. But checking your brake pads before every ride is imperative. And it takes, like I said, 10 seconds. Pull your levers, check them here. The other thing you can do is a visual test right here. Now, you're not going to be able to see it in full detail, but I just kind of give you a general idea. Here's your rotor right here. This rotor inserts into the brake pads, and you can look down in there and see on either side of the rotor the two brake pads, if they look worn in any way, shape, or form and your braking feels bad, go ahead and replace them. As an e-bike owner, I would recommend learning how to replace your brake pads because it's something, depending on how many miles you log, you're going to do pretty frequently.

Now, I say it pretty frequently. If you're only logging a mile or two a day, a couple of times a week, not that often, but if you're logging a hundred-plus miles a week, you're going to be replacing your brake pads pretty frequently. You can buy replacement brake pads on Amazon, you can get packs of 10, or 20. They're pretty affordable. I've seen other people posting less than $20, and most of these disc brakes are used amongst tons of different brands. And for the brake pads, you can get generic ones that will fit. Just check your size and shape and you can match those up somewhere online, buy a whole bag of them, and be prepared at home to do it. It's something that can be easily done at home, but if you're not comfortable or you don't feel safe, take it to a professional, and have them adjust it.

Maybe you could even get on a maintenance plan where you do something every three months or whatever that local bike shop offers, and any bike shop should be able to work on your e-bike disc brakes. Now, touching the electrical components is a little bit different, but the disc brakes on a bike and an e-bike are the same, right? You're going to find these disc brakes on standard bikes as well. So you can do your visual check down there and see how the brake pads are. If you need to replace them, go ahead and do it, but I suggest checking your responsiveness on the levers. Check down there and see what's going on. Brakes are something I see as an issue in a lot of accidents caused by e-bikes. So again, it's something you want to be aware of. If you do a lot of hills, just know that you're going to wear those pads down.

If you're going from 20 miles an hour to stopping a lot, that's going to wear the pads down faster. So if you've made that transition from a regular bike to an e-bike, please be aware your brakes will wear quicker than they did on your regular bike. So with that said, you've got hydraulic disc brakes, and you have the regular cable disc brakes. Disc brakes have a rotor, like I said, that's on the wheel, and the calipers fit on that. A little bit different than the caliper brakes that are up here with the pads on the rim. And actually, I love disc brakes. They are simple, and if you have the right brand, they're pretty easy to adjust. They do great work. And also you don't have markings on your rim from the brake pads in here. So that's kind of nice. So that kind of sums up what I think you need to know about e-bike brakes.

I know there's a lot more out there, so put it in the comments. Let's start a good thread here and a good discussion about e-bike brakes and what others should know about them. And if you have any other questions, please email us at theteam@sixthreezero.com or call us at (310) 982-2877. Also, we've got our e-bikes linked in the description below. If you want to check them out on our website, sixthreezero.com. And we offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you don't love your e-bike in the first 30 days, send it back, no questions asked, no money out of your pocket. In addition to that, we'll warranty everything for a year, take care of you. Lastly, we have thousands of members in our Facebook Pedalers Group. You want to jump over there and ask them questions about e-bike brakes. Also, pick up a Sixthreezero, post photos in there, and be a part of the group. It's tons of fun. All right, so thanks for sticking around. And don't forget, it's your journey, your experience. Enjoy the ride.