Disk brakes have become a lot less maintenance happy of late. I had a tedious time trying to bleed my first bike with disk breaks - my present ones have been maintenance free for two years - the pads are easy to slip out and clean.
Agree with this. When I have to break too hard I go into a skid.
an e-bike with ABS solves this issue
https://www.bosch-ebike.com/de/produkte/abs/
i've never used such a system before but it makes sense. e-bikes could have an integrated braking system and forgo individual brake control. you'd then have an intelligently controlled brake-by-wire system that automatically applies braking to front/back wheels and also regenerative braking through the motor to efficiently slow/stop the bike.
as well as ease of replacing and availabilty of compatible pads, there are also issues of sensitivity to wheel dishing etc.
Thanks for this advice, I will keep an eye on my wheels, no problems up to now
I just wanted to add some advice on long term e-bike ownership maintenance.
E-Bikes are heavy, and even heavier if you use a child seat and/or bike trailer. I am often riding with our two young boys: 1 in the child seat, the other in the trailer. The total "Gross Vehicle Mass" reaches 150kg the bike was designed for.
But we use it in quite steep and hilly areas, and despite being fitted with good 4-piston brakes, they have to work hard, and I am usually changing the pads every 1000-1500km. The Swissstop 27RS resin pads I use cost about 27chf a pair.
But not to forget, is that the discs also wear heavily. The discs I have are 2mm thick out of the box, and are only allowed to wear down to 1.5mm. But after 3 pad changes, I often find they are down to 1.1mm or less. Additionally if you see brown-blue discolouring, they are getting too hot in use.
The good news is, most e-bikes use centrelock discs. These cost only around 10-15chf each and take 5-10minutes to change. So a complete pad-disc change costs me around 37chf....cheap insurance.
Just a thought: if your discs cost 10-15 chf it means you are buying the cheapest ones available. These are typically worse quality and typically do not last as long, and they don't transfer heat as well. Maybe worth investing a bit more for longer life? Eg. get an Ice-tech rotor instead, which has extra cooling features, ie. an extra middle layer in between rotor surfaces.
Also, if you are eating your pads and discs for breakfast maybe consider using metal pads, at least for the front brake - these will not work with your cheap discs! Metal pads last much longer (especially in bad weather) and keep their braking properties better even if they are hot. Downside is they tend to be noisier, and when cold they don't bite as well as resin. Hence the ideal mix (unless you ride DH) is probably metal pads front, resin pads back. Although at your total weight maybe front+rear would be worth a try?
Maybe also think about going a size up with discs (although you might already be at 200mm), upsizing has the greatest effect on braking power for sure.
Finally, just a minor thing: Centerlock is a standard for brake disc attachment, originally patented by Shimano. These hubs can be converted to accept 6-bolt discs very easily with an adapter. I wouldn't say Centerlock discs are any cheaper than 6-bolt ones, if anything, I would guess it is the other way around, because 6-bolt is used by everyone else other than Shimano... they are also dead easy to change.
if you're intensive on the brakes, that might also be a factor towards disc brakes as it would be a lot less hassle than replacing a rim. though i tend to use soft brake pads and change them more regularly to reduce wear on the rim.
I like rim brakes on light bikes such as my road racing bikes, because I can generally calibrate them so close that the lever play is minimal, which is how I like it.
On MTB and e-bikes, I prefer discs...better modulation and wet weather performance. Wheel true is not a factor, and changing pads /discs takes no longer than rim brakes. Additionally rims also wear..much rather change a 10chf disc than a 150chf rim.
I only use Shimano components, these were OEM on both my e-bikes. SM-RT30 and SM-RT54 in 180mm both cost below 15chf:
https://www.galaxus.ch/en/s3/product…-discs-5836334 . The discs are specified for Resin-only, so I only use resin pads.
Sure, for my MTB and Road bike I use XT or XTR ice-tech discs. But they only have to stop 100kg max. and don’t wear so quick. But these also specify only resin pads. Insurance could be affected if you use components against manufacturer specs.
Exactly my point, those are the cheapest option btw. SM-RT70 are still cheap and compatible with metal pads.
Price is not always right though, one of the most disappointing purchases I had were SwissStop rotors, they were quite expensive, and wore down unexpectedly quickly. Also did not find them any better than standard Shimano ones from a performance perspective.
my friend buy a car for 2000- and same year i buy ebike for 2900-🙈🙈 but i am selling now because i have now two bikes i will keep the normal one and sell ebike and true the good ebike start from 2500-