Brakes not strong enough for you?

If you’re running disc brakes and you find that they’re just not giving you the stopping power you desire, don’t throw them out or resell to some unsuspecting rider! Try these easy and cheap steps to make your brakes more powerful and if they’re still not strong enough for you… get rid of them as you see fit.

Brakes by different manufacturers have different adjustments that can be made on the brake lever or on the brake itself to increase power. This differs for each braking system and they’re all changes that should be explored prior to buying new brakes. Addressing all of the different ways to increase braking power using all of the different braking systems is beyond the scope of this article, but as long as you have the brakes why not put make those adjustments first.

But, there is one “free” brake adjustment that many riders seem to miss. The free adjustment that we are going to address: squeeze harder. Yes, before you drop any of your hard earned money on bigger rotors or a new system entirely, try squeezing harder. This seems like such a “duh” tip but sometimes people forget to do this. One of the ways you can squeeze harder is by changing what part of your finger actually does the squeezing.

I usually brake with just the tip of my index finger, properly known as the Distal phalanges. If you adjust the lever inwards, towards the handlebar, and use the Intermediate phalanges to squeeze the lever, you get more power to the brakes. Your Intermediate phalanges are stronger than your Distal phalanges. When you make this change, you instantly get more braking power because a strong part of finger is doing the squeezing.

If you’ve tried all the free tricks and the one free trick that everyone forgets to do, then it might be time to change out your resin pads for metallic pads. Many brakes come with resin pads but metallic pads are known to generally provide more stopping power than resin pads. The negative tradeoff of running metallic pads versus resin pads is the noise factor. Metallic pads do tend to make more noise. Resin pads, in general, are quieter and less powerful but generally provide better modulation.

And if that doesn’t work, look to upsize your rotor. Going from a 6” rotor to a 7” rotor means the rotor will cool off faster and be less likely to fade which translates into more stopping power on long downhills. It will also give you more stopping power due to a longer radius when braking powers are applied.

If you’ve tried these steps and your brakes are still not strong enough for you, then go ahead and upgrade to a new system. You have my blessing. 🙂