Bicycle Brakes, You Have To Stop Some Time

Bicycle brakes do slow you down, but you do need them some times, like when you’re coming down a steep hill or going round a sharp bend. As with all bicycle equipment the brakes were made from steel and are now mostly made of alloy and the expensive ones have titanium and carbon bits and bolts.

The brakes made by Campagnolo and Shimano are the most used brakes by both road riders and mountain bikers. For the road everyone uses a calliper style brake and you must stick to the same make of brake lever as calliper as they pull a specific amount of cable and the lever also has the gear shifter built into levers. You must remember that there are different brake pads for alloy or carbon rims and you must use the right ones or it could be disastrous.

Mountain bikers have a choice, they can have V-Brakes or disk brakes, V-Brakes are very strong and will stop you in a very short distance, but they can get clogged up with mud on wet days. Disk brakes on the other hand don’t get affected by weather conditions and are very powerful. There cable controlled disk brakes, which are cheaper; the best ones are hydraulically controlled, very much like car or motorbike brakes, a bit trickier to set up, but when they are right they are smooth and very responsive. Shimano make disk brakes but Hope probably makes the best ones, but there are quite a few different ones on the market.