Can You Have Too Much Power? | EMTB Brake Testing

With the extra speed, weight and descending that EMTBs deliver, getting a top quality set of brakes is crucial! However, there are many ways to fine tune your ebike disc brake setup including rotor sizes, pad types, number of pistons and even lever blade design. Steve teamed up with former CRC PayPal and Trek Atherton mechanic Owen Coutts to try out a variety of Magura's brake options to see what works best!

⏱ Timestamps ⏱
0:00 - Intro
0:20 - Meet Owen!
2:10 - The Test
3:15 - 4 Piston | 220mm Rotor | One Finger
5:19 - 4 Piston | 220mm Rotor | Two Finger
6:38 - Magura's Brake Rotor Options
8:08 - 4 Piston | 180mm Rotor | Two Finger
8:44 - 4 Piston | 180mm Rotor | One Finger
10:23 - Magura's Caliper, Lever Blade and Pad Options
11:58 - 2 Piston | 180mm Rotor | One Finger

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Which brakes do you use? Have you experimented with pads and rotors? Let us know below 👇

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[Acceleronics]

*If* your brakes are capable of locking the wheels, then stopping distance is mostly rider technique (assuming tire choice is held as a constant). Grabby, difficult-to-modulate brakes will require more skill to reach threshold braking.

[claudiufloroiu]

Might not be a science exp. But you make it entertaining.. Godd job guys

[iiBULLETTii]

I agree, there are quite a bit more factors that come into play here but still fun to watch

[jeanmarc_in_Hudson]

Interesting test. Braking technique way more important than rotors, pads, pistons, brake levers, tire pressure, etc… 😆

[paulbry]

My ebike came with shimano slx great brakes but I'm a big boy at 240lbs they just weren't enough so I swapped to trp dhr evo 4pot the best decision I ever made stop me almost instantly even on the steepest hills very pricey but so worth it and the rotors are 2.3mm 203mm instead of the shimano 1.8mm you should review them love the channel

[andrextr]

Although front brake is important for a full stop in a straight line, I found that the rear brake gets much hotter than front on steep trails and tracks. We use mostly the rear brake for controling the speed, with constant friction. Thus, I am running 223 at rear and 200 front. Don’t understand why the industry always put a smaller rotor at rear. At least use the same size as the front if you do steep descents.

[poguemahone]

Feel is the most important thing. Some like sharp grabby shimanos, some like softer modulable SRAM. You wont brake well with either if they don't suit your style.

[andyarchitect]

Im a big fan of the feel of Magura brakes. I actually prefer the feel of the cheap plastic carbotecture leavers as they have a bit of flex in them that seems to aid modulation... plus they don't suck the heat out your fingers in winter :)

[Evo]

I've been running 220mm Magura's with Sram code brakes since they came out and wouldn't change and now all the e/bike are nearly running 220mm disc. It's all in finger feel and trail braking.

[thewrx]

Good tech'ish vid embn, I like that you were able to showcase what braking options riders have that will ultimately improve confidence and make you faster, using one of the best brands "Magura" (love my yellow danny calipers!). However, would have been nice to summarize the results of your testing at the end.

[nomad-pqywiyv]

While how a rider apply their brakes is a big factor overall bigger rotors, more pistons and pad material are going to be more of a factor over time among other thing.

[carstenreeder]

Great test. How else could we get to know now that all the parts swapping made not much of a difference and that there are a dozen other factors playing into it. At least everyone has to try some parts and will have to find out what works best with his riding and braking style.

[russellzauner]

I would rather have a hybrid system that smartly and progressively combines my "brake by wire" controls with a reluctance brake (not collecting power, it's for resistance not energy and can be built extremely lightweight) and a mechanical brake (it's possible the two can eventually be melded into one unit, rim or disc) with a PID or similar algorithm to only use the friction brakes when completely stopped/precision parking, along with a "failsafe" control that allows you to have a separate control that's hardwired like an ebrake/parking brake for your ride, to give you redundancy and control continuity while you're assumedly in positions of high consequence activity.
I live in the Pacific Northwest and even though my tadpole has two sets of front brakes the stock set was no match for an unplanned 1500 foot descent with no real pullouts and traffic starting to heat up...regen would be great but not frying my brakes every 5 seconds would be even better.

[dickiesmithmtb]

Braking should have used the front brake only, eliminating the effects of weighting the rear tyre

[heywood]

Is Owen the guy that used to be Chris Evans sidekick on TFI Friday?

[michael_the_chef]

Brakes need heat to function properly, thats why the smaller rotor was almost the same as the larger one.

[ksnax]

I'm not surprised by the 2-pot vs. 4-pot results. Unless piston and pad area is also changed, there is nothing in physics to explain how they should actually be more or less responsive or alter braking force.

[Evo]

I run Carbon Lorraine VRX pads on my Codes and stay away from organic as there wan*k. Also on your test the Magura 220mm floating disc need time to bed in and pads that I use need cleaning before use and during life and give superb trail braking without lock up. If you look at the disc you can see the crosshatch machining and they will not give full bit until bedded in with the above pads or sram sintered which are good.

[kevinmortimer]

running mt7 with 220 front, 200 rear. semi metallic pads in front with organics in the rear. nduro 7 is a fat thing but these haul it up with venom! i think pad choice makes a very big difference

[FINNdeischgut]

I would have found a table with all measured values ​​good.