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How does breaking affect brakes? (programming.dev)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/bicycling

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I was always wondering this. Imagine a steep descent. What is better for brake wear - braking constantly or more powerful just at the end? Anybody knows? Goes for both rim and disc brakes

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Yes, yes, But are you sure about that? If we ignore other factors (i.e. wind resistance) you have to convert fixed amount of kinetic energy to fixed amount of heat. Both should generate the same amount of heat, the difference would be that breaking in short bursts might create higher temperatures momentarily.

[–] spankmonkey 1 points 3 months ago

Breaking momentarily with gaps in between to allow time for heat to dissipate might help avoid brakes overheating on long and steep enough slopes. It would probably need to be quite long for it to be an issue.