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handlebars, which may result in serious injury or death.
3. Disc brakes are extremely powerful. Take extra care in becoming familiar with these brakes
and exercise particular care when using them.
4. Disc brakes can get extremely hot with extended use. Be careful not to touch a disc brake
until it has had plenty of time to cool.
5. See the brake manufacturer’s instructions for operation and care of your brakes, and for when
brake pads must be replaced. If you do not have the manufacturer’s instructions, see your dealer
or contact the brake manufacturer.
6. If replacing worn or damaged parts, use only manufacturer-approved genuine replacement
parts.
7. Do not use drum, roller, or coaster brakes. They are not suited to hilly riding or heavy loads
and can fail.
1. Brake controls and features
It’s very important to your safety that you learn and remember which brake lever controls which brake on
your bike. Squeeze one brake lever and look to see which brake, front or rear, engages. Now do the same
with the other brake lever.
Make sure that your hands can reach and squeeze the brake levers comfortably. If your hands are too
small to operate the levers comfortably, consult your dealer before riding the bike. The lever reach may be
adjustable; or you may need a different brake lever design.
2. How brakes work
The braking action of a bicycle is a function of the friction between the braking surfaces. To make sure
that you have maximum friction available, keep your wheel rims and brake pads or the disk rotor and caliper
clean and free of dirt, lubricants, waxes or polishes.
Brakes are designed to control your speed, not just to stop the bike. Maximum braking force for each
wheel occurs at the point just before the wheel “locks up” (stops rotating) and starts to skid. Once the tire
skids, you actually lose most of your stopping force and all directional control. You need to practice slowing
and stopping smoothly without locking up a wheel. The technique is called progressive brake modulation.
Instead of jerking the brake lever to the position where you think you’ll generate appropriate braking force,
squeeze the lever, progressively increasing the braking force. If you feel the wheel begin to lock up, release
pressure just a little to keep the wheel rotating just short of lockup. It’s important to develop a feel for the
amount of brake lever pressure required for each wheel at different speeds and on different surfaces. To
better understand this, experiment a little by walking your bike and applying different amounts of pressure to
each brake lever, until the wheel locks.
When you apply one or both brakes, the bike begins to slow, but your body wants to continue at the
speed at which it was going. This causes a transfer of weight to the front wheel (or, under heavy braking,
around the front wheel hub, which could send you flying over the handlebars).
A wheel with more weight on it will accept greater brake pressure before lockup; a wheel with less weight
will lock up with less brake pressure. So, as you apply brakes and your weight is transferred forward, you
need to shift your body toward the rear of the bike, to transfer weight back on to the rear wheel; and at the
same time, you need to both decrease rear braking and increase front braking force. This is even more
