How does breaking affect brakes?
How does breaking affect brakes?
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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Braking at the bottom will cause less wear.
Because air resistance also has a braking effect, and it increases with your speed, squared.
So the faster you go, the more energy will be bled off from wind resistance.Also, braking strongly in short bursts is better than letting your brakes rub continuously. That will cause them to overheat and glaze the brake pads, destroying them.
Wind resistance makes total sense. I'm not entirely sure on short bursts, though. I mean you have to change the fixed amount of kinetic energy to heat in fixed time. Theoretically both would result is similar temperature given short time span.
Short bursts heat up your pads quickly, but allow them to cool back down in between.
Continuous braking keeps the heat on.Hm, yes, but total amount of heat is constant. Perhaps it cools quicker with bursts and its higher temperatures because of difference in temperature against ambient.
Not all the heat goes into your brake pads. Your rims or discs take much of the heat but also cool down very fast.