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Hi All,
My wife’s ebike came with Shimano BR-M355. On a ride yesterday, she was complaining about burning smell from the brakes and lack of power on a sustained down hill.
If money was no object I’d fit Hope V4s with 203 front and rear (apart from probably snapping the forks in half, we haven’t got £400 to spend!) so I’m wondering if there is a more affordable option. It’s a comfort/step through bike so doesn’t need to be mega powerful.
I’m wondering if we were to replace the stock resin pads with some sintered ones and replace the cheep Shimano rotors with some Hope ones I have in the garage. From memory, I may have a 180 for the front which will help as it is currently 160 front and rear.
Does that sound like a plausible solution or am I just trying to polish a t*** and should just save and get some better brakes?
Bigger rotors will help, after that a set of 4 pot deores would be plenty powerful enough.
I've got on fine with cheap Shimano calipers. Pads bedded in?
I've just put MT520 callipers on mine (with my existing deore m6000 levers) and they feel like a definite step up. < 100 quid a pair.
Before you go rushing to upgrade, basic shimano brakes should be plenty powerful for that kind of bike. You sure it's not a maintenance issue? Oil contamination or something like that.
There is a chance I’ve contaminated them with overspray while in the garage.
If they really are overheating then swapping calipers is unlikely to help. All calipers generate the same amount of heat for a given amount of braking, so you need more surface area to get rid of it, so bigger rotor and/or finned pads.
But as above, I'd expect standard brakes to be just fine, and contamination/lack of bedding in is more likely to be an issue.
Go bigger rotors. Change to 200/180 front/rear.
Adaptors are less than a tenner on Wiggle and new rotors are around £50. Sorted and you'll have bags of power.
Was she dragging her brakes for the whole of a long downhill?
Oh yes! Going above 12mph is “too scary” 😀
Can I check - how old are the brakes? Have you ever bled them?
How long and steep a hill is this - was it the ski road from Cairngorm?
How, ahem, much, ahem, does your wife weigh?
The organic pads are also pretty poor with heat.
Wife has similar shimano brakes on her LIV Ebike , but has a 203mm front and 180mm rear disc as standard and its pretty damn potent. She wont be needing any upgrades to these ! Try increasing the disc sizes.
The M355 is quite far down the range and the SLX(m600) ive heard are excellent. I dont know what the slx equivalent is today.
Why not go Hope 2nds ?, plenty on ebay currently.
As above, go to 200 mm rotors and sintered pads. Is she a chronic rear brake dragger? A lot of people think you will crash and die if you touch the front brakes. It might be worth diplomatically offering some coaching on how to use the brakes - the front brake should be doing most of the work.
Bigger rotors are definitely the first step for me here. If you’re getting a burning smell, that sounds like brake dragging, not contaminated pads.
As mentioned above, check your wife is using the front brake as well as the rear - not just dragging the back one.
Last resort would be bigger brake calipers that have a bigger pad surface area and more power / resistance to fade. I’d try to pick up some Deore 4 pots or Guide RE. The latter come as standard on a lot of bikes and people often take them off and replace with Hope and put them on eBay quite cheap.