Has anyone heard of electric brakes?

tcam5669

I have recently heard of some bike manufacturer introducing electric disc brakes on bikes sometime in the near future. Does anyone know what company it may be? I wonder how well they will work and if they are lighter in weight than say hydraulic brakes.

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Juba

Electric disc brakes will still have the same size/weight rotor, so no weight savings there. The caliper will still need a body, pistons and anchoring hardware, so no weight savings there. The brake lever will still need a handlebar clamp and lever assembly, no weight loss there.

The things that an electronic brake system might be able to get rid of would be the hydraulic chamber on the caliper and the hydraulic reservoir on the brake lever. And of course the hydraulic brake lines. Speaking for the front and rear brakes, though it is impossible to measure accurately, I would call this about from anywhere between 0.5lbs to 0.75lbs that you would be able to take out of a hydraulic brake system by removing the actual hydraulics. I mean, the new XT and XTR calipers only weigh about 100g a wheel, so you cannot tell me that the actual hydraulic reservoir weighs that much.

Okies, now that we have trimmed off the hydraulic portions of the system, we have to add back in the electronic portions.

First, we need a battery pack. Though I am not well versed in the physics behind electricity, we would need a battery with some amperage, not just the straight wattage we see for typical Ni-Cad battery packs we see for night light applications for bikes. If we are still able to use a Ni-Cad pack, best case we are still looking at 2’ish lbs. If we have to go with a lead acid, probably more like 6+ lbs.

Then, we would need the actual mechanism that applied force to the pistons, since we are no longer using our finger strength. A small electric motor assembly that activated a mechanical lever which applies force to the piston possibly? Maybe an electromagnet behind each piston, that would activate when the lever is pulled? Maybe a self-contained hydraulic system that would mechanically transfer fluid from one chamber to another, pushing the piston forward? No idea what this would weigh, I cannot think of a single way you would not be adding at least 0.5lbs per wheel.

The sensor mechanism on the brake lever would only need to be a few grams. The wires from the levers to the calipers would be only a few grams as well.

And there you have a system that adds a significant amount of weight, while only giving you 2 hours of average riding before your brakes stop working. Or 30 minutes riding in conditions where hard braking is required.

Cheers,
Juba

Brain

...wow... and to think 5 minutes ago I didnt even know electric brakes existed...

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moparchris

souns pretty stupid to me... my next bike im getting an hopefully a few weeks (XTC2 i think or possibly 1) has hydraulic disc brakes (Hayes 9) and i recon thats even quite unnessesary but im sick of having rim brakes brinding down my rims and replacing pads oh and the worst part.. the dust form the pads lol

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