Rim brake pads after ebike conversion

Hey guys. I realized I'm still on my stock original brake pads from about 15 years ago. Lol... They started to make a nice grinding noise when I'd apply them...well now it makes sense....



These were the rear pads. I replaced the front ones and they're decently worn. Probably 2/3 completely worn...

I just ordered some Kool stop ebike specific grey compound ebike brake pads. These are pretty awesome. Time will tell how well they hold up to the bike. I'm city riding so I utilize regen and lots of braking. I try to regen as much as I can before I brake...last thing I want to do is replace brake pads over and over....

Anyone else have some nasty pics of totally worn down pads?

So far the KS "ebike" pads work ok on SB Cruiser's front wheel; they're used in tandem with regular KS salmon pads on the other brakes on the same front wheel.

I haven't seen much wear on them yet, but I use EABS (left rear) and regen (right rear) for almost all of my braking.

Somewhere towards the end of the CrazyBike2 thread there's pics of a pad worn down to the metal.

I'm also have been using KS Ebike pads on rear and really has impressive stopping and have about 2000 km and pad is only slightly worn. Original KS pads worn out before 2000 km.

Kool stop's the shit! i used to use their longer salmon pads i think. Those things stopped my +80lbs heavier ass doing 35mph very well.

Kool stop.. for when you want the rim to fail before the brake pad

Hehe... "my stock original brake pads from about 15 years ago"... WOW. And I thought I was "good"/careful with not wearing out brake pads... Gold Star! (Yer my Brake Pads Hero) :lol:

So I was away visiting my parents and they both have new trek bikes. They're just like these casual cruisers and I got on my dad's which is an Alu frame....Oh gawd....how can they make a bike so light??? Lol. The steel frame alone of my bike is like 10X the weight of that complete bike... Now I know what kinda weight of a bike I've got...the trek 800 is built like a tank compared to these newer bikes....soo much weight. So much steel! So much weight to slow down! Poor brakes...

How much does your actual bike (not coutning motor/battery) weigh?

How much does his weigh?

How much do you and the motor/battery weigh?

I'll bet that the difference in actual bike weight is at best a couple of percent of the total bike/rider/motor/battery weight. If so, it would make a negligible difference to the braking (or accleration) performance.

amberwolf said:

How much does your actual bike (not coutning motor/battery) weigh?

How much does his weigh?

How much do you and the motor/battery weigh?

I'll bet that the difference in actual bike weight is at best a couple of percent of the total bike/rider/motor/battery weight. If so, it would make a negligible difference to the braking (or accleration) performance.

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Yep. A super lightweight road bike is about 15 lbs. My aluminum Trek 1400 road bike (not superlight) is about 23 lbs. The trek 800 weighs in at about 30 lbs. I seem to recall weighing my aluminum framed Iron Horse 3.0 circa 2007 and I think it weighed about 34 lbs. I'm guessing the front shock added a few pounds. So just for grins, I just weighed my ebike. It is almost 100 lbs. I guess building out the rack, adding fenders, double thickness rear tire, rear rack reinforcing etc., Meanwell charge, etc. have added more weight than I thought. No wonder it is hard to pedal unpowered. :^)

Of course, I don't know the weight of those cruiser frames, but it is hard to imagine how they could weigh less than my Trek 1400. The weight of the tires alone would make that super unlikely. 30 lbs for a base starting weight for an ebike ain't bad at all.

neptronix said:

Kool stop's the shit! i used to use their longer salmon pads i think. Those things stopped my +80lbs heavier ass doing 35mph very well.

Kool stop.. for when you want the rim to fail before the brake pad

Click to expand...

Yeah I know, I keep hearing that. Never purchased any myself, Chain Reaction Cycle does sell it, I am just too cheap.
Regen or E-abs braking works well too.

Philaphlous said:

Now I know what kinda weight of a bike I've got...the trek 800 is built like a tank compared to these newer bikes....soo much weight. So much steel! So much weight to slow down! Poor brakes...

Click to expand...

My first ebike conversion is a Trek 800. As I recall, it weighs about 52 pounds at the moment, but I put on a cheap suspension fork. That weight was offset by getting rid of the steel handlebars. I have an 8 pound Dolphin battery on it. The geared hubmotor is around 8.5 pounds.

By the way, I changed from center pull v-brakes to cantilever style rim brakes. I think it stops well, but I don't ride very fast. I could put Avid BB7 calipers on the new fork, but having done that with other conversions I think good rim brakes feel just as good. Until I learned how to true wheels, I liked the disks because they worked fine with wobbly rims.