How-to: Bed-in Disc Brakes

From mountain bikes to city bikes: Good brakes bring control and safety on the trail and in traffic. The best braking performance comes from disc brakes – when they are properly bedded in. Bedding in the pads is quite simple, only takes a few minutes, and you'll feel the difference right away. In this how-to, we'll walk you through the process step by step and explain what actually happens during it. 

When You Should Bed Your Brakes In 

Brake pads and rotors deliver their full braking power only when they have been bedded into each other. So, you should always do this when one or more parts have been replaced – whether it's just the pads, just the rotor, or everything at once. You should also bed in the brakes on a new bike. Here's how to do it and why it's important. 

Bedding in Step by Step 

To bed in your brake system, you should look for a safe environment where you're undisturbed and have quite a bit of space. An empty parking lot works well, but so does a clear forest path with little traffic. Focus on the front and rear brakes individually! Bedding them in separately works better than trying to do both at the same time. Here's how to proceed: 

1. Accelerate to about 30 km/h – you don't need to sprint, but going somewhat faster than just leisurely rolling is necessary. 
2. Apply one of the brakes so that the wheel is just short of locking. Let it drag until you come to a stop. It helps to shift your weight forward or back, depending on whether you're bedding in the front or rear brake. 
3. Once you've come to a stop, repeat the first two steps until you feel the braking power increase. How many repetitions it takes depends on several factors – speed, type of brake pads, temperature, and also the size of the rotor. 
4. Now you can perform the procedure with the other brake. 

Tip: If you rough up the brake pads with sandpaper before installation, you can often speed up the bedding-in process a bit. 

What Happens If You Don't Bed New Pads In? 

If you don't deliberately bed your brake pads and rotors in and just start riding, the effect will eventually appear through normal use of the brakes. However, this could take several tours. Until then, you're missing out on a significant portion of your potential braking power, which can be particularly unpleasant off-road. Since the front and rear brakes are used differently during normal riding, they will take different lengths of time to bed in. 

So, it's worth investing a few minutes to bed in your brakes, so you can harness the full power of your disc brakes from the start.