Both rim brakes and hydraulic disc brakes require bedding in, though rim brakes are much simpler as the pads are a rubber compound that will generally bed in over the duration of the first ride. The reason you’ll need to bed your brakes in is they won’t be running at full power when you first ride your bike. As the pads will need to generate some heat to properly adhere to either your rim or your disc brake rotors. The process for bedding brakes in safely is as follows:
- Find yourself a long gradual descent which will allow you reach up to around 20mph.
- Pull the brake levers gradually, slowly increasing pressure on them and finally pulling them sharply to come to a stop. You should do this around 5 times to complete the process. This will generate heat through the pads and the rotor and remove the finish to the top of the pads, which is added to ensure the pads don’t rust before being installed into disc brake calipers.
- Once the process is done, your brakes should be fully effective, resulting in more power being available, and stopping distance should decrease.