Replacing Ebrake?

[Josh]

I have a 2015 Ejoe Epik SE. It is a great folding ebike for the price. To keep the price down many components are bottom barrel. One issue I keep having is the brakes. The levers are DIA-COMPE and the mechanical disk brakes are Zoom 320. The front brake is impossible to adjust properly. I even took it to a shop and they gave up. The lever pulls all the way in and touches the handle and the brakes still take several meters to stop. Im not too sure if it is the mounting point on the bike itself, the brakes, or the lever. Anyway, I want to try to replace the front brakes.
How do I replace my brakes and maintain the motor cut off? Are the connectors mostly universal? Any recommendations? Where should I start looking?

 

[harryS]

Brake connectors can and do differ, but you can always splice the replacement cable into the old one. If you don't have the skills, someone else can easily solder it up, cover with heat shrink tubing and it will be fine.

Funny. I bought Dia-compe levers off ebay and replaced the common Wuxing levers in an attempt to get more braking power. My bike had old centerpull cantilever brakes, which need a lever with long cable travel. I thought the Dia-compes might have it. I ended up replacing both brakes with linear pull cantilevers, and that was the fix for me.

I am wondering why your shop didn't suggest replacing the caliper with something better?

 

[Josh]

I do have the ability to splice the wires together. Any suggestions on how i can fix my problem? Upgrade brakes or levers or both? Any brand in particular?

 

[harryS]

The Dia Compe lever I purchased has a choice of two fulcrum points under the lever for attaching the cable, which allows a long and a short travel to best suit your brake. I don't know that you can do much better than that if you already have them. I assume they tried both attach points.

You could consider calipers with bigger pads. Avid BB7 seem to have good reviews on amazon, and are cheaper on ebay. The even cheaper Avid BB5's get mediocre reviews, and I agree with that since I have tried them on a different bike and they could be stronger.

 

[William Hemmingsen]

I just ordered some Avid BB7 to replace the Tektro Novela brakes that came on my ebike. The Tektro are fine on flats, but I live in a hilly area, and prefer not to eat it when they fail. I will let you know how they work once I get them.