Front and rear disc brakes on the bikes are usually the same and sometimes you had like to interchange them for some reason if the rear is working better on your bike but the front brakes are not working that efficiently you had felt the need to change those brakes or swap them and vice versa there can be tons of reasons for doing this and in this article, I will discuss every part of those brakes if they are interchangeable or not or if the whole brakes are interchangeable or not
Quick answer for the people who are just curious to know if their brakes are interchangeable or not
Both disc brakes on a bike (road, mountain BMX) are interchangeable, you can swap your rear brakes with the front brakes and vice versa given that you are not thinking of making changes during the change because that would change things but if you just want to swap the brakes as they are its fairly possible
The difference or the complications happen when you are trying to add different components while making the interchange another scenario can be that you had different types of hubs on each wheel
For example, if you had already made changes to the hubs on your bike or different you were running different components of brakes already on your bike for example you were using Shimano brakes with Magura adaptors and SRAM rotors this combination is fairly popular and if this is the case then you may need to make some adjustments but nothing fancy
and another scenario would be that you changed the hubs on your bikes each brand has its own hubs and their advantages and disadvantages and there can be complications when you are trying to throw in the brakes in that mix as well.
But considering that you did not do any kind of those things then the swap should be possible without any kind of complications.
What Parts you can Swap for the brakes :
A brake consists of many parts like adapters, pads, rotors, and levers all of these parts make up the whole brake and when you are trying to swap your brakes considering they are both the same brand and same brakes then you can choose to swap some parts and as well as the whole brake set as well.
For example, if you are unsatisfied with how your front brake is working and you had like to swap it with your rear brake then you can choose to either fully swap the brakes as a whole leaving out the levers and cables only or you can only change rotors only if you feel that they can be the main cause of the problem
I wouldn’t get into the details of the braking power I would write another complete article on it
similarly the same can be said about the other parts of the brakes as well like pads or adapters of the brakes they are all interchangeable except when you have already made changes to the existing parts as I have explained above as well.
What changes are swaps are necessary and which would stay the same :
Now that you are clear on what are the conditions for changing/swapping the parts of the brakes the next step is what would you need to do to change the parts or the full set.
There are not many changes that you would need to perform you would simply change/swap 2 components on your bike and before that, you would need to bleed the brakes beforehand
- adapters
- rotors
Other than that no changes will be required lever will stay in the same place you would need to disconnect the cables/hoses from the brake adapters and perform the swap other than that no changes will be required you would simply relocate the adapters and motors
And put the hoses back in their places, levers will stay in their own place you dont need to change the levers from either side because they simply have the task of regulating the brake fluid and nothing else.
I did an article on Bigger rotors better braking? Hows and whys explained | mountain biking If you are interested in reading more around this
Does the question now arise that if you had also like to swap the brake levers as well how will you perform that change?
Is changing levers necessary and how to do it :
Changing the levers is not really necessary when you are performing the swap on your bike but if you had like to change your brake levers as well when you have decided to swap or change your bike brakes then the only thing you should be aware of is the direction of the levers
Usually, most of the levers are not directional but sometimes the levers can be directional and to verify if they are directional then is almost always already written on the levers “LEFT” or “right” changing them though you may alter the levers and they might not sit well on the handlebars and feel odd
Other than that if you are concerned about the standards of the levers for example if the front brake lever should be on left or right then there’s no need to do that you can mount them however you like meaning however you feel comfortable
The point is that both levers of the same brands work the same and their efficiency or pull ratio will not increase or decrease depending on their direction so feel free to do whatever you had like to do.
Of course, the lever-to-pull ratio in some brands is better than others and yes that can affect braking slightly to some extent but that’s another thing and another topic altogether.
the last question that I feel like most people have back in their heads is whether
Impacts of swapping brakes on braking power:
Alot goes into the braking power as a factor like modulation and stopping power which are the main factors that determine how much braking power you have but having too much braking power is not good either as is the case with having too less braking power.
You have to consider your riding style the trails you usually ride and how you want your brakes to perform rather than how much you need them to stop course all of these things are separate but considering that you are trying to swap your brakes for additional power or you feel like your front brakes are not working as much as rear brakes are
Usually, the reason for that happening is other than what you are thinking, for example, if the rear brakes on your bike are performing better usually its due to the weight on the rear wheel rather than the brakes that are playing the major role here
and as there is less weight or force on the front wheels of the bike the stopping power reduces and that can be the cause of you feeling less braking in the front brake there can be other reasons like the issues may go away if you change the pads or bleed the brakes and perform different checks on the brakes.
Before jumping to any conclusion performing some basic checks on the brakes can be better but if you really need some upgrades then there are lots of options available.