Any vehicle that is in operation today has six main types of system. First is the chassis to which suspension and wheels are attached including a means of changing direction. Then there is the body which houses the occupants and the controls. There is the propulsion system which includes an engine, there is the transmission which includes the gearbox and drive shafts. There is the electrical system which allows lights and indicators for the vehicle to be seen and the driver to see during the darker parts of the day. But all of this would be useless if there was no means of slowing or stopping the vehicle. Every powered vehicle, whether it is a bicycle, a car, a truck, or even plant vehicles must have a braking system. Manufacturers fit brakes to machines so that they cannot be moved without having the facility to stop.

Many youngsters have ridden a bicycle without brakes, and they try to stop the bicycle by either dragging their feet on the ground or trying to wedge their foot against the wheel. We all know that this is a very inefficient way of stopping because it can cause damage to footwear or rider, and does not stop the bicycle unless it is going extremely slowly! However if we fit brakes of the very best quality to the bicycle then even at quite high speeds the bike can be stopped without incident and quickly.

Brakes are the most important feature of any machine or vehicle because if we do not fit brakes to them we will not be able to stop them. When anything moves it uses energy, this energy builds up and depending on the speed of the movement and the weight of the item, it can become quite high. If you take, for example, a bicycle they can be picked up and carried, they can be wheeled along quite easily. However if someone rolled a bicycle towards you down a slope where it could pick up some speed, you will find that if you try to stop it by just grabbing it without using the brakes it will seem to be much heavier than when you just pick it up from a stationary position. From this, you can see that manufacturers fit brakes of the best quality for a very good reason.

There are many places that fit brakes and it is an exacting task. Brakes are fairly simple things. There is the friction material that is fastened to a shoe or metal pad. These items are placed on a fixed holder that keeps them in place where the friction material is very close to the rotating surface such as a brake disc or brake drum, however, this holder has a moving point that can only be actuated by a specific action being performed, such as moving a lever or pressing on a pedal. The lever or pedal, when operated, either pushes a fluid or pulls a cable that moves the friction material via a cam or cylinder into contact with the disc or drum surface. The pressure that is applied is variable by the operator and can either slow or stop the rotating surface. Mechanics are the people who fit brakes and they are trained to perform this task efficiently and effectively.