I'm buying an ebike within a few weeks, and I've settled on everything except the brake type. I'm fed up with the constant brake squeal of my cantilever brake pads on my aluminum rims (existing bike), and there's the hassle of adjusting the brake shoes on the cantilever brakes; both of these problems carry over to V-brakes on electric bikes. The ebike is equipped with V-brakes and is upgradeable to disc brakes (has reinforced fork, braze-ons, and wheel hubs). The all-weather disc braking benefit is appealing since I plan on riding in the mountains. I think I've sold myself on the disc brake but I would like to hear what current ebike riders say. Thank you! The ebike I plan to buy is the Day 6 Dream 24 upgraded with 750 watt Bafang mid-drive and a 48 volt battery; weighs about 52 lbs.

Well, you need good brakes. Any type of brakes will do good, if you get quality components – especially quality pads. They will make noise if worn or poorly adjusted. I’ve ridden a 500lbs bike on cantilever brakes in the mountains and it worked fine (well, except any brake will overheat doing 40mph on a 500lb bike).

Get what you want, but rim brakes are fine, as well as disk. Just don’t get entry level stuff for an ebike.

(to specifically answer your question, the best brakes are hydraulic disk brakes, FYI).

Having had a Hydraulic disk brake bike for the last 15 years... I wouldn't even consider my new bike when I get one not having it. And I mean a good quality hydraulic disc brakes... Do you need them, no, but it is sure nice to have them. Never once needed any adjustment, fixing, just changed 3 sets of pads for the last 15 years.

I had cantilevers on my touring bike that I converted to an e-bike. The canti's weren't really very good prior to the conversion. The added weight of the conversion made the canti performance poor. Add some rain to the equation and the canti's were scary and dangerous. I had a frame builder add disc brake tabs and disc brakes (avid BB-7 road) to the frame. Huge, really HUGE... improvement. If you're looking at buying an e-bike that you like and it has discs... I'd consider it over any e-bike that doesn't have discs (well, maybe I'd consider some hydraulic rim brakes... as long as they aren't canti's.)

preferred break type for ebike - regen break.
I cannot imagine ebike without regen braking.
All my 3 ebikes regen is primary break , disc or Vbrakes are more for emergency.
On my EPLUS drive equipped BIRIA I have Jucy7 disc breaks with, at least 10,000km on them, still on original pads/!!!!/.

How did I miss that in my answer... I agree 100%, most of the time I too just use the re-gen not the "real" brakes...

Not sure that regen will be too successful on a mid drive;-). Otherwise, I agree although haven't had a DD bike so can't employ.

Regen won't work with a mid-drive or a geared hub motor. OP, get disc brakes. If Avid BB7s are a great option: not to expensive (compared to hydraulic), easy to adjust, and the most ebrake cut-off levers will work. FWIW, I ride with only BB7s on the front and regen. Plenty of braking force. That said, I work for an ebike company and I would never recommend to a customer that they cruise with only one brake.

Disk brakes are soooo much better than rim brakes. Rim brakes can be set up to work well, but few can actually do it. (I base that on bikes I work on that others have tried to adjust) Cabe brake kits have gotten fairly cheap. Buy it, try it.

-SP

Our bikes have shimano hydraulic disks, textro mechanical disks, and various rim brakes. I would say the hydraulics are very good and can lock up the rear wheel, but my wife's 55 lb cruiser e-bike stops well with the mechanical disks.

My Trek 800 e-bike conversion had very weak center pull brakes. I changed out the pads and adjusted, but they were still unsafe. I converted to new v-brakes and it was far better, with stopping power that feels as good as the disk brake bikes.

My preference would be for disk brakes just because I like technology. A drawback with the hydraulic disks is that I will have to buy a bleeding kit this winter, and then I'll probably lose some pieces next year and have to buy a second one.

I have had my hydraulic disk brakes for 15 years, never ever did anything with them other than put in new pads 3 times for over 36,000KM... And the consistency of the braking effect in all kinds of weather is untouchable by any other brake type. IMO