I probably don’t need to tell you how important your disc brakes are! Having good brakes just keeps you out of trouble. Carefully maintaining your brakes is the key. With disc brakes, brake pads rub on a disc, or rotor, to slow the wheels. The pads are attached to a caliper that squeezes them against the rotor. It’s kind of like how squeezing the handbrake on a bicycle pushes the brake pads against the wheel of the bike.