Quote:
Originally Posted by NHAero
What's the scoop on the brakes going bad so often? I had mech disc brakes before hydros, and still have the BB7 brakes on my heaviest bike, the Big Dummy. In NH I would reach 40 mph within 1/2 of leaving my house because I lived up a hill, and I never felt underbraked. I did build that bike up with a 203mm rotor in the front, and the fork has QR, so plenty of potential force to eject the front wheel but nothing remotely like that has occurred.
As Mark McM said above, the fact the bike is heavy isn't itself an issue, given that there have been thousands of 200 lb plus MTBers riding downhill with cable discs. I don't get the repeated frequency of no brakes that is reported in the article.
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I'm guessing the brakes on the RadPower RadRunner were perfectly adequate for a total bicycle weight of over 200 lb - when the brake levers are squeezed by a rider with the hand strength of a 200 lb. adult. I looked up the average weight of 10 year old girls, which according to the internet is about 70 lb. The combined weight of two 10 year old girls on a RadPower RadRunner would have been well over 200 lb. The brakes might have been strong enough when operated by a full size adult, but a 10 year old girl probably doesn't have enough hand strength for good stopping.