I’m at a complete loss. I’ve tried 3 different sets of brake shoes, as well as cleaning the rim with rubbing alcohol, and I can NOT get the brakes to grab on my kid’s bike. Even with no weight on the bike, pulling fully on the brake lever, the tire will still spin as I push the bike. Obviously this isn’t good, and I can not, for the life of me figure out why I can’t get them to work properly.
I initially bought some cheap brakes thinking for what he was going to use the bike for, they’d be good enough (riding around the driveway and occasional train to trail path), but they suck. I then got the Ultegra brakes, and they’re even worse than the cheap brakes. I had a set of pads I bought from Walmart as a joke for my wife (she’s always saying give me a break, so I gave her 4 brakes. I thought it was funny) and those were by far the worst.
Everything appears to move freely, both sides of the brakes (caliper type brakes) move when pulling the lever, the pads/shoes themselves just don’t grab.
Help?
by Senior_Cheesecake155
1 Comment
Unsure what kind of bike you’re talking about, but most often with kids bikes the problem is in the calipers. The levers may work fine and the pads may be good, but if the calipers suck and the rim braking surface is not machined, you’re going to have a problem no matter what you put in there. This applies mostly to kids bikes you might get at Walmart or Target.