Carrera Brakes

[328isport]

Hi guys,

Just after a bit of help trying to get my head round the brakes on my girlfriends bike, shes just got a Carrera Virtuoso which is virtually unused, however i can't get over how bad the brakes are when operating from the hoods, the wheels are clean and known to be fine, the brakes are dual pivot tektros with standard pads, i've adjusted the pads including toe in and refaced them also, but to no avail, if your on the drops and can get maximum leverage then they do work OK and will just lock the wheels, but from the hoods it's hard enough just to stop the bike, now my old 80's Raleigh with side pull calipers and basic jagwire pads is far better and can be stopped easily with two fingers on the levers, my more modern Fuji is on another level again, however the Carrera is much newer than both so i just don't get it!

Am i missing something here? Is there something else that can be adjusted in order for the brakes to apply more force? I'm thinking of changing the pads for the cartridge type as the pads are just one piece jobs at the mo, but i can't help thinking its more the design of the levers just not allowing enough force to be applied?

 

[buggi]

what kind of brakes are you used to? are your other bikes MTBs or hybrids? brakes on road bikes are not as hard as other bikes, because if you locked the wheels at 30mph you would be straight over the handle bars. but if you're used to how a road bike brakes, then my suggestion would be that, as it's a carrera which you probably got from Halfrauds, i would suggest you take it to an LBS to check the set up of the brakes. My had my Carrera for 3 years, then one day decided to walk into an LBS with it and the first words out of their mouth was... "that bike's set up wrong" and pulled it off my and re-wired it there and then.

 

[Andy_R]

^^ wot buggi said, plus, replace pads with koolstop salmons. Have a look on Youtube for setting up tips, and as it's come from hellfrauds, make sure that the levers are caliper specc'ed levers and not v-type levers. Tis not unknown for the behind the scenes pixies to get it wrong when putting the bike together.........

 

[DCLane]

Changing the pads on my Virtuoso transformed the braking. I run Clarks CPS240 - but you will notice the improvement on any better ones.

 

[PaulSecteur]

Could you try one of you wheels in her bike?

Some wheels just dont seem to have a very good surface and you can change pads and calipers and they will still be naff.