Kids Bike Brakes - Stupid Question

[P-Jay]

OK, big hole in my bike knowledge base.

What type of brake is this? It's my Son's and frankly it's rubbish, took him too Brechfa on Friday and he's brave beyond his braking ability - managed to catch him once and he slammed pretty hard on the next run.

It's a 16" Spesh Hotrock, a sort of half mini-MTB and BMX Hybrid.

The bolt that holds it on to the fork is bent and there's a lot of flex in the caliper.

All the BMX brakes I've looked at have two mounting points like an MTB V brake.

[Kermit power]

That's just a standard road caliper, isn't it?

Assuming the bike is the same as my son's similarly-sized Spesh, it should also have a back-pedal brake on the rear wheel?

[groomi]

As KP said, it's a standard caliper. Usually good enough rather than excellent, but can often be too heavy for kids to operate due to cheap levers flexing, cables too long (as it looks in your photo - not the angle the cable goes through the caliper) and the caliper itself flexing.

[P-Jay]

Thanks both! Didn't consider looking at road bike brakes [facepalm].

It does indeed have a rear coaster brake, he doesn't like it, he can't really modulate it, it's ether off or locked.

There's a mount for another rear brake of this style, I'm going to get him a set of new callipers, and some tiny BMX levers, won't cost the earth, and disengage the coaster brake.

He's got pretty good pace for this first time on a 'proper' trail.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh1f2vqpFvQ&fea...

[rhinochopig]

Centre pivot brakes.

Either buy a stiffer centre pivot - which are generally crap - or get a dual pivot brake (road bike, but check they'll fit over the wheel and meet the rim), or swap the forks for ones with bosses and get some, frankly, much better V-Brakes.

ETA you could also try some better brake pads.

One other thought, how well adjusted are they? My son has this type on his balance bike and properly adjusted they are easily capable of locking up the front wheel.

[Captain Answer]

Check the adjustment (both cable tension and block adjustment), they are probably miles out either when setup from the factory or the seller. I've found this on various kids bikes in the family, if undertaking some serious braking then upgrading the pads will help out a lot.

[HardWorkers]

Am I mistaken? There doesn't seem to be an outer cable.

Without the outer cable there will be nothing for the brake lever pressure to press against, so the inner cable will just 'pull' on the caliper with no opposing 'push' to balance out the brake pressure.

[Gizmo!]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_brake#Side-pu...

Used to call them side-pulls when I were a kid. They were sh!t then too.

[TorqueTalk]

Sadly thats a generic made in china caliper brake, they cost less than $2. You can get a better replacement form any bike shop or a popular high street store...