Mountain Bike

[threaded]

How can it b dangerous? When I were a lad, (here we go) I used to do everything on a cheapo £90 mountain bike, I even entered the odd race, did some really rough riding around the the world championship course in Malvern where I grew up, no suspension, not even caliper brakes. For 95% of the riding you would do in the UK any mountain bike would be fine, it won't fail. THe only catastrophic failure of a bike I have seen was somebody using £1000 pace forks, which snapped on a really rough downhill race I was doing a few years ago. However the nice to have's cost more, such as hydro disk brakes and nice forks.

It's generally the suspension rebound that makes them dangerous. I've seen people unweigh as they crest and the bike then catapults them quite some distance.

On a cheap MTB you're best going for no suspension, and if you go that path a Cyclo-cross bike would probably be better for a beginner, as the bigger wheels make if more forgiving and less likely to tram line.

My 29er has no suspension, caliper brakes and armoured tires. Only problem this year with that was snapping the rear axle.

[threaded]

I quite fancy better brakes, especially for the wet. The rim ones you get on bikes are shockingly poor in my experience, not stopping you anywhere near as fast as you are used to in a car, though no doubt better materials exist than what I've got on mine. They are nice and simple though.

Better pads help an awful lot, leather is best, next up is the cable run itself, I use a sealed system - Gore Ride-On

But for in the wet you really can't beat drum brakes. I have them on my commuter bike. Originally MTBs used drum brakes too, it's why they used to call them 'packer racing' as after each long down-hill you'd have to pull the wheels off, take the drum brake off and 'pack' it with some fresh grease.

Halfords were selling a very old fashioned MTB as a commuter bike some time ago, drum brakes, alfine gearing, was quite a sweet bike.

[threaded]

Yeah, my brakes aren't particularly well adjusted - there's a largish gap between the rims and pads when they're slack. I've tried adjusting them to be closer, so that less use is needed of the lever, but this never seems to quite work without rubbing or binding occurring on one or both sides of the rim. Probably you need wheels and everything else connected to the braking to be in good order to get them really close like when new.

Sounds like your wheels need truing, and bearings servicing.

[threaded]

Well yes, you could given the right materials.

With ordinary rim and pads, can you apply enough braking force to skid the front tyre at speed on dry tarmac?

I can. You have to get your weight right behind the seat or you'll go over the bars.