can't stop

When I bought my bike I replaced the pads right before I started riding with a motor. I use shimano's and they work great for me, stopping at top speed. You can find those at REI or any local bike store.

http://www.amazon.com/Shimano-BR-57...d=1432506097&sr=8-1&keywords=shimano+105+pads

Brake pads are the most important part of bike safety , you need to be able to stop quickly ...

It's kinda hard to get just the right adjustment on the brakes with the dual pull. There's been A LOT of discussion on the subject. Everyone knows the main stopping load comes from the front brake. BUT, if you adjust the main to the front on dual pull, then when ya hit sand or oil on the road yer front is gonna slide out. SO, what ya do is, adjust for more braking to the front and watch very carefully for crap in the road. On some bikes you can get away with more to the rear wheel and still have good stopping. But the front wheel is the one ya want for real stopping power. just go a little tighter on the front pads and you should be OK. This assumes you have good pads to begin with.
fatdaddy.

i use the dual pull handle.. can stop easily.
just have to setup the brakes properly.

Adjusted brakes and some good brake pads should do ya the trick. I put some v-brakes on my cruiser and were using those for a while problem was I was always burning through the brakes really fast! Gotta keep up with the brakes on these things because you never know when you'll need them.

my bit of experience using my dual pull brake lever has taught me that adjusting my brakes is super important. before I got everything set up right my braking was better before I installed it (rear v-brake only) once i spent some time setting the brakes up correctly though my braking improved significantly, now they work better than only the rear by a wide margin.

given all the normal brake adjustment things are good (no wheel riding, resetting corectly, pads aligned, etc.) you can move on to setting the front and rear up relative to eachother. by using the grommets on the lever for fine adjustment, and the cable clamp on the brake itslef for major adjustment you want to be able to lock the rear wheel up standing beside the bike and roll the front wheel just barely if you push it with the brakes engaged, the rear wheel should drag.

if your front wheel locks up before the rear does your will eat it in an emergency, under full grip braking the front wheel needs to be just barely able to roll without your weight on the bike. doing this will net you an increase in braking power during normal brake use and not being messed up if you really reef on the lever.
with your weight on the bike at speed your front brake won't be able to lock up no matter how hard you pull the lever if you set it up that way, in theory you could spend a bunch of time doing trial and error and braking tests to adjust the front brake tighter than what I have described, but not tight enough to lock up with your riding. I was planning on doing that but found the amount of test riding was close the the amount where I would need to re-adjust the brakes anyway, so i figured it's not really worth the extra performance as my bike is slow anyway. this set up works well for me, and it fairly straight-foreward to execute.

all that having been said I have swapped to a four stroke since going through all this and no longer need the dual pull to clear the left handlebar for the clutch, but I still have it because I have found it has grown on me. I can operate the bike completely with my right hand (though I definately would not reccoment doing so, especially not with a coffee in my left hand)

Even in an emergency stop, as long as you don't hit sand, oil or whatever the front wheel stops just fine. I've been running nothing but a front brake for over a year now. I have a rear coaster but hardly ever touch it. If I see I'm getting ready to brake hard into CRAP, Sand, ect, THEN I'll use my coaster to take the pressure off the front and help prevent a slide out. But on a normal road I can hit the front brake REAL hard with no problem at all. on a good road surface the front brake is the one ya want. BUT on a dual pull you don't have the option of choosing front or rear in a split second. It just might be safer to put more stopping power on the rear. I think I'd adjust the front a little tighter than you described though. Not Too awfully tight. Just before lockup tight is how I adjusted My OCC's and it worked great. Ya don't wanna lock the front if the back aint locked too. In fact, thinking about it, Ya NEVER wanna lock the front. So adjust the front so it'll still slide through the pads with some effort and not lock. I'm getting good at just using my front brake, With good pads in good weather I feel safe with it.
fatdaddy.

My OCC is all butt very little chance of the bike tipping if I brake too hard, but all I have to do is think back to that one time, almost fifteen years ago now, when I rode a road bike. really crappy rear brake on it (didn't have the knowhow I have now to fix it back then) I had to stop suddenly (if I remember right a cat ran out in front of me) I slammed both brake levers hard and comitted to what would have been an awesome stoppie if that had been the plan. unfortuneately as I was not prepared for such stuntery my feet came off the pedals, I hoped I would be able to get my feet to the ground, stand up and let the bike fall out from under me. sadly the length of my little legs was not adequate, and the head-tube of that bike went in for the kill.
lefty was never quite the same.

Yeah, Just thinking about the rear wheel coming up over yer head and replacing yer front wheel is a scary thought. It really does take more than you think to do that. I've had the rear come up a few inches, but to completely flip it all the way over is not easy to do. BUT, Even a few inches off the ground is heart stopping. Ya see the BMX trick riders do it all day long, just rolling along on the front tire. I don't like the feeling of nothing but my front tire on the ground. BUT, Like I said, IT aint easy to do. My bike is kinda heavy and a lighter bike might come up easier, But That's why ya don't set up the front to LOCK with the dual pull.
fatdaddy.
PS. I hope Lefty is feeling better.