Wal-Mart bike

2door said:
This sentence has me concerned > "they got cut into from the brake pads actually not being able to stop the engine"
Am I reading this wrong?

Why are you trying to brake against engine power? Use your clutch. Disengage the clutch before using the brakes.

Tom
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have to agrree Tom...
LOL trying to scrub off momentum while the clutch is still engaged is a recipe for stitches.... and if you are wearing pads this fast there is a problem in your handling of the bike not the quality of the equipment.
 
MarkSumpter said:
have to agrree Tom...
LOL trying to scrub off momentum while the clutch is still engaged is a recipe for stitches.... and if you are wearing pads this fast there is a problem in your handling of the bike not the quality of the equipment.
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no what I'm saying is the pads are $hit....

The clutch will totally stop the bike if you don't give the engine any power so that's not the problem

the bike is going 30ish mph and the brake pads cant stop the bike

they are getting worn down because the bike was designed bad i think

i was looking at the back rims and they actually have 2 holes on each side that i can tell are eating the brake pads


anyways more bad news

chain jumped off the engine again today and snapped another link
this time it tore a nice chunk of the engine away.

locked up the back tire because the jam between the front sprocket and case was so bad.
 
i was looking at the back rims and they actually have 2 holes on each side that i can tell are eating the brake pads
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The rims have "holes" in them? I'm pretty sure I have the same (or similar) rims to yours (except mine are black). There is an obvious weld line that goes across the rim but no holes in mine. Is that "hole" the weld line?

chain jumped because back sprocket is off center again
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I'm thinking about using a rear friction drive instead of a center frame installation largely because of all the difficulties so many people seem to have with rear sprockets, vibration, etc. etc.
 
gobigkahuna said:
The rims have "holes" in them? I'm pretty sure I have the same (or similar) rims to yours (except mine are black). There is an obvious weld line that goes across the rim but no holes in mine. Is that "hole" the weld line?


I'm thinking about using a rear friction drive instead of a center frame installation largely because of all the difficulties so many people seem to have with rear sprockets, vibration, etc. etc.
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it's the weld line yeah and i cant get the brakes to work right

the reason they wont work correctly is because the back tire is off center

I've used washers to fix the problem but the pads still will not hit the rims right

they are always off center on one side or another

and what i mean by that is the pad is not hitting the rim right
only half of the pad is hitting the rim
the other half is sitting off the rim doing nothing............
 
Newbikers said:
it's the weld line yeah and i cant get the brakes to work right

the reason they wont work correctly is because the back tire is off center

I've used washers to fix the problem but the pads still will not hit the rims right

they are always off center on one side or another

and what i mean by that is the pad is not hitting the rim right
only half of the pad is hitting the rim
the other half is sitting off the rim doing nothing............
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If you can post a couple of photos, that may help me (and others) understand what your problem is.

But from the sounds of it, it sounds like either your wheel is out of round or that you aren't centering it in the frame correctly. You shouldn't need to use washers to center the wheel, just loosen one (or both) of the axle nuts and "tip" the wheel until the center of the tire is lined up with the center of the bolt for your brakes. Then give the wheel a spin and watch the tire. It should stay perfectly centered as it spins. If it wobbles, your wheel needs to be trued. If you ride it and then later it's off center again, your axle nuts need to be tightened so it won't move. With the torque from the motor it's very likely you'll have to really tighten the nuts (and use lock washers) to keep it from moving.

I installed the front caliper brake on my 29er last night. My rims are black powder coated but otherwise look to be identical to yours. The "braking" surface on the rim is about 1/4" wide and the brake pad needs to be roughly that wide as well and centered as perfectly on the braking surface as you can get it. Mine squeak pretty bad when I brake, but that's because of the powder coating. I need to sand / roughen that area of the rim up, but am waiting until I hear back from Kent about another issue I've run into (that's another topic for another thread ;) ).

If you find that your brake pads are catching on the weld in the rim, I would sand it down (if it's a high spot) or fill with JB Weld or liquid weld (if it's a low spot).
 
Sounds to me like junk side pull brakes. That's why I'm not a fan of them myself - they pull one side to get one pad to make contact, then the other pulls over to brake.

I think you just need to work on adjusting your brakes - if only one side hits at all, you need to adjust the brake pad depth so they both hit the rim.

I've had side pulls that have one pad near touching the rim and the other a good ways from it when it's finally adjusted.
 
Newbiker's bike has center pull brakes in the back and disk up front. Without some photos it's kind of hard to tell what's going wrong so we're all just guessing. ;)
 
Ok update guys

I fixed the chain.
(I need to buy a new heavy duty one rofl.....)

I replaced the back V brakes with different arms
The new arms keep the pads straight on the rims

I got new Vbrake pads.

When i use the brakes they SQUEAL louder then the engine noises
I guess i will sand the paint off the rims or something?
(any ideas there?)

I added a rack to the rear that will accept baskets / boxes on each side

I'm going to order or make a new chain tensioner.
I want it to be spring loaded so it will fix all these loose / tight spots i have

Any suggestions?

Additional information: the engine runs awesome. couldn't be happier with the performance of it. never had any engine problems. just chain problems lol.

And a picture for posterity


20110523150235641.jpg
 
Squealing brakes are caused by pad vibration. What you need to do is put a little toe-in on the pads themselves. A trick I've used for years is to to loosen the pad, put a dime or a penny behind the trail end, squeeze the lever, then tighten it back up. Repeat for other side. The idea is the leading edge of the pad should contact the rim first. This is why high-quality brake pads have that built in when new.

Newbikers said:
When i use the brakes they SQUEAL louder then the engine noises
I guess i will sand the paint off the rims or something?
(any ideas there?)
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The_Aleman said:
Squealing brakes are caused by pad vibration. What you need to do is put a little toe-in on the pads themselves. A trick I've used for years is to to loosen the pad, put a dime or a penny behind the trail end, squeeze the lever, then tighten it back up. Repeat for other side. The idea is the leading edge of the pad should contact the rim first. This is why high-quality brake pads have that built in when new.
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I will give this a try today
Thanks for the picture and advice.
 
TheAleman

The penny trick worked perfectly, no more squealing at all.

Still having chain jump problems tho
The chain is either way to tight or too loose
The guide does nothing to fix this.

don't know what i should do to fix it
 
That's most likely an alignment problem. It looks like your sprocket is reversed - the chrome side usually faces in, not out. You also might need to bend your idler bracket a little bit to compensate for your frame's chainstay angle. I've always had to do that, myself. A pair of crescent wrenches can handle that job nicely.
 
The_Aleman said:
That's most likely an alignment problem. It looks like your sprocket is reversed - the chrome side usually faces in, not out. You also might need to bend your idler bracket a little bit to compensate for your frame's chainstay angle. I've always had to do that, myself. A pair of crescent wrenches can handle that job nicely.
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Dang i need to reverse the plate?
if i do that then i think the chain will be hitting the top seat stay crap

Another bit of info
i already bent my idler bracket with crescents
 
Don't worry about it - reverse the sprocket and rebend the tensioner, it'll be fine. I really doubt you'll hit the seat stay, sometimes it looks really close, but it's just off of it.
 
Line up your eye with one end of the chain and look straight down it. If the path the chain follows is perfectly straight and doesn't bump or change angle at the sprockets or the idler, then you're golden. But if your chain is jumping off, it's either due to chain tension or the sprockets aren't in line. From the photo it looks like the tension is reasonably good, so the only thing left is that the sprockets are probably not lined up. I think I remember reading that the sprockets can be a maximum of 5 degrees out of true. Ideally though, they should be perfectly aligned, that way you can run it at higher RPM's without worrying about it jumping.
 
ok well i reversed the plate
chrome side facing in

seems like it got worse

the chain is now hitting the seat stay really badly
i put 5 washers in to try and fix it and it's thrown my whole bike off now ( and still hitting the frame.)
i think i am going to swap it back to how it was
i dont know what else to do

i dont think i will be able to leave the dish facing how it is
 
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