Steep downhill drive with corners - using brakes too hard

[pritch]

he asked why his brakes stunk when he got down his driveway for fuck sakes.

Not big on detail are you?

[Drew]

Not big on detail are you?

I see I missed that the OP was female. My bad.

Looks like that means the rest of you assume she can't ride, because of it.

[breakaway]

I wouldn't worry about it too much. Some smell is OK. That is the mechanism of operation for a brake anyway, two pieces of soft-ish material squeeze a metal rotor to convert forward inertia into heat (the energy has to go somewhere).

You said you got the bike yesterday as well so the situation may well improve once the brakes are worn in.

[Trade_nancy]

Your brakes will be fine.

Here's a wee confidence building trick: Stop. Use both brakes and squeeze progressively. Stop every meter on the way down. Go back up and do it again.

By the time you've done it three times you should just about have convinced yourself you can stop any time you like, and by implication you can slow to whatever speed you feel comfortable at.

For more practice, find a bit of loose gravel and, at walking speed squeeze one brake at a time until you feel it skid, let go immediately. Try to get a feel for what you can expect from different surfaces, at walking pace.

Traction is a much bigger thing for bikes than for cars, learning to read surfaces and knowing what to expect from them is something you can get away without in a car, not on a bike.

Sound advice..

[Rhys]

It's a brand new bike the brakes are probably just "running in" some of the smell maybe that the motor is getting hot travelling down the driveway at low speed either way nothing to worry about

[kelly01]

Cool thanks everyone. Haha, I'll give some of these suggestions a go but guessing it might just be a confidence thing more than anything. Turns out my door neighbour has a bike so might get him to show me how he does it!!


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[ellipsis]

Ya need some real world assistance from an experienced person.

...that sounds sensible...

[GrayWolf]

I see I missed that the OP was female. My bad.

Looks like that means the rest of you assume she can't ride, because of it.

It's ok drew, I understand that you are frustrated and angry, the others on here outside of the Hutt/Wellington may not. You're missing the Parrot n Jigger

[Drew]

It's ok drew, I understand that you are frustrated and angry, the others on here outside of the Hutt/Wellington may not. You're missing the Parrot n Jigger

Nope. The food and service had taken a massive dive there. We had boycotted the place a year ago.