Crashed, Yikes

So I was riding my bike around, and my back brakes got messed up and didnt work. I was thinking, OK, Ill just motor home and fix them up. I am riding down the street, and a car comes and pulls out of an alley. I had just put fenders on the bike so I was thinking, ****, I need to stop, and FAST. I tried to put my foot on the front tire to slow me down, (doin around 50kms) and I totally missed the tire and my foot got caught in the forks, YIKES, so there I was, flying over the handlebars, so I have some advice to everyone. If your brakes fail on a ride, TURN YOUR ENGINE OFF, and pedal home and fix it. My helmet saved the day though, there's big chunks out of it and its scraped up pretty good. So I got to spend the day in the emergency room, left with crutches from the stupid forks and spokes. Well you live you learn eh. lol.

HAPPY RIDIN

 

[smyrna5]

SO.....
Does anyone have any ideas on better brakes? Someone said moped brakes? lol, Ya I was trying to use the front brakes, but the bike I bought at canadian tire and the brakes are not that great on them, ($99 supercycle) I went out and looked at my front brakes and they are right down to the metal, I am not gonna ride the bike until I can find something that WILL make me stop fast. The guy in the car did stop and get out, and offered me a ride to the hospital if I needed one. Im in canada, we dont get big medical bills for stuff like that, I had 6 x-rays done, had a splint put on my ankle, gave me crutches, and I didnt pay a thing?? I couldnt imagine having to pay for things like that. Anyways, I am looking for some brakes lol, some GOOD brakes. All the input i could get would be great.

HAPPY RIDIN

I figure that the Whizzer folks put a lot of thought into making a safe street-legal machine. When I look at their brake type, this is what I see (drum brake):

http://aebike.com/page.cfm?action=details&PageID=30&SKU=HU2200

Plus that one has a dynamo for when you want to add the head and tail light.

 

[Large Filipino]

This is why I rarely exceed 20 mph. My brakes aren't the best. They only slow me down.
I think the cheapest way to go for quality brakes that will stop you right now is to frankenstein a moped front end to your frame for they have the drums man.

 

[Matt_b]

on my whizzer the brakes aren't all that great. Since you need a fork anyways get one that excepts disc brakes. I have shimano saint brakes on my down hill bike and they will lock up the front wheel at any speed.

 

[ihatemybike]

Better brakes, yeah, go with some nice MTB disk brakes. Best you get a fork that has the mounts.

 

[darwin]

Im glad your so so ok bud. After looking at your pics it looks like those forks took one heck of a whack, how fast were you going? Your frame must be pretty sturdy to take a hit like that and not kink the neck at all. Your frame looks similar to mine and with a friction drive if Im going about 20 mph my v brakes will stop me on a dime. Im pretty sure mine are v brakes the reason Im not 100% positive is because of the many different names out there for brakes nowadays. They act just like a v shape would but they work great is my point.

 

[ozzyu812]

SO.....
Does anyone have any ideas on better brakes? Someone said moped brakes? lol, Ya I was trying to use the front brakes, but the bike I bought at canadian tire and the brakes are not that great on them, ($99 supercycle) I went out and looked at my front brakes and they are right down to the metal, I am not gonna ride the bike until I can find something that WILL make me stop fast.

All I knew was that i needed to stop, and fast. It was the dumbest thing ive done on my bike so far, believe you me, that wont happen again lol.

I run dual rear brakes, always have always will. Caliper,cantilever or horizontal, whatever so long as I can mount 2 on the back. Aztec brake pads are the best that I've found. They are 2x the cost and ware out fast due to the soft sticky compound. But stopping is more important than going. I haven't bought the dual pull brake levers yet. Like this one: http://www.choppersus.com/store/product/454/Dual-Brake-Lever-Black-Silver/. None on the front. How can you steer a skidding front tire? But if your cool with front brakes there is no reason why you can't run dual fronts. But that would be twice the brake pads YOU NEED TO CHANGE.

Help me understand this, you bought $100 tires that don't work well with BRAKES?

I broke a hip on a bike when I was about your age. We all are guilty of doing stupid things. Its what make us human.

 

[azbill]

I have used my front drum a few times to avoid breaking something with my head
it is more important to be able to stop than it is to go...not going won't hurt ya !

 

[sparky]

SO.....
Does anyone have any ideas on better brakes?

For starters, maybe your shoe against the back tire instead of the front tire. I had to do that all the time when I was a kid. I actually did that for my main bike brakes for several weeks until I finally asked my mom for some brakes. Check out a local bike store. They'll be sure to have it, and I'm sure they'd also like to see a motorized bike.

Im in canada, we dont get big medical bills for stuff like that, I had 6 x-rays done, had a splint put on my ankle, gave me crutches, and I didnt pay a thing??

God bless the United States of Canada!! It's sad that I always hear the conservatives here say that the medical field in America will turn to **** and we won't have any choice in the doctor we see. In two emergency situations, I went to the largest hospital on the MS Gulf Coast, and I was sent to the next city over or had to wait for 3 hours... IN AN EMERGENCY!! I know Canada is nothing like this, and I wish insurance companies didn't hold our countries by the testicles like they do. I feel like most all insurance should be handled by the government, since the government had to bail out insurance companies during Hurricane Katrina (that prolly wasn't the first, and prolly won't be the last time either). America still has a lot of growing to do.

 

[bluegoatwoods]

Just to reinforce Zevos point; bicycle speeds (with minor exceptions) is about right for MBs, happy times anyway. Faster than that is asking for trouble. Personally, I'd get a good scooter or motorcycle if I wanted to go much faster.

But I'm glad to see that you're ok, brydonb.

 

[lennyharp]

There are levels of quality that you get in bicycle parts. Even the great big companies that build the parts like brakes offer different levels of quality. They generally look the same but do not perform the same. I am using a similar design as it appears you are using. Similar to my v-brakes. Mine are like this but silver and work great. Shimano offers less brake for less money that work less.

Cheap parts also are more likely to just break. Aluminum can be made into parts as a casting and just polished up.. They can also be cold forged and strengthened in the process. The parts may look very similar but are not, and this is how the various price levels can partly be explained.

Another brake that is used on bicycles (especially downhill racers) but is a better stopper are disk brakes. Again a variety of quality exist. Down hill bikes are best compared to the stresses we put on a bike as they go 60 miles an hour at times and may need to slow to 20 quickly and on a steep decent. To be safe follow their equipment choices and you will have equipment meant to work well under great stresses.

Bikes are amazing pieces of equipment. The bike weighs from 35 to 20 pounds and will handle at least 10 times it's weight at pretty impressive speeds. No vehicle is more efficient than a bicycle in general transportation. converted to calories of energy burnt, everything else burns more energy including a motored bike. Given these pluses there are some negatives. A bicycle needs a lot of fine tuning and tinkering. If you neglect to do this you never know what will not work and when it will fail. Even cheap stuff works better well adjusted. I still don't trust it at high speeds but my last point is to maintain the equipment and test often to avoid accidents. You still may have them, but maybe fewer.