Hello All,
I bought a Raleigh Cadent 1.0 abouth a month ago and have been commuting on it. This is the first road bike I've ever owned and I love it. Before this, I had a 15 year old DiamondBack mountainbike (no suspension).
One thing that is bothering me is that I feel like the brakes are really wimpy! As I'm commuting on this thing - I use the brakes all the time (stop lights, stop signs, cars, etc). I feel like I really have to use a lot of hand strength to get the bike to stop. To compound the problem, my grip strength already isn't that great due to minor RSI from being a programmer. On my old MTB though, I felt like I could stop very confidently w/o putting strain on my hands. Now, (especially riding the hoods and trying to squeeze 'down' on the brakes), I feel like my hands are at max grip strength just to stop.
What can I do to increase my stopping power? I mentioned this to my LBS and he said 'yeah - road bike brakes are wimpy'
Thanks in advance, Carl
I bought a Raleigh Cadent 1.0 abouth a month ago and have been commuting on it. This is the first road bike I've ever owned and I love it. Before this, I had a 15 year old DiamondBack mountainbike (no suspension).
One thing that is bothering me is that I feel like the brakes are really wimpy! As I'm commuting on this thing - I use the brakes all the time (stop lights, stop signs, cars, etc). I feel like I really have to use a lot of hand strength to get the bike to stop. To compound the problem, my grip strength already isn't that great due to minor RSI from being a programmer. On my old MTB though, I felt like I could stop very confidently w/o putting strain on my hands. Now, (especially riding the hoods and trying to squeeze 'down' on the brakes), I feel like my hands are at max grip strength just to stop.
What can I do to increase my stopping power? I mentioned this to my LBS and he said 'yeah - road bike brakes are wimpy'
Thanks in advance, Carl