Am I too fat for skids?

Gazz · World Chat Champion Joined: 19 May 2009 Karma :

Haven't been on a pedal bike in about 20-25 years but bought a second hand one recently.

Its a muddyfox Storm which has suspension and disc brakes (they never had this kind of sorcery on pedal bikes the last time I was on them).

Anyway, I want to do a skid, cos skidding is cool. But the back wheel just won't lock up!

I have taken out the pads and cleaned them with brake cleaner, roughed them up a bit with a grinding disc, tightened the cable at the rear and at the handlebars, and blown up the tyres so that they are over inflated, but it just won't lock the back wheel up. (I did manage the slightest millisecond of lock-up on a section of gravel but it was nothing that my 6 year old kid couldn't beat).

The only thing that I can think of is that I may be too fat and I'm putting too much weight on the back tyre that it will not break traction. I'm circa 15 stone.

Tried lifting myself off the seat and grabbing a fistful of lever but it just comes to a slow rolling stop.

Any suggestions?

stinkwheel · Bovine Proctologist Joined: 12 Jul 2004 Karma :

I'd suggest cable operated disc brakes are as good an idea on bicycles as they are on any other vehicle they tried them on (ask any Honda CB100 owner).

I'm 115kg and can lock the rear wheel on my 29" hardtail MTB with one finger. Hydraulic disc.

In fact, I can lock the rear wheel on my road bike with the coaster brake, and you oil that.

So something is sadly wrong somewhere.
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defblade · World Chat Champion Joined: 30 Apr 2009 Karma :

I'm with Stinkwheel here. 16 stone and no trouble at all locking the back wheel of my hydraulic disc braked MTB... once I'd binned the old pads.
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stinkwheel · Bovine Proctologist Joined: 12 Jul 2004 Karma :

weasley · World Chat Champion Joined: 16 Oct 2010 Karma :

My TRP Spyre cabled disc brakes are nowhere near as good as the hydraulic brakes on my other bikes. I can lock the rear but it needs a good squeeze and is helped by using some front as well.

These type of brakes benefit from compressionless outer cables (which mine doesn’t have, although there is not that much cable outer, with a long run of inner between frame stops).

I’d love to go to hydraulics but this bike uses a road brake/shifter setup and hydraulic setups are not cheap. I have thought about the hybrid cable/hydraulic ones but there is still the issue of cable stretch/compression that robs application pressure.

Another option is to fit a bigger disc and shim the caliper with a spacer.
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thx1138 · World Chat Champion Joined: 06 Oct 2005 Karma :

I got hydraulic discs and I can lock up and skid

Sadly still cant on my fixie, but yeah my Trek Trail 2 will skid no bother.

Copycat73 · World Chat Champion Joined: 11 Jan 2013 Karma :

G · The Voice of Reason Joined: 02 Feb 2002 Karma :

It's not cable operated brakes - it's low quality/cheap disc brakes.
You'd have the same issue with bad/cheap hydraulic brakes, but they're they're harder to find.

Get on a looser or wet surface.

I've had bikes with decent cable brakes (that have outperformed hydraulic ones thanks to not fading) and ones with terrible cable brakes.