Bicycle Mechanics - my new bike's brakes are terrible!!!! help!

i just bought a brand new Haro Nyquist R1. Its a 2004, but was kept at this bikeshop for awhile and it was forgot about i guess. i bought it and the 2nd day i was riding it, the brakes became marginal. The handle goes all the way down to the frame and the brakes work marginally. I cant even squeeze them and lock the tire! i dont want to ride it because it may prove to be dangerous if i need to stop fast. But, my friend just bough a Mirraco black pearl 3. 2007 model and those brakes are unbelieveable! what should i do??

Tighten them up! I assume these are caliper brakes, but on pretty much all brakes, the cable will be clamped to the caliper or whatever with either a screw or an allen bolt. Loosen this, pull the cable through so that the brakes are very close to the rim even with the lever all the way out, then tighten it up. There may be a "barrel adjuster" on there too, which would enable you to tighten without undoing the clamp, but if I were you, I'd do it with the clamp, and then you've got the adjuster to go to if you need a little more. Cables can stretch.

If they went that fast, the cable's either slipping or broken. Don't worry about the barrel. That's to deal with little tweaks over time from stretch, change in temperature, or whatever. Tighten the cable by loosening the bolt it goes through on the brake, then pulling it tight with a pair of pliers or, if you intend to do this again, ever, a cable puller (http://www.amazon.com/Pedros-6451255-Bicycle-Cable-Puller/dp/B000IZGF6A) (I've never used the Pedro's one; it was just the first hit on Google).

Make sure you leave enough space between the pads and the rims that the wheel turns, then tighten up the bolt.

Voilá!

Take it back to the dealer.

I think San Rensho means, "... for a tune-up". Any decent bike shop will give you a free tune-up a couple of weeks after you get a bike.

if something as vital as a brake cable slips the day after you buy it, you don't want to wait a couple weeks for a check-up. bike dealers are expected to tune up the bikes properly, manufacturers rely on that to preserve their rep. you should go back, have them fix that and check over the rest. for all you know, they assumed it was prepped in 04, but in reality nothing was done to it.