Very Basic Question - Rear Wheel Skids on Breaking
 

The reason I posted it here is that my bicycle is a mountain bike. Hope it is fine.

I just got a new IronHorse. It has disc breaks (Hayes HFX-9). When I am off the bike and walking with it and apply rear break, the rear wheel skids on. This does not happen with the front wheel. Is that normal behaviour? Or the rear break needs adjusting?

I am not sure about the breaking performance when riding. It is not a sharp stop. An appreciable distance before complete stop.

Regards,
msharma

Yup, that is normal on any bike.

Read this: http://sheldonbrown.com/brakturn.html

Yup, nothing to be worried about. Sheldon's article is a good one :)

Try using your front brake more often, its a better practice to use the front brake a lot more than the rear brake.

Sheldon Brown's site has a whole page in his site explaining it and guess what, after giving it a try myself, it does work.

But yes in any case you should check the brakes are correctly set up and that the tire's tread is not worn out or something.

Yup. Nothing to worry about there.

I'm the fifth guy to say this but oh well....Theres nothing to worry about. Its completely normal.

Thanks guys. Appreciate it.

bikes are meant to be ridden, not walked :D

its perfectly normal, the rear wheel skids because there is no weight behind it.

It'll take a few rides before your pads break in, it took a while for my BB7 pads to work their best. Whatever you do, dont touch the rotors/pads with your bare hands as the oil on your hands will contaminate the rotors/pads..

If you were walking the bike backward, the same thing would happen to the front tire.

If your walking on ice, it happens to both...