rickpaulos

I manage a local bike coop and the coop gets scores of boxmarts bikes with disc brakes. Wallyworld has been selling bikes with disc brakes for 15+- years.
The bso disc brakes are rubbish just like the bikes. Brake pads as small as a dime is standard. Noisy, a ***** to adjust to get them working at all. I see the discs rusted. Calipers seized up from water and corrosion. All the mounting bolts solid rust. Plain steel cables rusted solid in the housing. Plastic levers that have so much flex you can't lock up a rear wheel with discs. They resell fast because everyone thinks they want disc brakes. A cast aluminum v-brake with fresh pads will out perform any Promax or Quantex or other garbage disc caliper. It is the same for every bike component. Some are good some are junk. The overall design doesn't determine "good". It's the material choices and implementation that makes one better than another. Upgrading to a good disc brake (Shimano, Tektro, Avid, etc) on the front of a bso will surely destroy the cheap welded steel fake-shock forks all that much sooner or mangle the headset bearing cages with too-few bearings in it to handle sever braking loads. A recipe for a header. I don't see Walmart ever selling a bike with a useful disc brake.