Originally Posted by Krispy

I'm currently looking at an '03 Giant NRS 1 with Hayes disc brakes. The LBS has offered to sell it at a decent price. However, I'm suspicious that something isn't right with the brakes.

The first time I looked at the bike they had removed the disc brakes. They said that they had removed them because somebody wanted to buy them and the replacements were on order. A week later they had disc brakes back on the bike. They insisted that the brakes were an upgrade from what the original had. When I asked what model they were they said that they were the "original Hayes disc". When I looked at the Giant catalog there is no model number mentioned so I can't verify if they really are an upgrade.

When I test rode the bike the mechanic came outside and told me to take it easy on the front brake but would not give me a good reason why. I asked him if I bought the bike if I would have to take it easy on the trail too but he said no. I made several laps around the parking lot using the rear brake only and decided that what he said wasn't making sense so I made a gentle stop using the front brake at only about 5 mph. The brake stopped OK but immediately afterwords the pads started dragging (actually making a scraping sound) whereas they were not dragging before. After several more laps it was apparent the noise even though I was not braking was not going to stop.

That was a week ago. I went back to that bike store last night and they still had the bike. When I told the LBS owner that I liked everything about the bike but I had some concerns about the brakes he got very defensive. I told him that I was reading mixed reviews on the brakes and felt that I had good reason to ask questions before I made a purchase. He told me that I shouldn't believe what I read on the Internet!

I told him that I'd buy the bike if he put on something different such as the Shimano BR-M755 XT. I even offered to pay the difference in price if there was one. He got upset and walked off. As I was looking around the store at the other bike I overheard him arguing with one of his employees. The employee was actually siding with me and saying that if I offered to pay the difference that he should do it.

The owner came back and told me that NO he would not swap equipment because it would mean that he would have an extra set of disc brakes. He said that he already had two other sets of the same model and he didn't want to have a third that he couldn't sell! Of course this is contradictory to the original story they gave me of why the bike was missing the brakes when I first looked at it. If he already had two other sets in stock why would he need to take brakes off of a bike to sell to a customer?

He then offered to lower the price even more if I paid cash. The price has already gone from $2100.00 to $1550.00. I told them I'd have to think about it and left.

I have not had disc brakes on a bike before. I wasn't originally looking for a bike with disc brakes but would not be opposed to them if I knew that I wouldn't be working on them all the time.I know that I should expect a break in period of about a hundred miles or so before the brakes work properly but the bike is still on the showroom, should they be dragging already?

Because of the way the LBS owner has reacted to my questions my gut feeling tells me that something is wrong with the brakes and the dealer is trying to unload them on me. What do you all think?