Originally Posted by
pista
I'm a roadie, but I did buy a mountain bike from W - M for $97 with 21 speed indexed shifting. I bought it simply because we do camping and the kids have bikes and decided I should join in with them. The bike is somewhat heavy but rides and shifts really well. No problems at all from day one. I actually enjoy riding this bike - jumping over stumps, curbs and doing stupid stunts I would not dream of doing with my Bianchi Giro roadie.
I think you or your wife should have tested the bike out first before riding it. When I bought my W -M bike I tested the thing out first in the driveway. Mind you I know what to look for for problems.
Moral of the story is make sure everything is working before doing a ride. Actually, I do that everytime I go for a ride. Check the brakes, tire pressure, whell alignment and etc.
I did check the bicycle out initially before she even got on it. She did ride it for about 10 minutes before going down the hill. Everything did seem to work properly on normal LEVEL ground. It seems to me that the brakes were just good enough to stop her under slow speeds. My wife not be a bicycle racer did not ever race the bicycle fast. She didn't just walk the bicycle up the hill out of the driveway and take off.
Update:
I have checked out the brake levers in a bit more detail this time and did notice that the brake lines never slid out any around the bolt that tightens the brake line down on the caliper/wheel end. This leads me to believe that the brake lines did not slip out or that the bolt was on loose. It may be that the brake lines stretched a bit after a few rides and on the ride where the brakes failed to slow my wife down was when they were just stretched a bit too much. Now add to that the brake levers were able to be squeezed almost all the way to the hand grip in the beginning - add to that the brake lines stretching after a few rides...then put that together - stretched lines + brake levers gripped to the hand grip = not enough line to pull the brake into the wheel?