iridemymuni said:are brakes worth the money?
Kind of.
You can ride long rides without them, but it's more tiring than with a
brake. I spent a week riding long scottish mountain descents and 30
mile plus days a bit back and it would have been nice to have a brake,
and I'd have ached less, but I was always fine the next day. There are
also some super-steep bits where having a brake is nice, although I've
still never seen anyone with a brake ride down something that wasn't
possible by at least one brakeless rider. Also, on geared unis or if
even just if you're a really fast rider, they're nice for downhills,
because they let you push it more on the speed and spin out without
worrying about losing it.
On the other side though, like most things you've got two choices,
either spend money on equipment or time on improving your fitness and
skill, for the vast majority of terrain you don't actually *need* a
brake. They're just a nice thing to have.
Incidentally, back on the geared KH thing, I think the real interesting
thing about geared munis is riding in high gear, a geared uni just to
get to the trails is great, but you can go so fast on singletrack in
high gear. I do hope it'll be durable, as I know Kris is involved in it
and it'll get some good testing, but I'd certainly never buy a first
generation Schlumpf product again.
Joe
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joemarshall
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