Brake/wheel help

larakitten

Hi there, I'm a lurker on these forums but could do with a little advice on my MTB. Hopefully someone here with more technical knowledge than me can give me some pointers and suggestions!

I bought myself a new bike 4 weeks ago.....it's a Raleigh Talus 2.0 ladies hardtail MTB. Bought it from my local bike shop, was the frame that fitted me the best (I'm not statuesque, and this frame is nice and compact) and I really love riding it - a vast improvement over the lump of apollo I was riding before ha ha!

The problem is the front wheel/brake.....when I pull on the front brake, it feels like there is a high spot and I get terrible judder. It's quite unnerving when I'm cycling on the road heading for my local tracks as I never know if I'm going to get the "high" part and brake really hard, or the low spot and not slow down quick enough. Does that make sense? another example would be if I'm pushing the bike along a flat surface with the front brake applied you feel the brake resist really hard, then slacken off, then resist hard again as the wheel rotates.

My husband is very mechanically minded and he's had a look...the wheel appears to run true to the naked eye, the wheel is tight in it's hub and the brakes all look correctly adjusted.

I thought it was just the "newness" of the bike and it would all bed in, but it's not going away as of yet - I've covered about 30 miles on the bike so far.

What could possibly be causing this? I appreciate that you all can't see or feel what I mean, but any suggestions would be grand. As the bike is so new it's probably going to have to go back to the shop for it to be checked over, but that means borrowing a car as try as I might, it's not going in my Mini!!

Thanks in advance for any advice

supersonic

What sort of brake system do you have? Disc brakes (hydraulic or cable operated), or rim brakes (ie V brakes?)

The Rookie

This bike?
http://www.shopraleigh.co.uk/Product.as ... 10&pg=9128

V-brakes, sounds like it's a problem with the wheel....

larakitten

Yes, that is the bike, but the ladies one. It's rim brakes, sorry that info would have been most useful!

supersonic

Sounds like the wheel needs truing - about a tenner at a bike shop.

larakitten

Thanks, the bike is going over to the shop on thursday...I would hope that given it's only about 4 weeks since I bought it that there will be no charge to repair it or at least look at it! Will report back once I have a verdict.

larakitten

For anyone who is interested, it was the wheel. It was slightly ovalled - think egg shaped - and this is what was causing the "grabbing and releasing" feeling. New wheel fitted, bike is grand.

Thank you for your assistance.

The Rookie

Pleasure, glad you got it sorted.