techie

Do I need new front brakes? I picked up a cheap ccm falcon mountain bike and am just trying to make it run the best possible to keep up with the kids. I cant set the front brake though. It keeps pulling over to the side. I removed the arms and reset them but it doesn't make a difference. I know it's a pos bike but I'm just using it for casual rides with the kids and I'll either leave it the way it is or possibly upgrade piece by piece over time.

HTupolev

Those screws set the spring tension on the brake arms. They need to be balanced. Loosening a screw reduces the spring tension, tightening a screw increases the spring tension. So if a pad is rubbing the rim, you may need to tighten the screw on that side and/or loosen the screw on the other side.

Hard to tell from the photo, but it looks like your front wheel might also be badly out of true. If this is the case, it may not be possible to achieve a very good adjustment on the brakes without fixing the wheel.

grubetown

techie

For anyone who may find this useful in the future, it was the spring in the arms that did not have enough tension in one of them. I had to take the arm off, and continue to bend it backwards and check it to have the same spring back force as the other arm. This allowed them to be centered and I could adjust it being a cheap bike the adjustment screws didn't really do anything because the plastic was all mashed up.

not much looking to spend a ton of money upgrading the bike...I got it for 30 bucks. I was just asking in case I could find a junked bike with good brakes I could use or anything.