…its driving my son nuts. He can ride the bike and is doing really well. Only thing is that the rear wheel locks up too easy. he can if tries gently slow down but more often than not skids and scares the crap out of him and me!! anyone know if you can soften the brake a little so it wont lock up?

Can you remove the coaster brake arm, drill a mounting hole in the seatstay (or chainstay) bridge to fit a on old BMX caliper brake?

<EDIT> thought your video’s might have actually been relivent.. oh well guess not 🙄

My son just moved from a 12″ hotrock to a 16″. He never got on with the coaster brake on the 12″ so I want to remove it on his 16″. I believe one solution is removing the brake shoes that rub against the inside of the hub. There also appears to be a washer method see link with video:
http://www.pinkbike.com/forum/listcomments/?threadid=30139

I haven’t tried either yet. I might find time this weekend. Please let me know if you’ve solved this problem yet?

It’s one of the reasons I discounted the hotrock when looking for a bike for my son. I find it a bit of an odd inclusion on a kids bike, especially when they’re gonna be learning how to ride on it.

Couldnt you just move the frame mount & link it to the lever with a suitable spring ?

main reason for usign coaster brakes on kids bikes is that they tend to lack the hand strength to use bar mounted levers for long periods.

Only problem my daughter had was when using stabilisers – if the back wheel was in a rut and the stabiliser wheels weren’t she would career on with her back wheel locked out heading towards whatever it was she had been braking to avoid…

Coaster brakes are very ‘American’ anyway.

I left the coaster, but added a caliper rear brake for added whoa! As wwaswas says, wee hands aren’t much good for emergency stops.

He eventually got to grips with the coaster, but only for skids. Oh wel…

The biggest problem I have with the coaster brake is it doesn’t allow the crank to be moved into a suitable position for setting off. It is also very digital i.e. off of fully locked. The brake lever on the hotrock like many other kids bikes can be adjusted closer to the grips and my son uses this just fine and never uses the coaster brake except by accident. The rear wheel is pretty heavy too. What is gained on the light aluminium frame is almost lost on the weight of the rear wheel. Does anyone know if I was to get hold of old wheel from the tip if I could transfer the internals to my existing wheel (axle, bearings, freewheel)?

I’m going to be a bit of an arse here, you’d be better off selling it and going out and get a Ridgeback or such like, when you come to sell the RB you’ll get good money or in most cases bike shops will take it in PX. Coaster brakes aren’t for kids bikes IMO

I’d agree on the coaster brake kids bike comment. I never knew about the Ridgeback range of kids bikes. I will have to keep an eye out for one on the bay. Thanks for the advice. The Hotrock came from fleabay so it’s not like I’d loose out much!