Around four months ago my parents bought me a Trek FX 7.1 for my birthday while I was at work. At first I was fairly excited and happy with it over my old Supercycle which served me well for the past ten years. However, once I started riding it I came face to face with a few issues.
- The breaking is weak and needs a stopping distance of around 7-8 feet.
- The vibration is violent once you hit gravel road surfaces.
- The tires cannot handle small curbs at relatively high speeds without going flat.
- The tires lose traction on wet surfaces causing me to lose control and damage the bike.
I tried having my brakes adjusted but the stopping distance is still rather long (5'5" - 6'5") considering when you need to stop in an emergency situation. Now since there is no front fork suspension it has quite a violent vibration especially when the tires are fully inflated within the optimum PSI pressure range. In regards to the miniature curb, both my tires burst while I was going at a relatively fast speed before impacting that few inch high curb. It's rather annoying to have to slow down just to ride over it safely.
So as of now, I am looking for some professional or just good fellow cyclist advice on what I can do to improve the brakes, tires, and vibration issues. I'm sure replacing the front fork would be idiotic so I would not even go there, and I clearly have no space on my bike for any form of disk brakes.
Thanks in advance.