Hi Chris, yep its an ageing mountin bike, standard brakes, now I'm a litltle confused with the brake types these days, its not a "road" bike caliper system, this one is a couple of steps on, pulls from the centre to 2 sprung levers on each fork which have pads attached, I hope that made sense, I would call them V brakes (cos of the shape of the cable) but I am probably wrong. (actually just looking on the net I think they're Cantilever brakes).

In the dry they are fine, but in the wet they are awful, must admit, I'm not the kind of person to go out and buy expensive stuff for the bike, as I see it as a "cheap" mode of transport, so if a new set of brakes cost over £40 that's more than the bike is worth.

Yep I've used Wiggle for a few bits and bobs, found them to be quite reasonable, can't seem to fine the blocks for my type of brakes though, they seem to only do the new stuff.

One thing that I have always thought was strange is why rims are smooth, wouldn't it give better grip if the rims where grooved in some way?