New Bike! (with some teething issues?)

Oh, and whilst you may be the same height as your brother you may have subtle differences in the ratio between the lengths of you upper and lower bodies - it’s worth fiddling around with the saddle height.

- chain sometimes slips off down the larger back cog if I go too far into the easy gears. Caught myself in some situations while attempting to go uphill. I tried tightening the L screw at the back a little but it didn't work

iirc you need to turn that L screw *anti-clockwise* instead so that the jockey wheels line up with the largest sprocket

Concerned, I tried a friend's bike and found the brakes were a lot easier to press down upon. With my bike, I have to press down with all my strength and with all four fingers, and even then it's not a very satisfactory stop. My friend said the mechanism of the break handles might be a bit stiff?

have a close look at the brake cables and if they look a bit old, then you probably have a bit of a build-up of muck inside the cable outers which is stopping the cable from pulling freely. if that's the case, try and spray some wd40 or similar into those tubes to flush them out a bit, though you'll probably want to replace them (inners and outers) in the near future

cheers guys.
as far as I know, the brake cables are brand new. most of the bike is new apart from the frame and brake pads (which bro reckons still have a fair bit of life left in them). I don't think it's the brake pads themselves because if I put my hands into the low-position, it brakes fine, but in the top position it's a bit of a struggle.

yeah, worn brake pads wouldn't make the braking feel stiff, just a bit spongy instead. how far do you have to pull the brake levers before they start biting on the rim? if you need to have them full on to get any proper braking effect, then you could try tightening up the brake cable by pulling it through a bit more at the brake end.

I think I have to pull it a fair bit to be honest, but yeah the brake leavers do feel just a little stiffer than my friend's bike where it felt fairly easy

...or try winding the barrel adjuster wotsit out at the lever end obv a bit, depending on the design of the lever xp

ugh phone typing, mangler of language

so I've now:
-raised seat and handlebars. it's slightly comfier I think
-experimented with the L screw but the chain keeps slipping off. I'll take it to a shop and see if they can help
-tightened the brake cables. it's meant I don't need to press down as far but I still don't feel like I can get the bike to stop fact enough - it slows down but still coasts along a little bit before a complete halt. this puts me off going at speed

I'll take it to a bike project and see what they say