While they are probably the shittiest of the brakes on any bike I own, they work bearing that in mind and you need to keep a lot of pressure on the levers. Which is good, because my steep drive opens out on a 25% descent (keeping traction in the wet is far worse than the actual braking, even with my entire weight on the back, especially in autumn where the road is slimy with leaf mulch and even feathering the front brake becomes a bit treacherous). There's a lot of hills and descents hereabouts, so any brakes get a workout.