we have owned a couple of blasters and love them. even though we all have banshees now we still kept one blaster just because the are so much fun! as far as the rear brakes being locked up that doesnt mean it has alot of hours in the snow or mud. ours did that and we live in phoenix... not a lot of snow or mud here. i would however recommend the disc brakes also but if you dont want to spend the money right now they aare fairly simple to fix. just get a climber manual.