Here's a picture of the bike. The brakes work MUCH better with all of your advice.
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y216/steelcommuter/?action=view¤t=101_1619.jpg Dave On Feb 26, 3:17 pm, Tim McNamara <tim...@bitstream.net> wrote: > On Feb 26, 2009, at 2:30 PM, Dave C wrote: > > > Tim, I think the poor braking is due to my inexperience at brake set- > > up. I never set up cable and housing before for this type of brake or > > brake lever, and I'm not sure how to terminate the housing into the > > lever body. I probably need to find a picture to determine the proper > > method. > > I don't have any of these any more. IIRC the cable housing is just > inserted into the guide hole in the lever body until it stops. The > cable housing must be long enough to fully stop against both the > lever body and the cable stop (stop(s) for the rear brake, of > course). If you pull the brakes and see the cable housing pulling > tighter somewhat in its run, that's a sign that the cable housing is > too short. > > Also, make sure you are using brake cable housing (coiled wire in the > sheathing) and not shifter cable housing (a bundle of longitudinal > wires in the sheathing). Shifter cable housing will fail under the > forces of braking. Don't ask how I know this. Also make sure that > the brake cable housing ends are not crushed and dragging on the > cable- the ends must be fully open to allow the cable to slide > through easily. Otherwise your hand force is overcoming the cable > friction and not braking. > > Given how important brakes are, it might be worthwhile taking your > bike to a good bike shop and having them set the brakes up and show > you how. > > > Last night, I adjusted the front brake by following the advice here, > > increasing the cable tension by pulling more through the brake pinch > > bolt. I also adjusted the pads a bit. It improved the braking, but > > evidently I need to adjust some more because it is still weak. > > How much clearance to you have between the pads and the rims? V- > brakes run very close to the rims (about 1 mm away), unlike brakes > that require less cable pull. You could have 3-4 mm with sidepulls > or cantis and have plenty of lever travel, but not so with V-brakes. > > BTW, I really don't like V-brakes for these reasons. A well set up > canti stops just as well and is a lot less goofing around. The only > bike I have with V-brakes is my tandem which has "shorty" V-brakes. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
