Touring - Anyone know what this thingie is?

Out of idle curiosity....

If you look at the picture (see link) of the Aurora, you'll see what appears to be a small v shaped metal hanger sticking out of the front of the fork, just below the head tube. It appears to be held in with a nut on the downtube side of the fork. Any idea what this thingie does? It's pronbably something obvious and a noob question, but I've never seen one on another bike.

http://www.jamisbikes.com/usa/bikes/08_bikes/08aurora.html

Thanks for any enlightenment. Maybe I should have posted this in the mechanics forum....dunno.

Thanks.

Might just be a fender attachment point

Looks like a hanger for the straddle cable of the cantilever brakes. Prevents the arms from unwinding while the brakes are released to get the wheel out. (They tend to flop around and then interfere with getting the wheel back in the fork)

I thought it's more a guide than a hanger. Mechanically, the pivot point is at the top of the yoke, right?

Anyway, they're standard with center-pull / cantilever brakes. The rear brake has a similar setup, it's just in a straight line from the rest of the brake cable so it's not as noticeable.

Cantis aren't very common these days, since they don't have as much stopping power as V's or calipers. However, they're common on touring & cross bikes, since (if I understand it correctly) they work well with road brake levers, shed mud well, and can handle very wide rims.

Thanks for the answers, all.

I thought it was just a bolt holding the government mandated front reflector that you won't need because you either don't ride at night or have a good headlight like most of the rest of us. :)

Straddle cable safety hook. If you break the cable the safety hook prevents the straddle cable from dropping onto the tire and catching the tire, sending you over the handlebar.

Straddle cable safety hook. If you break the cable the safety hook prevents the straddle cable from dropping onto the tire and catching the tire, sending you over the handlebar.


Bingo!

Bingo!

And something that almost never happens...although 43 people will now say that it happened to a 4th cousin of a friend of the mother of the lady how drives a bus for the 3rd kid named Sarah in a kindergarten that has a play date with the aunt of a goat herder in Sudan.

My Aurora didn't come with one and I have yet to break my neck without it.

I bet someone somewhere either won a lawsuit or received a nice settlement for one of the rare times this has happened. Therefore, something has to be done to prevent it happening again in our litigatous society.


And something that almost never happens...although 43 people will now say that it happened to a 4th cousin of a friend of the mother of the lady how drives a bus for the 3rd kid named Sarah in a kindergarten that has a play date with the aunt of a goat herder in Sudan.

My 07 Aurora has one of those...and now I know why! Also made fender attachment a bit easier.

Thanks for the info. Makes sense that there isn't one on the back since if the brake arm was to go into the rear wheel, it would just cause a skid. On the front, in the unlikely case this happened you'd be pulling a superman.

Straddle cable safety hook. If you break the cable the safety hook prevents the straddle cable from dropping onto the tire and catching the tire, sending you over the handlebar.

+1....prevents an endo

Except if you have fenders or a rack etc... you are probably covered for that kind of rare occurence anyway. It does seem like the kind of thing that if one was really worried about it, one would be better investing that weight in a redesign of the brake straddle.

Except if you have fenders or a rack etc... you are probably covered for that kind of rare occurence anyway. It does seem like the kind of thing that if one was really worried about it, one would be better investing that weight in a redesign of the brake straddle.

Yes, exactly. Get rid of the single wire straddle, use 2 wire style.

I bet someone somewhere either won a lawsuit or received a nice settlement for one of the rare times this has happened. Therefore, something has to be done to prevent it happening again in our litigatous society.
It is interesting to think that a safety feature on anything automatically has to be a result of a lawsuit, as opposed to standard engineering practices. That is a sad comment on the state of engineering. Just because we don't know anyone that ever was injured from their brake cable breaking, doesn't mean it is a bad thing to try and prevent it from happening.
On the other hand, I know 2 people who had their house burn down when their Ford F150 spontaneously combusted, due to a defective cruise control switch, yet it took Ford 5 years to fix the problem. They actually continued to install the defective switch for several years, until enough lawsuits were filed by the peoples Homeowners Insurance companies.
Exactly how many people do you believe need to be injured before a company fixes a problem? Would you rather go back to the Pinto model of engineering: it would cost $100,000,000 million to fix the problem and it will only cost $50,000,000 to pay off the families of the people who are burned to death?

>That is a sad comment on the state of engineering. Just because we don't know anyone that ever was injured from their brake cable breaking, doesn't mean it is a bad thing to try and prevent it from happening.

An ugly chunk of metal whose sole purpose is to mitigate the effects of a freak brake cable failure doesn't strike me as elegant engineering.

Steve

If your bike has cantis and no front fender that little safety hook becomes an essential component... you may never need it but in the event your front cable snaps or slips you will probably appreciate it geatly.

As far as engineering goes... it's a marvelous thing.

It weighs very little, has no moving parts, costs next to nothing, and does exactly what it is supposed to do when it needs to do it.

My first bike with cantilevers, a Schwinn Sierra, had a warning in the owner's manual not to remove the front reflector bracket for that reason.

The safety hook makes sense to me. Even if the accident is rare, it seems negligent to not address it with a simple device. On most bikes you can remove it if you find it 'inelegant'. On some bikes you can attach a reflector to it.

Ok, I'm going to have to take a closer look.

Steve

It is interesting to think that a safety feature on anything automatically has to be a result of a lawsuit, as opposed to standard engineering practices. That is a sad comment on the state of engineering. Just because we don't know anyone that ever was injured from their brake cable breaking, doesn't mean it is a bad thing to try and prevent it from happening.
On the other hand, I know 2 people who had their house burn down when their Ford F150 spontaneously combusted, due to a defective cruise control switch, yet it took Ford 5 years to fix the problem. They actually continued to install the defective switch for several years, until enough lawsuits were filed by the peoples Homeowners Insurance companies.
Exactly how many people do you believe need to be injured before a company fixes a problem? Would you rather go back to the Pinto model of engineering: it would cost $100,000,000 million to fix the problem and it will only cost $50,000,000 to pay off the families of the people who are burned to death?

I personally consider the F150 and the Pinto to be poor analogues to the basic straddle cable failure. It's like blaming a crash on Ford because a driver never bothered to have their brakes inspected or brake pads replaced. Or how about blaming the crash on Ford because you had the brake pads replaced by some 16 year old halfwit at Walmart who overtightened some bolt to the point where it sheared off? Even V-brakes, caliper brakes, and mechanical disc brakes are prone to failure should the cable be compressed to the point where the individual strands begin breaking.

My brakes receive and deserve constant attention as do the brakes on all bicycles. Fraying cables and worn pads are replaced immediately. There's nothing wrong with the basic cantilever brake setup if it's performed properly and subsequently maintained. It's a sad state of affairs when individuals can sue the manufacturer because of poor assembly and maintenance practices. Jamis bikes are not sold by Walmart, nor are the majority of them purchased for casual, family rides around the neighborhood. They shouldn't be required to include such idiot proofing for fear of litigation.

My brakes receive and deserve constant attention as do the brakes on all bicycles. Fraying cables and worn pads are replaced immediately. There's nothing wrong with the basic cantilever brake setup if it's performed properly and subsequently maintained. It's a sad state of affairs when individuals can sue the manufacturer because of poor assembly and maintenance practices. Jamis bikes are not sold by Walmart, nor are the majority of them purchased for casual, family rides around the neighborhood. They shouldn't be required to include such idiot proofing for fear of litigation.

I don;t know if the idiot proofing is there for litigation purposes or simply because someone recognized that you have to be prepared for whatever might go wrong.

I had my first ever cable failure this summer and it did not fail at the (front) brake but rather, snapped at the lever due to what must have been a manufacturing fault.

My bikes are professionally serviced and maintained (by me) and if I was running a canti without a fender or reflector to serve as a safety hook, I'd install one.

Just in case.

If a product or poorly assembled or maintained and causes a safety issue then a company or individual should be deemed liable for any injuries or damage the shoddy work may cause.

I bet someone somewhere either won a lawsuit or received a nice settlement for one of the rare times this has happened. Therefore, something has to be done to prevent it happening again in our litigatous society.
I would tend to think that is the reason.

Personally, I'd take it off if it were my bike. It just isn't all that likely for a cable to break AND for the straddle cable to fall down AND for it to catch on the tire AND actually lock the wheel.