Bicycle Mechanics - Problem with rear brake lever.

My friend was telling me the other day that my rear brake lever could move back to far. Something along those lines. Like I hard to pull it too far to make the brakes active. I checked it out last night and when I pull the brake lever back all the way, if I pull really hard I can move the tire. In the back I have a realitivly new 6" Rotor and Hayes HFX Brakes. Someone told me its because the pads are too loose? Do they need to be tightened? I don't really want to go in there and mess it up because Hydro brakes are much more complicated then my old V-Brakes :rolleyes: Should I bring it to the LBS?

They were probably telling you that you had to pull the lever too far to get the brakes to grab the discs as much as they liked. How much grab you get for a set amount of lever pull is a personal preference thing, though your levers shouldn't come back to the bars. This is very easy to adjust with mechanicals/V's. If you are moving the wheel when pulling hard on the lever, it could be that one pad is hitting the disc before the other.

-Moab

Like I said Mechanicals are easier then Hydros. I have Hayes HFX hydro brakes...

My friend was telling me the other day that my rear brake lever could move back to far. Something along those lines. Like I hard to pull it too far to make the brakes active. I checked it out last night and when I pull the brake lever back all the way, if I pull really hard I can move the tire. In the back I have a realitivly new 6" Rotor and Hayes HFX Brakes. Someone told me its because the pads are too loose? Do they need to be tightened? I don't really want to go in there and mess it up because Hydro brakes are much more complicated then my old V-Brakes :rolleyes: Should I bring it to the LBS?

Is the lever travel is too much? In other words, do the levers conctact the bar grips? Or do they get very close to the grips? If so, then the fix is very easy. On my Hayes, you can adjust the lever travel by a 2 mm set screw at the lever pivot. The set screw is attached to the piston at the brake lever pivot. You can adjust the travel to your desire. Mine are set so the brakes start grabbing when the levers are moved 1/4 the total travel - it's all personal preference. My brakes pretty much lock up at 1/2 total travel. From your desciption, this sounds like your problem.

That set screw on my bike can work its way loose during a ride. I finally used a thread locking compoiund to secure that screw.

The pads may be worn so there is no more friction material to grab the discs. If so, you'll need to replace the pads.

Or you may need to bleed the brake system if you have air in the system. You can bleed them yourself. Hayes has the manuals on line for free (as a .pdf file).

Good luck