pgoat

Okay, our friend drove over to meet us for a ride. She is just getting into riding and needs help with things like removing and installing her wheels, changing flats etc.

She did a ride with us in early June, and we took off the wheels as usual and watched her put the bike in her trunk, and the wheels on top of the frame. No probs there so far.

She came over the other morning, about a month and a week later, and we removed her Bianchi steel mtb from her car's trunk, and proceeded to put her wheels on. (she hadn't removed or ridden her bike since)

I installed the wheels and attached the brake cable on her front cantilever brake.

I attempted to attach the rear cable - but it wouldn't reach!

It's almost as if the cable was suddenly too short!

I checked to make sure the wheel was installed properly - it was. The bike pedals and shifts normally. The last time she rode it it was fine.

any ideas what the heck could have happened in the trunk since her last ride? She had some stuff in the trunk - a few fairly light cartons...maybe something shifted and hit her brakes?

The brake arm with the attached cable is not able to swing outward (away from the tire) - could that be it?

neil0502

Check along the entire length of the brake cable, all the way up to its insertion point in the shifter. Somewhere, a cable end has come loose from the cable stop. Easy fix: just slide it back into the cable stop.

Follow??

EndlessRage

I agree, the cable must havef allen out of a stop. Check from the lever down.

F1_Fan

^^ What he said.

That one used to bite me every now and then (usually before the 1st coffee of the day) when I worked in a LBS.

pgoat

Thanks - I'll have to check it again - that was my first guess too, but I looked and looked and it seemed like everything was fine and in place from point A to Z and all in between.... weird

halfbiked

Prolly unrelated to your problem. But I learned something the other day when adjusting brakes on my 80s fuji roadie. Was riding to work when the rear brake just 'disappeared.' i.e. lever bottoms out against bar with no effective braking. Ok. Got around to looking at it the next day & after adjusting the cable, noticed a little lever on the piece where the rear-most piece of cable housing ends. Basically it looks like you 'open' this lever, adjust brakes, then close this lever to snug everything up. Note, this is for 20+ year old U brakes.

KleinRider

My 10 year old road bike does this too. I don't think this will matter for the OP since he's referring to a MTB.

My bet is what the other posters have stated, and *really* examine the cable stops.

pgoat

yeah, these are the typical late 80s/early 90s mtb cantilevers, brake arms mounted on the seat stays....

one arm has a fixed cable, the other has a slot and you pull the cross cable end piece over to connect the two once the wheel is installed.

Apparently she had a bunch of boxes in the trunk (she claims one may have been on the bike, but you know how stuff shifts around as you drive.); she also lent the car to someone a few times and they may have put some stuff in the trunk as well.....

I told her it was prolly not the best thing to just leave her bike squished up long term in her trunk like that.....

I'll give the cables the thorough once over - I am also wondering if the fixed brake arm was damaged - it seemed stuck in the medial position, right up (or past) its position when engaged against the rim.....it did not swing outward, laterally away from the wheel at all, as my mtb's brake arms do.

But if the fixed cable arm was stuck too far IN, wouldn't that give me TOO MUCH slack when conecting to the free arm (as opposed to not enough, which is our problem)?

MudPie

This problem bites me once in awhile. Check how the "noodle" enters the brake. I think it's called the "noodle" - a prebent tube that guides the cable from vertical to horizontal. The noodle end must seat properly in its holder, located on the brakes. There may be "detents" on the noodle, and you need to make sure its in the right slot.

pgoat

Thanks MudPie, I'll look at that.

I hope I'll get to see it this weekend - I am really curious what the heck caused this......

juicemouse

Linear-pull brakes have noodles. Her cantilevers don't.

edp773

Long car rides cause a lot of vibration. Something that you may want to inspect is the barrel adjuster on the brake lever, while you are checking the cable ends. Mine have come loose when I stored my bike in my vehicle.

pgoat

Oh THOSE noodles - like on a V brake.....no, she just has the inverted "Y" cable - a vertical cable which goes off to one brake arm at an angle of 120 degrees or so, and a short cable opposite it which attaches and detaches from the other brake arm to facilitate wheel installations.

I did check the brake lever barrel adjusters......they looked normal. I even adjusted them a bit - this is no small adjustment. It's like someone snuck in there and swapped in a cable that was an inch or two shorter!

spinbackle

If you haven't figured out what the problem is yet, here are a few suggestions:

1. Make sure brake lever (on handlebar) is not fully engaged (like when one is braking
hard).

As for the brake caliper rubbing/pushed up against the rear rim:

1. Make sure the bolt anchoring the affected side to the frame isn't torqued down
too tight.

2. Make sure that same bolt isn't too loose and the return spring (right terminology?)
has not disengaged with it's small hole on the frame.

pgoat

thanks spin b

Well, we are setting out for a 44 miler tomorrow am so I just gooped the grease stains off my hands after wrestling with her bike for an hour.....

I cannot find a damn thing wrong with this thing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


What I wound up doing was just moving the brake shoes out a bit. Basically EVERYTHING seemed to be operating perfectly, brakes, gears, wheels spinning, etc etc etc.

It is simply as though some gremiln went in and 'shortened' her brake cable......BIZARRE!!!

I measured the distance bertween the brake shoes - about 18mm. Her rim width is about 20mm.......

the fix/adjustment was no biggie....what I can't understand is HOW THE HECK DID IT GET SO OUT OF ADJUSTMENT???? The bike worked fine the last time she used it......

I think the brake arm must have gotten knocked askew in the trunk, by a package or possibly while shifting around when the car was in motion....only....the arm didn't look askew at all....it looked 'normal' angle, just too close together/narrow.......anyhoo, its working now......really weird. Rod Serling should be narrating over this thread.

Thanks to all for replying with advice! My advice is - don't leave bike in trunk!

roadfix

Are you talking about the straddle cable (short, separate cable that's not part of the main cable) which could not be reached over to the brake arm? When you said it wouldn't reach, by how much are we talking about? Just curious.....I've been following this thread.

froze

Have you tried squeezing the calipers against the rim at the caliper not the brake lever? This should allow the cable loop with holder on the caliper to give about 1/2 inch to allow the brake cable to slip into the holder.

MudPie

Ooops, Mudpie stands corrected. I didn't catch "cantilever" in the original post.

pgoat

yes, the straddle cable.

They were 'snug' when I first saw the bike - meaning I could connect and disconnect with some discomfort but not like a skin graft off my finger or anything.

Now, they are impossible to attach - there is about 2 or 3mm space between the two as your tug hard as possible to make them meet.

pgoat

yep, tried that and there is simply no slack. I can't for the life of me find anyplace from a to z that the cable is kinked, snagged, out of place, etc etc.....

I had my wife, who is intelligent, sober and a cyclist look too to make sure my senility wasn't in full bloom.......she couldn't figure it out either.

The bike worked fine with my quick fix on sunday's ride but she is taking it in to her LBS for a tune up ..... I would LOVE to know what they find and will post here if I find out.

roadfix

Well then, the brake pads must have swelled while stored in the sweltering heat of the trunk for so long.....

froze

Did you try what I mentioned without the rim installed? But that is weird. You mentioned sober...sometimes that helps!

pgoat

Yup did that - no soap

I had several cups of decaffeinated herbal tea whilst looking and trying to figure out what else to check....maybe a beer or two would have helped!

spinbackle

Have you tried grabbing the brake cable with a pair of pliers or visegrips and pulling? It may help seat a few things.

cuda2k

I like the idea of the brake pads swelling in the heat as a possible, or even the brake housings growing in length during the time in the truck. Also check to make sure that the brake arms are not bent that could be causing the problem (though you have most certainly checked for bending/broken arms I'd assume). Something has either stretched or shrunk between the levers and the rims. I'd put my money on the housings myself - if there was stuff putting constant pressure on them while heated (trunk + summer) I could see more than a cm or more of stretch.