Baldanzi

The other night on my ride home the hills seemed a lot tougher than usual - I just assumed I was having a bad day. I was. It was not though due to my out of shape body....the right rear caliper of my avid shorty 4 was rubbing the rim the whole way home! I jumped onto the Park Tool website to see how to adjust canti brakes. Much to my pleasant surprise these brakes have a spring adjustment screw (3mm?). Cool. I run outside allen wrench in hand......the allen screw just turns and turns and turns - no resistance. It is stripped (not the screw but the part of the brake it screws into). I have no idea how it happened but I now cannot adjust the return spring now. Can I buy just that part of the Brake? or do I need to buy everything? JB weld to fix the stripped threads? Or is there another work-around)

Thanks

'nother

You probably did not strip it but rather broke the plastic housing that it screws into. I did the same thing a while back.

You'll have to replace the whole arm, and likely that means replacing both arms 'cause it's gonna be tough to find just the one.

Ebay or swap meet. I picked up some Shorty 6's for about $25 at a swap meet a while ago.

'nother

Update: one thought, you might be able to do some very gross adjustment by tinkering with where the return spring goes into the assembly near the brake boss. Usually there are 3 holes and it is probably in the middle hole currently. You might be able to at least limp by with changing that to the first or last hole depending on whether you need more or less tension, and adjust the other brake arm to compensate. This is not really the "right" way to do it but should get you by until you can get a new brake on there.

More info at https://sheldonbrown.com/canti-trad.html, see "Spring Adjustment" about 2/3 of the way down.

Ray Dockrey

If you could get the old screw out you might be able to thread in the next larger size screw. This works a lot of the time especially if you are going into plastic or soft aluminum. So if you have a 3mm in there now try a 4mm. Worth a shot before you trash the arm.

'nother

Sure, worth a shot but chances are the thing is already toast. I thought mine was stripped -- that's how it was behaving -- but upon closer inspection I saw that the little silver collar was actually split from over-torquing (way too easy to do on these). I remember when I had that problem I asked on here and several folks mentioned it as a very weak point of these brakes and a common occurrence.

grahny

the aluminum housing is f'd.. the exact same thing happened to me... which arm are you missing? I'll send it to you if it's not the one that I messed up.

I upgraded to Shorty 6's instead of looking for a replacement arm.

I also tried just changing the hole that the arm rested in to add tension, but I could never get them centered correctly and was CONSTANTLY adjusting them. I tried different screws too but the aluminum just kept wearing away.

BillyBob

Are the Avid Shorty 6s a big improvement over the 4s?

'nother

Heh, I asked the same question. They're like 16g lighter or something.

The main "improvement" is that they seem to be easier to find in retail than the 4s. No big diffs other than the color, really.

'nother

Yeah, I had the same experience. It's really just something to tide you over until getting a replacement, not a long term solution.

grahny

I think the difference is really just the replaceable pad feature. The arm material I'm pretty sure is the same though the 6's are advertised as lighter weight. I actually think the 4's had a nicer finish on them (cosmeticly speaking).

The 6's stop very well, but the front took a while to set up perfectly to avoid horrid screaching that would send people running for the hills

I haven't had any problems with the 6's other than the initial squealing while I had plenty issues with the 4's.. they seemed to need constant adjustments.. first time adjusting the tension screw and it stripped.. I've adjusted the 6's several times to tune them in and have had no problems.

'nother

You can put the replacement cartridge holder on the 4s just the same (they don't come stock with them, but they'll fit; I did exactly that). They're basically identical. 6s cost more and are silver instead of black and are allegedly 16g lighter. w00t.

grahny

That's why I love ebay! I was able to find new front and rear brakes for $66 total.

grahny

Just got home and checked... I have both front brake arms and the left rear still in good condition (right rear is f'd)... let me know if you can use any of them.. more than happy to help out a fellow Philadelphian

Baldanzi

Ugh, storms last night knowed out the internet at home...

...Thanks for all of the replys. The one that is f'ed up is the right arm on the rear brake. grahny: PM me maybe I can use the rears?

Do the 6's have less tendancy to squeal? I just got new (kool stop) pads on the front...got the adjustment/toe in right...but not tight enough I guess. ON my fist ride I was elated - no squeal at all (the brakes have always squealed a bit). Man, 1/2way to work the pads moved a bit (I guess) and I swear to god it sounded like there was a smoke detector going off 2 inches from my ear. I've heard brake squeal before...but OMG that was unreal! Who needs an airhorn? I gotta re-adjust - the old ones squealed too. I have heard that shorty 4s on a CF fork are a recipe for constant sqealing