sngsndrms

So, I was crossing the street, and a woman in her car was making a left hand turn and didn't see me...luckily she didnt hit me, cause she slammed on her brakes the last second, and so did I (on my bike of course). However, as the shock and shakes wear off, I noticed that my brakes seemed to hardly be there anymore, I had to press all the way down practically to get any sort of response...they seemed to pop out. Not sure what the problem is because the cables are still all tied up...spring tension or something? I sort of turned to the right as i braked really hard, not sure if that has anything to do with it. Any insight would help, thanks.

Closed Office

When you squeeze harder than usual, The bolt at the end of the brake cable can slip. Most likely just undo it, shorten it up enough to get everything lined up again, and then tighten it a little more than you did last time.

I guess there must be inch pounds specs for it somewhere. It takes a bit of judgment. You don't want to strip the bolt, but don't want the cable to slip through. I was just tightening mine up a bit more each time and it is surprising how much torque those little bolts can take.

maddmaxx 

Unless it's a lightweight performance oriented brake. Then the nut will be aluminium.

sngsndrms

Awesome...thanks, yea I was leaning towards that notion but it isn't apparent visually, but I couldn't think of what else it could possibly be. This happened about an hour ago, and I thought for sure I was gonna get hit, but I wasnt worried about myself because she wasn't traveling fast enough to hurt me, I was more worried about my bike getting hit! Sad, but true...

Shadowex3

I did the same thing the other day with my front brakes, thankfully I was going slow enough to pull a Fred Flintstone. Just shorten some cables until they work right and tighten the bolt a little more. I used a normal wrench out of my computer toolkit, my arm gave out before the bolt did.

Kimmo 

Brakes are very simple - just examine it long enough, and you'll see the problem. It does sound like your pinch bolt slipped; it couldn't really be much else.

You're kidding, right?

Aluminium fasteners for a brake pinch bolt?

O_O

Bugger that...