hurley81388

Hi all,

I was hoping to figure this out on my own (because it seems like a pretty simple problem) but I'm stumped. I have a 1984 Trek 420 and the right brake hood is sliding down the drop handlebars. There's also a lot of play and I'm able to move it left and right.

It seems like it should be simple- there's a metal band that runs around the handlebar that holds the brake hood in place. But I can't find a screw anywhere that will allow me to first loosen the metal band so I can slide the brake hood back up into place and then tighten it. I posted some pictures from the front, back and side of my brake hoods.


photo(3) by hurley81388, on Flickr


photo(4) by hurley81388, on Flickr


photo(5) by hurley81388, on Flickra>

Thanks for all of your help everyone!!!

gyozadude

1. Loosen the brake cable (may have a qr level or tab, or cable stop so you don't need to loosen cable binder bolt).

2. Pull the lever back, stand facing the lever and look inside the gap with lever down. Should see a screw or allen bolt. Tighten that. Make sure cable is slack and can be pushed out of the way of the tool as you tighten.

LesterOfPuppets

I'm not well versed on non-aero levers but if they're anything like aero levers there's a screw head (allen wrench style on all I've seen) behind the top of the lever itself. You have to loosen cable tension a bit and squeeze on the lever and look in there. On most bikes I've had I just need to undo the QR on the brake caliper. If not QR, sometimes if you just take the wheel out you can squeeze the lever enough to access the screw. Sometimes you might have to actually undo the cable clamp on the brake caliper.

kenw86

squeeze the brake handle, and look into the gap that opens up when you squeeze the handle (looking toward the handlebar), you
should see a screw head (it could be a straight, philips or hex drive) that is used to tighten the metal band the wraps around the handlebar.

Ken

hurley81388

Thanks guys for all the quick replies. The brakes are QR and I'll go try it out to see if I can see a screw head when I depress the lever when I get a break from work here. Thanks again!!

TireLever-07

My experience is aero levers were 4MM allen screws. I recall non-aero levers were usually a flat blade screw. The 4MM 5MM 6MM "Y" wrench makes it a bit easier than using a regular "L" shaped allen wrench. Chris

SBinNYC

Here's an exploded diagram of how non-aero road brakes are attached (bottom diagram).

https://www.velo-pages.com/main.php?g2_itemId=28906

Not shown is the cable hold, which is in the handle. When you pull down the lever to tighten the fixing bolt (144.5), the cable may be in the way. Loosening up the cable from the brake will allow you to move the cable to the side and give you a clear path to fixing bolt.

Sometimes the lever fixing nut (144.6) will separate from the band clip (144.22). You can loosen the fixing bolt all the way, pull off the brake handle body and put the fixing nut tabs in the holes in the band clip.

If you are unlucky, the band clip will be broken and will have to be replaced. Your lbs should have plenty of spares in his junk box.

hurley81388

Thanks guys for all of your help. Worked like a charm.

I opened the QR on the brakes to relieve the tension in the cable and pulled all the way down on the brake lever. There was a big flat head screw directly behind the cable which held the clamp around the drop bars.

I didn't have the correct wrench to loosen the pinch bolt in the brakes (on my bike the pinch bolts aren't hex unfortunately) so I just kind of forced my way behind the cable and first loosened the bolt to put the hood in the right place and then tightened it up.

So yeah, I don't know if it's a flat head on all non-aero levers but it was on mine. Thanks again!