DannoXYZ 

That's awesome!!! You're figuring this stuff out very well! Don't think the front-wheel locked though, it's still rolling, but is decelerating you at a rate that lifts the rear. Right about here is maximum braking, learn to modulate front-brake lever so you don't go over. Note that it's the deceleration that causes the weight-shift and lifting, not the other way around (physics discussion for another thread).


DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT use compressionless shifter-cable housing for brakes !!! The brake-cable will split the housing lengthwise and squeeze out between the fibres!!! This type of housing is only for shifters.

The wound teflon-lined housing works great with the smooth rolled cables. The trick is to not stretch out the housing when installing. Only push it through frame loops to install, do not pull. This will prevent stretching out the housing into a spring that needs to be compressed when you squeeze the lever.

As mentioned earlier, install the housing first and trim the housing to minimum-length needed. Test by turning the bars to both extremes. And make sure you have a gentle curve wherever it bends (6" radius minimum if possible). Then trim off a little at a time. Be sure to file the ends of the housing to remove the stray finger of housing that gets squeezed inwards when you cut.

Good luck!

Turtle Speed

Bump! Got a chance to work on this a little bit and apparently I have made a hilarious oversight. Where the old Huffy brakes had the brake wire entering the unit from the right side, the new Tektro brakes have the wire on the left side. So the path of the wires into the brakes has to be different than before, I guess.

First the good news - the difference in brake line entry was actually an advantage on the front brake. The housing can make a nice, smooth curve. I threw together the front brake unit really fast - haven't had time to fine-tune it yet - just to see what would happen. Mission accomplished on that front - I can actually stop the bike reasonably fast now!



So there's my new front brake line housing. I hope the path is OK. Only thing is, did I cut the housing too short? I can't tell if it's about right or maybe a bit too short. I don't notice any resistance when pulling the lever, and there's nothing restricting its range of motion when I turn the handlebars in any direction. So functionally, it seems OK. But is it worth redoing so the curve looks a bit smoother?

Now for the trainwreck that is the current back brake situation...



The red shapes are supposed to be showing the shape of the old caliper and its brake line - it used to make a nice, soft curve into the housing of the top bar of the frame. But you can see that's impossible with the entry point of the brake being on the other side now.

The yellow line is close to what I tried first, and (unsurprisingly in hindsight) it was friggin' godawful. Way too tight, nasty scratching sound, brake lever almost didn't want to spring back after being pulled sometimes, totally unusable.

I was trying to brainstorm some other way to run the brake line, but I didn't want to ziptie it along the top of the frame all stupid-looking. I'm trying to avoid the "my bike was assembled by an idiot" look here.

So I'm kind of at a loss of what I should do with the path of that back brake. For now, I left it as it is in the photo, just sort of making that huge loop, while I try to figure out what I can do. It still has plenty of friction in that position and sticks out way too much; you can sometimes touch it with your leg when you're pedaling.

Any ideas or comments on the front or back brake situation? The Tektro brakes are working great otherwise, huge improvement.

Kimmo

I think you could probably improve the line of that cable a lot if you put a noodle from a V-brake in there. Should be able to beg a spare from your LBS.

Cause it's a dual-pivot... *cough* Danno *cough*

DannoXYZ 

New brake design, new pads, new cables, too many variables to just claim one was responsible for the before & after differences. Galileo & Copernius were ostracized for their use of observation, hypothesis and testing. You may want to review that process of thinking.

jimmyjones76

This site tells you exactly how to set up and maintain your brakes. Clear videos and step by step instructions with text and photo

https://www.madegood.org/bikes/library/#Brakes

Turtle Speed

Delayed update! New brakes are lookin' good! Almost like I knew what I was doing!



So I get over that problem with excessive friction in the rear brake line, I did end up using 2 noodles. One wasn't enough to get free motion of the brake cable, because the turns required were very sharp. So I just said screw it and went with double 90-degree turns, and it got the job done.



I know they don't fit quite right and that's not how a noodle is supposed to be used, etc. A bike mechanic I talked to seemed amused by the whole setup. I can't tell if what I did was really clever or really stupid, but it's working, and the bike's stopping!

I am sort of considering putting some electrical tape over the "joints" of the short piece of housing where the ferrules attach to the noodle ends, the idea being to keep rain and crud from falling inside the noodle, and possibly to reinforce the joint a little better. Not sure if that is a good idea or necessary or not.

Anyway, it's working, I learned a lot, and everyone in this thread was an amazing help with their ideas and tips. Thank you all so much!

onespeedbiker

I think it's quite clever. Instead of black tape, why not use a piece of black rubber tubing.

xenologer

Note.... second photo
the lower noodle, if you reinstall it facing the other way, so the pointed nose fit into the cable stop on the frame, and the cup at the other end attaches to the vertical run of housing
a little bit cleaner/better supported

-remove metal end cap from housing, insert housing directly into cup on end of noodle

zukahn1 

Did you consider flipping the brake and mounting essentially upside down inside the frame this is pretty common on this type step through annd would give you a good cable line.

Turtle Speed

Is there a particular type you had in mind? Like is this something from a hardware store or something? You're not talking about chopping up an old innertube or something?


My memory's getting foggy about the details of this, but I wanna say I initially tried that and it didn't seem like it would fit right. Like, if I swapped the ends around of the bottom noodle, it wouldn't fit into the frame's cable stop securely. I don't know why, if it had something to do with the noodle size or the cable stop size or what. Or if I'm just being dumb - that's a possibility too.


Uh... no.
Now I'm wondering if it would fit that way. I gotta go check that out sometime!

onespeedbiker

No, just 2 small sections; 1- 1 1/2" of 3/16" ID (or whatever size fits best) of hardware tubing. You'd have to disconnect the cable and pull it out of the noodle and housing. You would place one section between the housing and noodle thats connected to the stop and another between the housing and noodle closest to the brake caliper. Then you would simply push the housing in one side and the noodle end in the other; you could do this for both joints..