yaganon

My bike's rear brake wasn't functioning right, so I tried to fix it. I had to replace the spring and the pads. I kind of fixed it. The pads are unsymmetrical, and I have to sqeeze all the way and still not get a lot of traction on the wheel. The precision is gone.

What can I do to make my brakes more precise and sensitive?

BCRider

Spring? ? ? ? You're the first ever person I ever heard of that needed to replace a brake return spring as part of basic maintenance.

You may also want to include what sort of brakes they are. Disc, single or dual pivot caliper, side or center pull, V brakes or cantilever. We need to know what you have to help.

You can also help yourself by checking out the various tuning procedures at www.parktool.com/repair .

yaganon

single pivot side-pull calliper brake

the spring was harder on one side than the other, so one of the pads had to move further than the other, so I replaced the spring. I was biking to the bike store with my old pads loosely hanging on. One of them fell off - I think it went in the gutter - so I had to get new pads from my junk pile.

Now, the pads are unsymmetrical. They have to be far apart so they don't touch the wheel. Also, when I squeeze the handle all the way, the brakes only move a little.


Also, my junk bike's rear brake was center pull. I tried that one, but that one was worse when it came to sensitivity. I had to pull all the way and the brakes wouldn't even touch the frame