Originally Posted by
Andrew R Stewart
A common cause of brake lever jamming is a bent or distorted body so that some part of it interferes with the lever as the lever is pulled through it's range. Often from a fall down where the lever or body has impacted the ground. A bent lever can also cause this. Should be easy to spot the contact point if this is what's going on. many times gentle prying of the lever or body can free up the rub. Andy
Thanks for replying, Andy.
The bike hasn't fallen over for quite a while, but the jamming only started today. This means that some time has elapsed between when such an impact could have occurred and the lever starting to jam. In other words there is some other factor involved, which I'm guessing is simply wear. I've tried taking the brake apart but I can't see anything that looks to me obviously broken.
Although having just written that, I now notice that I can't reproduce the jam any more. I don't know whether I've completely fixed it or whether there's still a chance it could jam on me again at some dangerous moment.