hello I am trying to figure out what this part is that has broken on both the front and back breaks of my mountain bike. The part I am mentioning is were the actualy break cable goes through one side of it and down some tubing down to one of the Cantilever breaks. The part had anouther cable that was just attached to it going from the metal disk down to the other cantilever break. What hapened is this cable broke off right below at the edge of the disk. So now I dont have any working breaks on my bike. I have attached an image of the part that is broken. It has the little metal disk that says Shimano on it and you can see were the cable passes through it into the tubing and down to one of the cantilevers. Does anyone know what this part is?

The disk and few inches of cable attached to it are a single assembly. This was Shimanos answer to problems with the front brake cable breaking and allowing the yoke cable to get caught in the front wheel. Sheldon Brown has an article about it.

This part is called a cantilever brake yoke or hanger (I've heard professional mechanics call it both). The local bike shop should be able to get you a new one for a buck or two. Make sure to adjust and center the brakes carefully after putting in a new yoke. Read this for help on it.

Stradle: traditional type for cantilever brakes .

Eh... what? Are you saying it's called a straddle cable? I think I've heard it called that too.

Yeah, in a canti system the hanger is a whole different thing. There are different kinds of yokes,some being appropraite, and others not.

thnx I was able to find a local bike shop that had the part i needed. Now I just need to find time to put it on