Hi everyone,
Yes, another noob with a question, hopefully someone can help.

We have three mtn bikes in the family, all were significantly damaged (salt water flooded) during sandy, and i'm in the process of rebuilding/repairing them.

I need a part for my diamondback topanga, having a heck of a time finding a stupid little bolt. It's a retaining bolt for the brake line. They are tektro novela brakes. I've called the local bike shops and they need me to bring the bike in to see what it is???

Any idea where to get this? I've searched ebay and amazon but can't find it.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Well, the shops have a point - not all brake cable anchor bolts are the same thread, and you'd need to try any prospective replacement to check the thread was correct.

That's kind of unfortunate. I figured i could find parts for a specific caliper somewhere.

Most manufacturers don't sell specific parts like that, unfortunately. On the plus side, the bolt is likely to be something you can find in a hardware shop, the threads aren't usually anything too unusual.

You don't have to bring the whole bike in. Just bring the brake caliper or the same bolt from the other caliper.

I took the bolt from the rear caliper off and stopped in Sport authority yesterday figuring they carry a full line of Diamond back. They said they'll need to replace the caliper, that they don't have spare parts.

However, I found that almost all of the disk brakes there use that same bolth with a matching thread. The easiest way would have been to pocket one of those little suckers, but I guess that's not right. This morning i will try the hardware store.