Road Brake Adjustment
 

Hi all. I volunteer at a bike coop and while the focus is providing a place to work, most patrons need instruction and assistance. Last night I had a brake set-up stump me, so I'm seeking insight.

The patron had a ~ 5 year old Specialized road bike, Shimano Tiagra group and auxiliary/cross/interrupter levers. I don't know enough about drop bar brakes to know what specific model they were. The release was a small leaver at the top of the handle. They had a rubber stop/buffer between the brake handle and mount that kept popping off. It was held in my two rubber headed pins. Easily re-installed. The wheels were true and the pads easily adjusted close to the rims, ~ 2 mm! I verified the caliper release cam wasn't released. Barrel adjusters seated.

The cross leavers worked great. Full on brake with a good 1/2 of the travel remaining before the levers would touch the handlebar. Which I couldn't make them do.

The drop tube leavers adjustment was, IMHO, unacceptable. The leavers wouldn't move the calipers till they had been depressed 2/3 of their travel and easily contacted the handlebar without much effort. Obviously the cross leavers were pulling the cable enough to move the pads 2 mm, yet the drop bar handles weren't pulling the cable enough. The barrel adjusters could easily move the pads to full contact.

Any ideas on what was going on? Some adjustment I'm ignorant of?

TIA

Ron

See if you can find a picture on the internet of the brake levers you were working on and post or link to the picture...that will immensly help clarify to those of us out here what you were working on and give us a better basis for suggestions and recommendations.

-j

Thanks, will do. I started the search even before I posted knowing that was probably key but work keeps getting in the way :lol: so I posted to kick start the conversation.

Shimano 2300/Sora on a 2008 Specialized Allez Triple

http://techdocs.shimano.com/media/te...9830683910.pdf

http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bik...eztriple#specs

There are two pad sizes available, 4 & 8° for reach adjustment. Because they popped out easily I bet the standard 4 were replaced with the 8. I just had a thought: Could the leavers be mounted too low? Now that I've refreshed my memory with a look at the Specialized picture of the bike. Obviously I didn't think to look at that . . . I remember getting to the thumb leaver from the rear derailleur was a PIA even though the bike was, to me, tiny. I suspect the owner was south of 60" tall. Mounting the leavers low would help with reach.

You are asking questions about setup of a bike that only you have seen. So, sure the levers coud have been too high on the bar...or...sure, the levers could have been to low on the bar. Or perhaps they were positioned perfectly but there was something else wrong such as the 8 degree pad installed on the levers mounted on a non-ergonomic bend drop bar which the instructions you linked to state should not be done.

Who knows...Lots of things could be going on creating the problem you experienced.

The question really is what did you do or recommend to fix the issue with the primary brake lever? Or if someone else took over the repair, what did they do to ensure the bike left the CoOp in a safe condition to ride?

-j

We don't keep bikes at the COOP. Easy rule to make to ensure an un-tagged bike isn't mishandled/sold.

I told her IMHO they needed attention and suggested she contact our full time employee to see what he thought or come back as I was out of ideas without doing research that we didn't have time to do right then.

She took it serious enough that we discussed overall safety and I expressed my opinion that while one "could" ride the bike with the cross brake as they were working perfectly, I wouldn't recommend it. Bike also has front derailleur issues and a bent barrel adjuster preventing tuning. So she left knowing the bike still needed repairs.

Thanks for your input.

Cross levers don't pull cable, they push against the cable housing. Set up the cables for use with the primary levers.

This should help you with whatever you need to know. http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-...s-cross-levers

Thanks.