Avid shorty brake installation

woodford2barbican

Can anyone help me with advice re the above?

In particular how short I should cut the cable outer, can I trim the cable outer on the straddle cable (or is that a really silly idea as it will knock the straddle cable out of alignment?

Or even better perhaps someone could post a picture of these brakes installed on a bike? That would be really good!

Thanks in advance....

pieinthesky

Dont cut the outer cable on the straddle wire, the cable length at the other end cannot be adjusted so it will end up with the brake cable being offset to one side.

If you purchased the brakes new you should have a set up guide with them. If you havent got it I might have one I can e-mail to you. I could send you pictures but you are better off working from the instructions as your frame might be very different from mine.

You should get two lengths of straddle wire with each brake. The short one will give more power but will require more lever movement. The long one less power but less lever movement and more tyre/mudguard clearence.

I dont know what you mean when you say "how short to cut cable outer"

T800

I've a copy of the "installation and operation instructions" leaflet for the Shorty 6, if you'd like me to e-mail it to you.

On my bike, the rear cable-outer route, from the stop at the seatpost end of the top tube back to the cable stop on the hanger, is pretty short but the brakes work well despite the sharpish angle in the outer. The section of outer that I have on now was cut slightly longer than the one that came with the bike. I thought it might be a good idea to make the curve less tight than it had been when I was replacing the rear brake cable a couple of years ago.

I think the straddle cable outer should not be messed with.

The instruction leaflet says that you should "be sure there is at least 10mm of clearance between the straddle cable medallion and the cable stop with the brake engaged".

Ken Night

T800 wrote:

I've a copy of the "installation and operation instructions" leaflet for the Shorty 6, if you'd like me to e-mail it to you.
".

Hi T800

If at all possible I'd like to see those instructions

I've looked at the pic of your bike to see what set up you have, but am none the wiser

I've been driven to distraction with the extremely spongy braking of my Avid Shorties (and the Lo profile Shimano cantis before that), no stopping power on the rear,

I got to the point of being just about to replace with with disc brakes several weeks ago, but for the price of a replacement fork, wheels, and the brakes, I could have a new bike

My questions are

-should I have the yoke more or less horizontal? (i use one of the Shimano yokes atm, but could get a straddle wire/yoke set up) I don't understand the "mechanical advantage"

-should I replace the Shorties with Froglegs (though I understand they might about mud clearance, rather than power?)

I use ergo levers

Anyone?