Brake adjustment - rubbing one side

OSOH

Hi, me again I'm afraid :oops:

Having just bought a Carrera Virtuoso and been horrified at Halfords' total inability to set it up properly, I have a question about the brakes please if anyone can help. Original plan was to just take it back again, which I probably will do for the gears, but noticed that my housemate's old Raleigh has a similar problem.

Basically, the brake releases correctly on one side, but 'sticks' on the other, on the Raleigh the only way to release the problem side is to pull the pad away from the rim. On the Carrera, the brakes will work and release OK, but if left for a while one side seems to move to rest against the rim, leaving a bigger gap on the other side. All is lubricated, I can't understand why this problem occurs - neither could the guy at the second Halfords I went to, who seemed far more helpful than the first - still the problem persists.

Don't understand why this is happening, OK an old bike will have its problems and need a bit of TLC, but the week-old Carrera? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated please, as this is driving me mad, and clearly leaving it to Halfords isn't going to work.

Thanks for reading, real relief to have helpful - AND knowledgeable(!) - people on these forums, why can't some of them work at my local Halfords?!

salsarider79

Try loosening the bolt at the back of the front brake, move them and tighten the bolt up again, while holding the front brake where you want it.
Now then, the gears....?

OSOH

Thanks, doesn't seem to be that simple unfortunately On the Raleigh, when I play about with the bolt at the back, the brake always returns to the rim and 'sticks' when I operate the brakes, even if I've moved it to the correct position. Tried messing about with the one at the front as well, same problem. It's as though something is just not returning to its proper place, but everything's thoroughly lubricated.

On the Carrera it's even stranger; it's on the rear wheel, and all seems fine when pressing/releasing the brake levers, brakes return to their correct positions. It's just when it's been left standing for a while that one brake pad will 'drift' to rest against the rim, if I used the bike it would stay like that until I had operated the rear brake, then be fine.

If it helps identify the brakes, the Raleigh Candice is like this one:
http://media.photobucket.com/image/rale ... hRacer.jpg
All I could find on Google, think they're single-pivot side-pull cantilever brakes.

The Carrera has Tektro dual-pivot brakes.

The gearing on the Carrera was incorrectly adjusted to start with, had chain rub at the front, and has now been over-compensated for and rubs in top gears instead of bottom. Halfords can sort that out themselves, half-tempted to return the thing anyway and buy elsewhere but limited by budget, only other realistic option I think would be Decathlon or the Vitus Alios from Chain Reaction, both online. While maybe that would give me the shove to have a go myself, I'm afraid of getting it wrong, causing further problems and potentially voiding warranty.[/img]

OSOH

Sorry, side pull CALIPER not cantilever!!

OSOH

Actually just found this quote on Wikipedia; this is what seems to be happening on the Raleigh, just hoping there's something I can do about it. Probably explains it a bit better than I have!!

"These brakes [single-pivot side pull] are simple and effective for relatively narrow tyres but have significant flex and resulting poor performance if made big enough to fit wide tyres. Low-quality varieties also tend to rotate to one side during actuation and to stay there, so that one brake pad continually rubs the rim."

Only seems to have started happening since the bike wasn't used for a few weeks, before that it seemed fine and had been serviced not long previously.

supersonic

ANy pics of the brake on this particular model?

OSOH

Carrera:


Raleigh:


Hope that's useful!

OSOH

OK, an update.

Having got thoroughly sick of Halfords after they failed to get the Carrera right on the 4th (or 5th) try, I've returned it and am going to go down the secondhand route. Infuriating ,as part of the reason I went for a new bike was to have the peace of mind of buying it ready-to-ride and having the support. Thinking I'll save money on a used bike, and get it serviced somewhere decent.

So now it's just the rustbucket - sorry, Raleigh. Tried everything I can think of with the brakes to no avail, they seem a bit stiff as well, though I think that's got slightly worse since experimenting with the bolts.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated

supersonic

Sorry I didn't get back to you, I missed the post.

Those brakes are dual pivot on the carrera - good brakes. Suprising outcome, if the brakes were faulty they should have repalced them.

http://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=20

OSOH

The brakes weren't faulty, they were set up incorrectly :evil: Decided I wanted no more to do with Halfords' inept 'service', hence the return. May even get the same bike secondhand, if one around, as I do like the bike - just don't want to pay extra for service, when they screw the bike up every time they have it in. Dread to think what they would have done to it on the free 6-week service! :shock: It wasn't just the brakes, they found it impossible to set up the gears correctly as well.

Besides, I guess if I get a used bike, I'll be less afraid to have a go myself as I won't be at risk of invalidating the warranty. It's just infuriating that given so many chances to get it right, Halfords still manage to screw up on the same issue every time.

It's just a case of trying to get the Raleigh sorted out now, borrowing it for a ride tomorrow so I may be able to have a go at tweaking things along the way. On the plus side, managed to replace the bearings in the front wheel of my mountain bike, and stop that rattling!

OSOH

Sorry just noticed the link. Looks useful, I'll have a go, and from the looks of it may even be worth completely removing the brake and reattaching it, give me more of an idea what's going on.

Oh well, I wanted to learn!!

supersonic

Amazing that they are having to refund because they can't set the things up!

Good skills to learn though, will save you money and journey time as often these things are just a tweak (and parts bed in and need readjusting).