Brakes working fine until...

andy83

My brakes were working fine last night - well apart from the pads having no life left in them whatsoever but the mechanism of them was fine

today i replaced the pads which work a treat however every time i centre them and pull the brakes one of the pads just sits on the rim

as i say the cables are fine and working yesterday, with the pads touching the wheel then moving away.

due to the amount the pads had worn down i had to adjust the cable tension. however it seems now how ever tight i get it they just never return to normal postion, i think its always the right side one that sits on the rim

do the pads just need wearing in or is it summin to do with the cable tension

as i say cables seem fine, just very annoying and cold

edit. they are cantalever brakes, (think thats right on a road bike anyway)

iain_j

Have a play with the little adjustment screws on each arm (should be near the pivot - just below the pivot in the pic below). Screwing it inwards will increase the spring tension, moving the pad away from the rim, and vice-versa. Do both sides til they're balanced.

andy83

ah thanks

ill have a go tomo, got no light in garden and its bloody cold to be standing around. was hoping it was summin relatively easy

just annoyed the hell out of me earlier then it started to get dark

hopefully be able to sort it tomo

elcani

I've found adjusting these can be a little bit tricky, but a little tweaking and the brakes will balance - just turn the screws a little at a time.

iain_j

...and after each adjustment pull the brake lever a couple of times to settle it all. Bit of a pain when you get them spot-on, then after one pull of the lever they're skew-wiff again (writing from experience!)

desweller

There was another lad on here with a similar problem a couple of days ago. He found that one of his pads was a little low, so it was getting wedged beneath the rim.

Make sure that your pads are landing square with the rim surface and are well positioned on the braking surface.

andy83

thanks for all your replies

as for the one where the pad is a little low that could be the problem as when they werent on the rim they seemed to release

hopefully i can get sorted first thing to let me go out for a nice crisp morning ride with brakes

andy83

thanks for all help, found the little screw thing and after a bit of playing it worked a treat, held up great over 22 mile ride in crisp winter weather

for some reason i ended up taking the whole caliper off cos i messed the barrel adjuster off, only to realise there was no need to but at least i have a better understanding of it all now

iain_j

While you had the brake arm off did you notice three (or so) holes alongside the pivot on the fork? The end of the spring locates in one of these - putting it in a higher one increases the tension too if it's way out of adjustment. Easier to use the adjusting screws though.