Rear brake doesnt release as well as it should

spasypaddy

so when i pull my rear brake it doesnt release as well as it should, its a 3 year old ultegra brake and has seen a good amount of use.

any suggestions?

do brake springs wear out?

nicklouse

replace the cable.

spasypaddy

cable is relatively new

nicklouse

how does the caliper work with the cable disconnected? if fine then it is the cable that needs replacing.

relatively new means bugger all if it is damaged/rusted/gunked up.

spasypaddy

yeah good shout. i'll give that a go when i get home tonight.

ive got a spare cable if need be.

keef66

^ wot he said. Separate the caliper from the cable then you can see which bit is contributing to the problem.

If the cable is OK you might need to strip down the caliper and clean / grease the pivots.

Springs do very rarely break.

Yossie

I suggest cable inner and outer - no point putting a nice new cable into a skanky outer.

Also use this as an opportunity to throughly clean out the caliper and all surrounding so that when you start to play with it its all works as it should.

Also check the routing to make sure the cable hasn't snagged itself on anything (ie newly fitted mudgyuards/rear lights if you have fitted them for the winter) causing it to stay tensioned and not release properly.

spasypaddy

i know we are all interested into how i got on last night, so before i left the office i decided to see what i could do as obviously didnt want to ride without a back brake.

i couldnt find any gt85 or even any wd40 in the store cupboard but i did find some oil that should be put down the shredder so i gave the brake a clean with a cloth, shoved some of that down it and worked it into the joint. its now working properly again.

i also found a spare mudguard (crud roadracer) when i got home so shoved that on as well to attempt to give it a bit of protection.

Happy days!