Breaks seized when cycling along - why?!

nawty
nawty Posts: 225
edited April 2013 in Workshop
This morning my breaks seized resulting me flying over the handlebars for a rather painful face/concrete meeting, fortunately it didn't happen a mile earlier where I was at 30mph!.

I am now trying to work out why...

All I can think is that about a mile previously I'd noticed that the STIs could do with tightening, then just before the accident I'd hoped down the curb whilst on the hoods and I was on the floor 3 meters later. Bike went straight over the front wheel and post crash the STIs were lower on the handlebars that they were before (with the hoods now shredded so could have been before or could have been after) and both wheels were clamped by the breaks.

Question is, should the hoods moving have effected the breaks? I thought that the cable guides prevented this? Also the wheels were properly gripped - I couldn't even release the clip to open them to take the wheel off - I had to undo the break cable clamps to move the bike.

Any thoughts as I'm really at a loss :?

On the plus side, it would seem my new tri-comp tyres have really good grip!
Cannondale CAAD 10 Ultegra
Kinesis Racelight Tiagra

Comments

  • jomoj
    jomoj Posts: 777
    yes - the brake inner cables come out of the hoods and into outer cable which runs under the bar tape and out by the stem so when your levers slipped forward they created a gap between the inner and outer cables, effectively pulling your brakes on. You'll need to move the levers back where they were and tighten the clamp bolt up so it doesnt happen again
  • nawty
    nawty Posts: 225
    Ah, cheers for the reply and spelling noted, a bit weird I got it wrong as I'm normally a stickler for these things :)

    Might be mild concussion as my chin still hasn't stopped bleeding and the mark on my forehead is getting worse (luckily the helmet took the brunt of that one!).
    Cannondale CAAD 10 Ultegra
    Kinesis Racelight Tiagra
  • keef66
    keef66 Posts: 13,123
    +1. By moving them down the bars you effectively managed to use your STIs as interrupter levers of the kind you see on the tops of cyclocross bars.
  • jomoj
    jomoj Posts: 777
    nawty wrote:
    Ah, cheers for the reply and spelling noted, a bit weird I got it wrong as I'm normally a stickler for these things :)

    Might be mild concussion as my chin still hasn't stopped bleeding and the mark on my forehead is getting worse (luckily the helmet took the brunt of that one!).

    ha, no problem - yes that could have been a lot worse... you were lucky. I set off the other day with both brake cables un-hooked after a service (cantis) and only realised when I tried to brake for a sharp right at the end of my street, had to go straight on and get a foot down as an anchor. My right shoe is now slightly lower than the other

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